This trade seems sweet and peachy,
Few make big and get richer.
Gunmetal, magazines, and rivets...
"In your better sense you'd leave it,
Finding a 'good cause' and giving.
Why don't you wait, just jibber.
Effects to the innocents are nothing less than jarring."
You and your conscience are arguing,
Sounding the bells, whistles, and alarms.
Upside down with black market arms.
- Gary Edward Geraci
I recently read a news story about the type, kind, and vintage of weapons left behind in Syria by ISIS militants. I've listened to Pope Francis' multiple pleas to arms dealers and traders to cease and desist. Optimistic? Perhaps. Still, I don't doubt the incalculable value of one's conscience to inform and guide one towards our ultimate goal: the common good of all. I used Craft technique #7 (The Crafty Poet), picking 10 multiple syllable words - the first word required to be a color (or color variant in my case: peachy) and progressing with varying degrees of rhymes over the next 9 words. Theses words then are placed at the end of ten phrases or sentences. I have an old green pocket "Collins Gem Dictionary of SYNONYMS & ANTONYMS" and when I open it (due to a printing error on the cover) all the entries are upside down; the genesis of the title of this piece. To be 'upside down' in the realm of finance is to owe more than what the asset will bring in a market sale between a willing buyer and seller. In the case of our arms trader, the human conscience wins out in the end, the illegal arms will not be traded, the investment made to acquire the arms is lost and the trader's financial position is now 'upside down.' I recognize the assistance of Divine Providence at work too for giving me something truly workable to anchor the final line. Peace and blessings!
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