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,