SLUDGE WE CAN COUNT ON

by William Aarnes


To end a war, send more of your troops.
To recover from a recession, make sure your bankers stay rich.
To provide health care for all, keep your insurance firms involved.
To win arguments with your opponents, let them set the terms.
To improve your schools, dismiss the teachers.
To end terror, joke about your drones.
To curb your appetite for energy, drill for offshore oil.
To save a coast, delay your ineffectual response.  


William Aarnes has recently had poems in The Vocabula Review, Forge, and The Dirty Napkin.
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