Enter The Vulture

In ordinary market times,
Bulls and bears define the culture,
But when a panic grips The Street,
There appears the hungry vulture.

Fear calls vultures from their nest,
Loss of faith keeps them aloft,
Past excess suits this beast best,
And makes its victims fat and soft.

As sales slow, as profits droop,
As corporations bleed red ink,
The vulture sets itself to swoop,
And eyes weak players on the brink.

The bankruptcies that others flee,
The companies whose reps are soiled,
The vulture seeks such table scraps,
It likes its meals beaten, spoiled.

It feeds on stocks, it feeds on bonds,
It thrives on busts in real estate,
While others weep, it licks its lips,
This nothing that this bird ain't ate.

But don't malign these scavengers,
Begrudge them their gone rotten picking,
The losers that they feed upon,
Left unpicked would others sicken.

For ugly though a vulture be,
Even aesthetes must confess,
In any sound ecology,
Something's gotta clean the mess.

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