by Steve De France

Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks
simply replied, “because that’s where the money is.”

Bonnie and Clyde were a little more complex -- murky.
Consumed by sexual failures --flirting with death.

Butch Cassidy and Sundance -- asking then -- the question
we ask of them now, “Who are those guys?”

Black Bart the California robber-poet
left poems in exchange for stolen cash.

“I’ve labored long and hard for bread
For honor and for riches
But on my corns you’ve too long tread,
You fine haired sons-of-bitches.”

Why had Joaquin Murriet tried to right the wrongs
of Americans stealing Spanish land grants?

Stepping out of another century
Highwayman in lace & silver buckles.

Stand and deliver!

Down comes a chest of golden Sovereigns!
Everyone pays.
Except attractive ladies.

Today Enron-types are not called BRIGANDS
but Vice Presidents of internet infidelity,
or a CEO at Coitus.Com
These corporate criminals jack-up prices
Sell swampland as real estate
Flood insurance in the desert
Education as if it weren’t propaganda
Coffins designed with a view
Or sell Political Correctness as freedom.

Thanks -- but no thanks!

I’ll take my bank robbers as robbers!
My crooks clearly marked “crooks”.
No secrets -- No legerdemain -- No hypocrisy.
Something Plainspoken.
“Howdy folks—this here is a bank robbery.
Kindly reach for the sky!”

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