{"id":779,"date":"2019-08-18T19:09:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T23:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/?p=779"},"modified":"2019-12-22T16:02:44","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T20:02:44","slug":"election-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/2019\/08\/18\/election-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Blues | Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

image from “It’s Donald Trump’s Election, but the inspiration? Nixon,” July 19, 2016. EDITOR’S NOTE: The RNC was in Miami, Florida that year. I often wonder if places would write a poem, what would they tell us?<\/em><\/p>\n\n

by Alexander Manzoni<\/strong>, elections correspondent <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Record turnout. It still wasn\u2019t enough.<\/em>
Did you really think it would be easy
(easy beating these sleazy bastards)?
The Blue Wave, it was more of a stream.<\/em>
We must ALL still DREAM.<\/em>
The economy is in the green, they tell me.
These dirty politics stick to my shoes.
Election blues.<\/em>

Open the flue before you start
that fire in the hearth.
Was it worth all of that energy?
It has <\/em>to be.

These election blues have filled me.
We are a chaotic asteroid
flung <\/em>through The Infinite Void.
We\u2019re playing with our broken toys
while Our Boys fight it out<\/em>,
in The Middle East.

Our feast is interrupted by
a swarm <\/em>of crazy uncles
with red <\/em>on their sleeves (and hats).
They refuse <\/em>to leave the table
until their presence is made known<\/em>
to our collective groans.
Did you hear that?
Sounds like a porn star
in the next room.
She must be meeting with
Republican politicians.

The Statistician proved useless<\/em>
to the toothless hound dog.
We are wading through a sewage-filled bog.
Hope we don\u2019t pick up an infection<\/em>.
This election has got me twisted.<\/em>
WHAT AM I MISSING?<\/em>
Skipping school to break the rules.
Using every tool <\/em>I have available
to make This World more <\/em>bearable.
Even if <\/em>I am unable,
at least you I know <\/em>I tried<\/em>
LONG <\/em>after I grew tired.

What does it TAKE to get you ALL FIRED UP?<\/em>
A cup, oxidized copper chalice, is shared\u00a0
between parched and cracked lips.
We must come to grips <\/em>with The Reality
of Our Own Vulnerability.
Even though it seems <\/em>like it is killing me\u2014<\/em>
turning me into A BEAST.<\/em>
If you are going to kill me,
can you at least make it quick<\/em>
before I sink this ship, myself?

The china hutch rattles.<\/em>
Its contents spill <\/em>off the shelf.
Smashing clattering crystal\u2014
a nuclear missile is LAUNCHED<\/em>
from the deck of a surfacing submarine.
Will it wipe the slate clean?<\/em>
Or will we live in a long-forgotten dream
TURNED NIGHTMARE?<\/em>
Are you aware <\/em>of The Danger?

The country, it shuns the appearance of
The Wandering Stranger, in flight
from the insurmountable night.
Is it RIGHT to have to LIVE in SUCH FEAR?<\/em>
We are nearing The End of a New Beginning, my friend.<\/em>
Even so, WE MUST NOT BEND.<\/em>
I clutch my pen, until the knuckles turn white.<\/em>
Writing poetry, day and night.
My eyes catch sight of a lone galley on the horizon.
WILL<\/em> THIS ONE COME TO RESCUE US?<\/em>

 <\/pre>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Alexander Manzoni
\nElections Correspondent<\/p>\n
image: RNC, Miami, Florida, 1968 (yeah, Miami, Florida)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[164],"tags":[105,106,107],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alexander-manzoni","tag-election","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/nixon-win.jpg?fit=1050%2C549&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}