Guidelines



Submission Guidelines: Send unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.

Monday, August 16, 2010

TRICKLE-DOWN

by Jean Thurston Liebert


                                    Trickle-down.  Trickle-down.
                                    Who believes in Trickle-down?

                        “ I,” said Nixon.
                        “I believe in Trickle-down.
                        “I refuse to be kicked around,
                        “And wire-tapping will abound.”

                        “I,” said Reagan.
                        “I believe in Trickle-down.
                        “I will communicate with all,
                        “And set up our unions for a fall.”

                        “ I,” said G W Bush.
                        “I believe in Trickle-down.
                        “All corporations should soar,
                        “As well as the Haves and Have-mores.”

                        “I,” said Greenspan.
                        “I believe in Trickle-down.
                        “I now admit Friedman was wrong,
                        “But I’ll weasel out as I go along.”

                        “Not I,” said Obama.
                        “I don’t believe in Trickle-down.
                        “Give the man at the bottom a living wage,
                        “And Krugman will help us turn the page.”
                      

Jean Thurston Liebert became a Democrat when she discovered she could attend the University of California for five years but couldn’t earn a living wage without organizing to deal with CEO’s. That is all one needs in America: a job with a living wage. Everything falls into place, if Big Business is regulated. At 91, all she writes is colored by this philosophy. Her poetry recently appeared in The She Project.
_____________________________________________________