A Birthday Poem

This was left with us on our doorstep last week with a request to be posted on Florian's birthday.  Unfortunately we were away (his birthday was 7th October), but are posting it now.  Happy belated birthday big guy, we know a lot of people wish you well...

5 Year Anniversary in Exile

“One must be a little foolish if one does not want to be even more stupid.”

Michel de Montaigne

A gilded age was my birth right

Geld, Grandeur my tutors

Misdirected priorities my plight

Philistinism my soul consumer

Harvard my mentor, excess my grotto

Society partially to blame?

"Too much is never enough" my zeitgeist motto

Russian roulette my favorite game

Like a bushido warrior - no prisoners on my quest

As my net worth grew

Blinder than Dandolo to my children's behest

Values disappeared like Timbuktu

Cruising down Mammon's lane

Cherishing my Corniche more than my first born son

Not once did I question whether I was sane

Family bonds lento undone

Escape from retirement paradise

Lost like a fish on land gulping

Feverishly plodding  my second meteoric rise

Too self-obsessed - I would be left sulking

The next venture is bigger than the last

Hedge fund pure

This time really rich, really fast

Very public, hardly obscure

Caracas - bullet lodged in my spine

Armed robbery - attempted murder?

Never could read godly signs

Should have become a sheep herder

Seductive sirens raking in Palma's sun

Turbojets screaming through African air

The best of all worlds "such brilliant fun"

Mephisto applauding my destined despair

My net worth immense "all this is mine"

Greed foreclosed on the welcoming skies

Like a buffoon I told myself "all is fine",

Lost my soul mate, my children through soulless lies

I fled from absurdity, the entropic past

I'm finished - my wealth, my universe crumbling

Worshipping Narcissus and Baal, it was not going to last

What could possibly be more humbling?

I needed to travel away from my self

Reassess mistaken paths,

Start with crumbs, revive the empty shell

Scrub off dreck with soul cleansing baths

Only three dimensions remained to be traveled

Would it be family, faith or crime

Would I totally unravel

Discover virtue or become scarface money laundering slime?

A hard man acquaints me with Mary

Gloomy fog disperses, I detect light

Bounties for my head made existing scary

A raison d'être - I resolve to fight

This crusade is different than those before

I learned values and integrity

Not capital mayhem awash in gore

Values made for longevity

My animus became exemplary

My soul expanded while liberties imploded

Thankfully I have Jesus, Yahweh and Mary

Their arsenal fully loaded

Narco consigliere, Mossad protected

Manipulator of Bosler and Straub?

What a scam - I am not  Vesco or Escobar resurrected

Not DEA, SEK material - beyond any doubt

I am the hunted, bootstrapped man

Europe and America romancing

Criminal, civil - whatever, wherever they can

Hateful, conniving, methodical lancing

Should I snitch or enjoin all?

Live in court or do a deal?

That would be La Donna's call:

Child - Seek resolution with devotional zeal!

Volte-face - I will rise from the ashes

Fat chance! Laugh at me, for I'm a fool

Like a drunken boat, myriad crashes

Hola Maria - Adieu mercantile tool

D.O.M.

PS: "Why do all of us think we are at the center of everything?"

Chris Pavone