And here face down upon your desk
Watching through the waiting night
You feel the coming of a test
The gathered rising of a blight
You feel creep up the curving east
The earthy chill of loss and woe
Upon the world's markets the vast
And ever climbing shadows grow
So first in Tokyo the breeze
Carries now the scent of change
The Nikkei sinks down to its knees
Buried beneath a mountain range
And now in Korea the state
Of markets sunk in deep despair
Slumps slowly as the whispered fate
Of recession hangs in the air
And Hong Kong too begins to fall,
The gains of these last years soon gone
And through all Asia the pall
Of evening deepens and steals on
It deepens, too, in Mumbai's street
Where watchful eyes mark the decline
The shuffling of nervous feet
Marks the mocking march of time
And later still in Frankfurt, then
in Paris comes the dreadful blow
As to the west the eyes of Men
Turn, fearful, seeing sands run low
And London, last to feel the weight
Of failure through the far-flung lands;
Crushed downwards, it too meets its fate
Beneath the Invisible Hand
Comes now the cold light on the sea...
And you, facing the night so long,
Await, with dreadful certainty
The market opening at dawn...