Terminal Case<\/p>\n
I should buy two dozen raised garden beds,
\ngravel, dirt, and mulch, seeds, potting soil, and fertilizer,
\nand build a green house in the back yard,
\nplant fruit trees, berry bushes, and vines,
\nand learn to can and preserve it all,
\nin case the grocery stores all run out.<\/p>\n
I should convert all our jars of spare change,
\nthe crumpled dollar bills in car consoles,
\nand the kids’ birthday card checks
\ninto precious metals and bitcoins,
\nand stash them all in backyard and digital holes,
\nin case the economy pops.<\/p>\n
I should collect all our rainwater
\nin barrels and tubs
\nand filter it through sieves,
\ntreat it with chlorine
\nand store it in the basement,
\nin case public water is no longer clean.<\/p>\n
I should have the roof of the house removed,
\nsend Elon Musk’s kids to college
\nwith the loans I’ll take out for solar panel roof tiles,
\nbuy a woodstove and cords of wood,
\nand install a grill and outdoor firepit,
\nin case an EMP blast takes out all power.<\/p>\n
I should buy and install a new shed
\nand seal it against the weather,
\nbuy sturdy shelving for it
\nand fill them with a year of food,
\ntoilet paper, and wet wipes,
\nin case the food chain gets disrupted.<\/p>\n
I should do all this and more,
\nmake myself crazier with each article I read,
\neach news story I hear,
\nfor the end is nigh, after all.
\nI could, I would, I should,
\nworld without end, amen,
\nuntil I take down a book,
\ntake a step back,
\ntake a deep breath,
\nread, and remember:<\/p>\n
*”But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.”<\/p>\n
*The World According to Garp, by John Irving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Terminal Case I should buy two dozen raised garden beds, gravel, dirt, and mulch, seeds, potting soil, and fertilizer, and build a green house in the back yard, plant fruit trees, berry bushes, and vines, and learn to can and preserve it all, in case…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90652","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\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103596,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90652\/revisions\/103596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}