What About Poor Ruth? Poem by Joe Rosochacki

Today was day of reckoning for Bernie Madoff.
He is 72, and given 150 years in jail.
What about his wife?
Surely she had benefited from her husbands ill-fated Ponzi scheme.
Was she about to get life?
Ruth had dwindle her pocketbooks from assets of $80 million dollars,
She forfeited three homes, a couple of boats to the Feds.
They in turn will put them for auction or they go for sale
In this game of Monopoly for Ruth to stay or ‘get out of jail’.
She is now taking subways as opposed to personally chauffeured limousines.
She was able to keep $2.5 million dollars; destitute for her.
She is broke, poor and she knows not to deal with misfortune that has dealt to her.
Is this some kind of Scrooge’s ghost that she would fear?
Yom Kippur is in September.
Bernie’s atonement will be in prison until he dies.
Ruth could only remember,
That lavish life style that was all theirs for the taking, of innocent investor’s lives.

6-29-09

*See “It’s Mad(off) …….” Part one and two.