Banks Poem by Luke Parker

Banks (also a song by Vogue Gyratory)

Banks,
put your money in take it out
soon it isn’t yours, you’ve got nowt.
You’ve got a blankety bank account
a bounty to be sank
for them to count a new amount.
Push over in the red
get a fine, get a letter, get a fine,
can’t get the rent to pay in time.
Get a fine, because the money bounced back.
Get a fine, because the bank never got it’s stack.
I said “wait a minute!
Could you just ease off just a little bit? ”
And the bank says “oh the computer says no,
you’re on the road alone but don’t go anywhere”.
They’re charging me
until I can’t pay the next debt,
promising nothing.
It isn’t worth wasting my energy being vexed.

The postman came and it’s always the same:
‘Mr. Parker you’re over your overdraft limit,
you daft $☆ ☏ £. And for starters yes you’ve been
fined. And to add to this bad weather, an
additional large charge just for this letter’.
I get spanked by the bank but never sank.
I charge ahead like a tank
with or without debt, to get ahead.
Keeping my head, borrowing with thanks
and paying heavily for the banks generosity.
I never doss,
I use my time when I’m being fined.
I use my time to write my rhymes,
amongst a junk of other stuff
and projecting projects, so what if it costs.
So in fact I thank my bank.
It’s my own tactics that put me in the red.
I’ll think of my fines
as buying time instead.
but every now and again
I curse my king bank.
When I’m sick in my sink
I think of Armatage Shanks.
And when I’m near to diaorhea
I reflect about my bank.
Bloody banks, bloody banks, bloody banks, bloody…