by Phyllis Wax
They’ve got us over an oil barrel
and we’ve got a great solution
except it’s not really a solution,
but don’t say that too loud.
We’re turning corn into biofuel
(I’ll tell you a well-known secret:
to produce a gallon of ethanol
takes almost as much energy as
that gallon contains) and our farmers
are doing well and the oil companies
are doing well—-what a deal!
Still, every acre of corn
is an acre not growing food
and they’re starving in Africa
and they’re starving in Asia
while we’re producing fuel
for our 4,000 square foot homes
and our hungry SUVs. What the heck—
if we’ve got it why not use it
and it’s too bad about the others
but it’s not our fault, is it,
that they weren’t born American?
Phyllis Wax lives and writes in Milwaukee, WI.
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