Sociopaths

by Brett Rutherford 

     After Theognis, Elegaic Poems 149-154

I’ll tell you this, Cyrnus: some men
should never inherit a fortune.
Having too much breeds insolence.
What danger there is to everyone
when a bad man becomes a billionaire.
He will not mind his business, no:
he will ruin all to stand alone. 

Gold in the hand, a sieve
for a brain, a heart
the size of a chicken liver,
a wild boar’s temper.
Take from his small hands
the means to do others harm.
Before his evil, glaring eyes,
draw vertical lines: a cell.