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My Meltdown Over the Meltdown

I’ve worked since the summer when I was thirteen.
Selling pink lemonade gave me plenty of green.

I want to retire, but it won’t be today.
I call my investments “my 201K.”

Those investments are melting. I’m getting depressed.
They’re melting as fast as the Witch of the West.

There is no safe harbor. I can’t find a hedge.
I’m starting to panic. I’m out on the ledge.

I’m scared of the NASDAQ, the SPY and the DOW.
My cash in the mattress? That’s where I’m at now.

In the sweet golden years that I’ve worked for and planned,
I see drinks with umbrellas, imbibed on the strand.

But unless I profoundly rebound, I’m afraid
I’ll be back in a booth selling pink lemonade.

previously published in Light

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Mark F. Stone worked as an attorney (active duty and civil service) for the United States Air Force for 33 years and is retired. He began writing poems in 2005, as a way to woo his bride-to-be into wedlock. His poems have been published by The Epoch Times, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Ohio Poetry Association, The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry, Ric Edelman’s The Truth About Your Future podcast, and the Seeking Alpha Alpha Picks podcast.

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2 Responses

  1. Paul A. Freeman

    I left for work just as the European stock markets opened deeply in the red. It was scary.

    I like the humorous style you have used and the ‘pink lemonade’ imagery linking the beginning with the ending. You’ve humanised the chaos.

    I notice this piece has been previously published. Was that during another financial crisis?

    Thanks for the read, Mark.

    Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    This is a well-timed missive and the angst is palpable!

    Reply

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