The Daily Yonder tipped us off to this: In Kentucky, poet and newspaper columnist Constance Alexander recently lampooned the state's perpetually tardy budgetmakers with a mocking bit of verse modeled after "Casey At The Bat." An excerpt:
The outlook isn't brilliant for the Bluegrass State today.
Tomorrow's not much better and the landscape's gloomy gray.
No budget passed in Frankfort after sixty days in session.
The void in leadership is vast enough to cause depression.
Sounds familiar. The Syracuse Post-Standard is reporting today that New York is set to run out of money by June, and there's still no budget in sight.
In the spirit of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Calvin Trillin, we're calling on New Yorkers to take up their pens on the state's budget disaster. Here's a limerick to get you started.
If the budgeteers cannot agree
New York State will fall into the sea.
Soda! Smokes! Gas!
Here's a tax they should pass:
Nude photos of Ashley Dupre.
Post your poems in the comments, email them to editor@watershedpost.com, or mail them to us at 53 Delaware Ave., Delhi, NY 13753. We'll feature the best ones on the Watershed Post. Hell, if we get some truly epic works of versification, maybe we'll assemble a wee chapbook and mail it to Albany.
Image: Alexander Pope in a 1742 portrait by Jean-Baptiste van Loo, no doubt contemplating a nasty rhyme for the First Earl of Orford.
