Only half a year,
\nand surely we have reached some kind of limit.
\nHow many problems can we handle at one time–
\nglobal pandemic that shows no signs of slowing,
\nsystemic racism, another black person shot in the back,
\ndrought, unemployment, hunger, despair!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to find solutions
\nwhen your president\u2019s a liar,
\nwhen the whole dang world is threatened
\nby his pants that are afire.<\/p>\n
In the south, masks are seen as too liberal.
\nMeanwhile, the president holds a rally in Tulsa,
\nbringing infected staffers with him.
\nScience, dear people, could offer solutions,
\nlimiting the spread of the virus and
\nfinding alternatives to the fossil fuels
\nthat fuel our economy, melt the permafrost. Common sense
\nand compassion are necessary, too.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to find solutions
\nwhen your president\u2019s a liar,
\nwhen the whole dang world is threatened
\nby his pants that are afire.<\/p>\n
We could change the tax laws, so black kids
\nand poor go to well-funded schools.
\nWe could treat addictions like the illnesses they are.
\nWe could bail out citizens instead of corporations, provide
\nhealthcare to the sick and PPE to essential workers.
\nWe could offer help instead of policing, but<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to find solutions
\nwhen your president\u2019s a liar,
\nwhen the whole dang world is threatened
\nby his pants that are afire.<\/p>\n
Okay, an hour isn’t long enough, but here’s a draft, something to work on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Only half a year, and surely we have reached some kind of limit. How many problems can we handle at one time– global pandemic that shows no signs of slowing, systemic racism, another black person shot in the back, drought, unemployment, hunger, despair! It\u2019s hard…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64181,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63842\/revisions\/64181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}