The future of monopoly

As a child I'd play monopoly for weeks,
I monopolised the whole family, sent them to eat out,
while the dining table billowed under the paraphernalia
of the game. We played in the bath, the tree house.
I kept hotels and houses hidden in my socks and underwear,
so no one else could build them. Not keen on the cheaper places,
I snubbed stations, only Park Lane would do. Money laundering
was a virtue, not a crime. Encouraged by success
I grew rich in paper money and business acumen.

That man in the Thirties, who crafted the first game
would get high, knowing what I know now,
as no one wanted his game then, but later two hundred
million bought it, a few paying dear for gold and silver
houses, even a chocolate version fed the greedy.
Spies would use it, smuggle maps, compasses and files,
slipped real money for escapees into the packs.
Pity . Castro did not fancy the joy of capitalism
destroying all Monopoly sets; the Russians, far better,
made off with the samples at an exhibition.

Times are changing, we now play an electronic version ,
my new charge card asks me to take out a second mortgage
to pay for school fees. Waterworks are owned
by a fat Saudi boy and the utilities operate out of Berlin.
My early experience has paid dividends. Since I drive
around in London in a Monopoly cab fitted with GPS,
I won a million in prize moneys, my rent paid for years.
A lot has changed since the early days. Parking
is replaced by a congestion charging zone
stretching all the way from old Kent Road to Mayfair.
But nobody sends me to jail without passing go,
as it is overcrowded now and the easy-get-out tags are free.