Poem: "Here Again, Gone Again"
Apr. 16th, 2024 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the April 2, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Doug Edwards. It also fills the "Defenestration" square in my 4-1-24 card for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette.
Warning: This poem is political horror.
"Here Again, Gone Again"
Before the election,
people huddle in parties,
knock on doors all around
their various neighborhoods,
stick signs in the yards and
flyers on the doorknobs.
This historians mutter
definitions of obscure but
useful vocabulary terms
such as "plutocracy"
and "defenestration."
For some people, this
is a patriotic jamboree.
For others, it is an act
of quiet desperation.
It's a last-gasp effort
to hold onto something
worth saving in America
before it comes down to
here again, gone again.
Because they know that
if Trump gets re-elected
(despite the hate speech,
sex crimes, dozens of felonies,
and probable dementia), then
a significant number of
the women
and the blacks
and the Pagans
and the queerfolk
and the immigrants
and the other freaks
who keep things running
will look at each other and say,
"Screw this, I'm out of here!"
Warning: This poem is political horror.
"Here Again, Gone Again"
Before the election,
people huddle in parties,
knock on doors all around
their various neighborhoods,
stick signs in the yards and
flyers on the doorknobs.
This historians mutter
definitions of obscure but
useful vocabulary terms
such as "plutocracy"
and "defenestration."
For some people, this
is a patriotic jamboree.
For others, it is an act
of quiet desperation.
It's a last-gasp effort
to hold onto something
worth saving in America
before it comes down to
here again, gone again.
Because they know that
if Trump gets re-elected
(despite the hate speech,
sex crimes, dozens of felonies,
and probable dementia), then
a significant number of
the women
and the blacks
and the Pagans
and the queerfolk
and the immigrants
and the other freaks
who keep things running
will look at each other and say,
"Screw this, I'm out of here!"
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-04-17 09:45 pm (UTC)It wasn't even about weaner-fencing between Russia and the USA. Nixon didn't want to hand over a successful lunar program to Ford, so he finished what Johnson started and axed Apollo and put NASA on hold financially.
As for the life extension thing, I think you're looking at it the wrong way. There is a direct inverse correlation between average life span and number of children... the longer people live, the less children they have. Plus, hopefully if people know they're going to live (healthily) into their 200's they might start taking a bit of responsibility for climate change, since they'll be around to answer for ti.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-04-18 09:44 am (UTC)Eventually, yes. It's why developed nations have lower birth rates, many below replacement even. The problem is, that takes time to kick in. Whenever you extend lifespan or health, there's always a lag in birth rate response. It's how we got the the overpopulation we have now: survival went up, death went down, and it took a while before the birth rate dropped in response.
>> Plus, hopefully if people know they're going to live (healthily) into their 200's they might start taking a bit of responsibility for climate change, since they'll be around to answer for ti.<<
The people who can afford that kind of health treatment are also able to escape the consequences of their bad choices, at least enough that it doesn't make them behave better. They might eventually realize they fucked up, but it'd be far too late for them, or the rest of us.