Last night, the Shenandoah Writers, along with several other local writing groups, hosted a “bad poetry” night in the lounge of the Clementine cafe in downtown Harrisonburg. Prior to the event, I had been mulling over the idea of what I should write. But then I thought, why not politics? After all, the oft-used expression is that one should write what one knows.
Later that evening, a writing friend asked what would be my next post on this blog. To tell the truth, not many of my pieces are planned too far in advance. I’ve got a few articles that I wrote months ago that I’ll post sooner or later, but so much of what I write is just spur of the moment stuff. So then I got to thinking, why not share my poem from last night? It highlights how easy it is to become frustrated as a constitutional conservative given how fiscal irresponsibility has become commonplace.
You’ll note that the poem is written in two differing colors. Unfortunately, WordPress will not allow me to leave an empty line between the breaks, therefore the color change indicates a new stanza.
So is it “good” or “bad”? I’ll leave that decision to you.
Asking For Money
A letter came in the mail today
Asking for money
Politicians are never satisfied
With their thousand dollar suits
And hundred dollar haircuts
Strutting around like peacocks
Always eager to take our wealth
Doling it out as they see fit
More bridges to nowhere!
Pensions for bureaucrats!
Monuments to the powerful!
Ozymandias would be proud
Why not prop up the despots?
And give foreign aid to both sides?
More military hardware
To bomb the bridges and hospitals
And then rebuild them, of course
The world’s police to the rescue
Today they take riches from you
And give it to me
Tomorrow they take riches from me
And give it to you
Each time taking their cut
A modern day Robin Hood of sorts
Once a year come the campaigns
Each fitted with a fresh mask
With dazzling multimedia
And overflowing mailboxes
But who will pay for all these things?
Give us more! Give it now!
From ivory towers on the Potomac
We plead for their bread
And are amused by their circuses
They are no longer our subjects
So we kneel before our masters
Vae victus
Please send me no more letters
Enough with the emails
You’ve squandered our wealth
Now my savings is gone
I’ve nothing left to give
Don’t ask me for money
Another great post. Thanks for sharing this. Spending time sitting down to writing short stories and poems is something I truly enjoy in life. I enjoy reading your blog very much.
A Great Day for Spring – Poem
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you found this blog and I hope you continue to enjoy it.