Think Tank Rhymes

think tank

pick thank

lamb shank

wet wank

drug dork

hankie pankey

kitchey camp

namby pamby

macho wimp

witchy granny

randy daddy

skimpy mammie

toilet Tilly

itchy nursie

Golden Grammie

dandy Sammy

Fried pork

mind wonk

brain konk

junk funk

coke dink

dead drunk

Big Pink

skunk stink

mom wink

nuke kink

big dick

instinct

gum crank

space pork

fried wok

Hershey drink

Einstein

January 30, 1997, 2:45 A.M.

Song of the Washing Machine

Burned out Burned out Burned out

We’re not burned out We’re not burned out

for a house for a house for a house for a house

Bathroom Bathroom Bathroom Bathroom

At home at home at home at home

We’re not burned out We’re not burned out

Fair enough fair enough fair enough

Can you account for yourself account for yourself

Better not better not better not better not

January 31, 1997

World Bank Blues

I work for the world bank yes I do

My salary was hundred thousand smackeroo

I know my Harvard economics better than you

Nobody knows that I make big plans

I show Madagascar leaders how to dance

How to read statistics & wear striped pants

Emotional statistics that’s not my job

Facts & figures, I’m no slob

But foresting & farming’s all a big blob

Here’s our scheme to stabilize your paper

for International trade right now or later

Follow our advice you’ll thank your creator

Whatcha got to export, what raw materials?

Monoculture diamonds, coffee, Cereals

Sell ’em on the market to Multinational Imperials

We’ll loan you money to expand production

Pay our yearly interest, for your own protection

Tighten your belts, we’ll have no objection

Throw in some little minimal principle

tho debt service paid makes the deal invincible

That takes dollars but your currency’s exchangeable

Get people working on mass market land

cut down forests, for your cash in hand

Or superhighways money where Rainforests stand

With agribusiness farms you can export beef

Cut social services & poverty relief

Forest people shift to the cities in grief

Tighten your belt for a roller coaster ride

Production’s up, market prices slide

Wood pulp burger meat, coffee downside

Increase production pay yr. World Bank debt—

At least the interest if that’s all you can get

Cut down Amazon you haven’t paid it yet

In one decade you give all the money back

As Bank debt service but the Principal, alack!

We’ll lend more cash (but dont sell smack)

Austerity measures, wages go down,

th’urban sewage is a charnel ground

Buses fall apart at the edge of town

coral reef fish dead factory waste,

Indigines hooked on Yankee dollar taste

Swiss bank funds for dictators disgraced

Fauna killed for the debt Costa Rica

Unknown flora at the mouth of Boca Chica

Birds in Equador, sick with toxic leakage?

Riots start over bags of foreign rice

Arm your teenage army with U.S. mace

Borrow money for a local Arms race

Families driven from crop land to forests

Forest folk in hovels hid from tourists

Currencies bankrupt for free market purists?

I just retired from my 20 year job

at World Bank Central with the money mob

Go to AA meetings so’s not die a slob

I worked in Africa, Americas, Vietnam

Bangkok too with World Banks’ big clan

Now I’m retired and I don’t give a damn

Walk the streets of Washington alone at night

The job I did, was it wrong was it right?

Big mistakes that’ve gone out of sight?

It wasn’t the job of a bureaucrat like me

to check the impact of the Bank policy

When debt bore fruit on the world money tree.

February 1997

Richard III

Toenail-thickening age on me,

Sugar coating my nerves, leg

          muscles lacking blood, weak kneed

Heart insufficient, a thick’d valve-wall,