Metal rats gleam    Reflect a civilization

Clash and scrape     Squeal and brake

Chew on one anothers tail    Spit upon cities' sticky core

React to coloured lights with anxious twitch

Squeeze by construction crews

of orange and yellow hues    Machines of metal cheese

Claw apart, then repave, black ribbons of nibbled road

Metal rats multiply         Surpass sewer cousins

who run own cramped race beneath asphalt floor

Scurry, scavenge, blur        In quest of metal reasons

The tin of destiny crushed to rust away

Nerves beneath the skin

Jangle with keys in the ignition

Metal rats roar              In haste to maintain ambition

Scuttle through garbage          Absorbed by the maze

Signals to veer right                Then dashes quickly to the left 

Distracted by hypnotic music          $ $ ka-ching $ ka-ching $ $ 

The piper now known as Economy

Fingers and plays monetary notes

Serenades all he can tame

c) C. Butler  1997