Bad Poetry

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