Illustration by Tim Robinson.
You ask him if his hedge fund has sufficient exposureto disaster and he whispers
I could really use a hurricane to deliversuperior fundperformance
What do you see that other people cannot see?
Everything in this poem is on the surface there is nosubtext or subtext to the subtext; the words only meanwhat I want them to mean
I am not so interested in the imagination and I am more than capable of exploiting disaster concerns todeliver superior fund performance
Tell the story a different way
The doctor says Patient cannot tell the difference betweenwhat he is and what he owes
Describe the aesthetics of the disaster
Every collapsing system is a poem in itself
Lucky for meI am paid by the syllable to write it
You ask him if his disaster risk is heterogeneous and hesaysAll you need is a touch of disaster exposure and youwill see a beautiful increase in the returns on your fearpremium
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But seriously boss
How bad does it have to be before we can call it adisaster
How broken does your body need to be before we cancall it a disaster
He dithers
She dithers
They dither (this is dithering)
Tell the story a different way
The interest in your body is the origin of your world
It all begins with a credit default swap
Get unlimited access: $9.50 for six months.
A complex financial product whose name sounds like anatural mineral
(Baby I love it when you saySuperior FundPerformance)
Let’s do some quick math on the quote-unquote back ofthis envelope
There are hundreds of lost bodies and thousands of lostlimbs
Are they enough?
The river is in the wrong place again
Is that enough?
The highway is hanging from the mountains again
Is that enough?
The mountains are covered with rooftops
The electric pole has been in the middle of the road forso long that people have confused it for a work of art
But and
The disaster that surrounds us is not really a disaster
But and
You begin with debt and you end with debtandwhen there is no debt you don’t know what to do because all you have ever known is debt
Daniel BorzutzkyDaniel Borzutzky is the author of Lake Michigan, finalist for the 2019 Griffin International Poetry Prize and The Performance of Becoming Human, which received the 2016 National Book Award.