Financial scare

The financial scare derives
from uncomfortable fact: money's
a made-up thing. It only works
'cause we've all agreed
these fairy dust blips
and wizard scrips and charm
tokens we coin shall be taken
as true, for use at need
and otherwise. To make them
add up: worth hours-packed
weeks of labor, worth taking
in trade for real goods
and services - which we
ourselves have to have
anyway, don't we? We've heard

About the barter system. That
won't sell - we don't want
to reduce to hoarding eggs
to buy cars with - especially
when we know, the car loses
ten thousand eggs' worth of value
as soon as you drive it off
the lot! No go. We want money.
That's
what we want, aw, money. That's!
What we want. And we know it's made
up, but it's made up of dreams
- all the real goods and services
this life means. Oh, yeah okay so
life means more than just that. But
no one can seem to agree what more.
Agreement is power and currency,
you can go your own way
- but you can't set store
and stock by what you'd find.

Not going that way. In money,
we've found the golden egg
that doesn't decay into sulfurous
ooze. It sits in its shell
backed by full faith and credit
of our common confidence, whether
we in or lose our stake, we're
convinced that the stake is
real. Is valuable. We are gulled
in a sales job upon the global trust.
We know the deal. We know we
are fooled, but we're taken in
and shown all the prizes and
stuff we must. We don't need,

but we must. And for tinker-bell
we clap and we sing "We believe!
We do! We do believe in money!"
And just a tantalizing golden glow

suffuses the bug-winged beautiful corpse

now covered in some ancient juvenile
Peter's goo. The shame of Pan

is ours, it encompasses all
and we shan't grow up, for
there's no remorse. We clap
we believe, for everything good

as we drain every drop we can
from the cup

that has runneth over our course.