Welcome to my latest exercise in an attempt to reach my goal of being a prolific writer in 2022. So, in addition to writing 1 short story each week (Because Ray Bradbury said you can’t write 52 bad ones – challenge accepted!) I will be attempting to post an original poem each day in April. This is not going to be easy – I’ve not really written poetry since college. So, these will be thrown together each day and not very edited.

I can hear you now – sucky stories and bad poetry? Sign me up.

For more information about the blogging challenge, see http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/)

Politics, like tragedies, are local

Politics, like tragedies, are local
Felt on the rural roads and church picnics
More than the state capital
Not that anyone will admit it
Money tends to be national, not
Street-level.
Like the tornado
The hurricane
The blizzard
The carpet bombs.
National policies make splashy headlines
But it’s your neighbor who brings
blankets, coffee, a casserole
Not your senator (he’s on vacation, somewhere warm)
And it’s your neighbor who picks up your children from school
while you sit in the hospital with your mother
Not the president, nor the cabinet
They are too busy trying to ignore
what that hospital costs
and forgetting the truth
that politics, like tragedies, are local.