What did you do today?
No, not in the usual way
What did you really do
What did you change fro the same old same
Did you stand on the shoulders of the up-standing banker
Whose clear-cut gain was the ATM-user's pain?
It was he who set us adrift alone in an unseemly sea
Full of shameless sharks with lawless jaws
That shut up shop and shell shocked us
And all those whose own loss is capital punishment.
Unmeasured neat meat, butchered fresh from the Square Mile
While millions get the chop
Was today a day for gift or gain?
Or to remember December's wanton gifts
Obsessed, compressed and dressed-up as unholy holly?
Yet another financial folly
More unbowed and lowly gifts are
Less haphazardly, but happily given
By those who have very little
The gift of a smile
A helping hand for a child
A word
That shines light
Where darkness was
Now encountered
The quiet gift of listening or prayer
Brought to life through caring and sharing
Freely from friends
The end-of-the-day gift that passes yet remains
What surpasses the profit of our daily day?
Is it gift or gain?