The Sinking of the USS Enron–A Free-Market Metaphor

The Sinking of the USS Enron–A Free-Market Metaphor

The Sinking of the USS Enron–A Free-Market Metaphor

The pirate ship has sunk beneath the waves.
The swabs who haven’t gone to wat’ry graves
Row desperately, though all of them now know
Their water and their food are running low.
They row their wretched boats and curse their lot.
Receding in the distance is a yacht
That carries all their officers, who knew
The ship was doomed but didn’t tell the crew.
The officers stand tall. They saw their duty:
Desert the ship by night and take the booty.

Calvin Trillin
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The pirate ship has sunk beneath the waves.
The swabs who haven’t gone to wat’ry graves
Row desperately, though all of them now know
Their water and their food are running low.
They row their wretched boats and curse their lot.
Receding in the distance is a yacht
That carries all their officers, who knew
The ship was doomed but didn’t tell the crew.
The officers stand tall. They saw their duty:
Desert the ship by night and take the booty.

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Calvin TrillinCalvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”


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