Billionaires (A Poem About American Christianity)

What’s supposed to happen now
Is the government gives a billion more dollars
To the billionaires who are feeling angsty
So that they’ll stop selling their stocks.

Because when billionaires are nervous,
It’s bad for everybody and they
Get nervous a lot; their anxiety
Must be appeased, because their greed

Is good for everyone; without them,
Nobody would have any jobs
Or any purpose;
Capital is the only real object

In the universe; everything else
Is just potential
Because if you have a body
That isn’t plugged into the matrix

That means you are living
In destitute poverty like all
Those Zapatistas in their milpas
Harvesting corn today at 5 am

Like they do every day of the year
Virus or no virus —
What’s the difference?
Their backward ways keep them poor —

They wash their clothes in the river
While they swim;
The whole village plays soccer
In the evenings; they drink soda hot.

The billionaires have not saved them yet;
It’s no wonder that American Christians worship
A billionaire God who is always one mouse click
Away from ruining everybody else’s lives

Because he’s sovereign and he likes
Putting his thumb down;
He makes products for humanity
And they’d better buy the right ones
If they want to go to heaven.