For Our Friends in Illinois

Posted for a variety of prompts:

Catchwords (Baldwin quote – below)

Easy Street Prompts (“flush” and “living the postcard”)

Heads or Tails ("watch")

Meme Express (“fruitcake”)

Simply Snickers (“wave,” “wild” and “wing”)

Sunday Scribblings (“I believe”)

Weekend Wordsmith (“pinstripes”)

For Our Friends in Illinois

This limerick series is particularly suited for our friends and loved ones in Illinois, where Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on charges of attempting to market President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Blagojevich faces multiple bribery charges as well. Obama denies any link to the scandal. We are certainly watching.

Take a Seat, Guv-nor -

A Poetic Handle on an Illinois Scandal

(On the Rod Blagojevich Scramble to Sell Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate Seat)

“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling

is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”

(James Baldwin, American author)

Dear Guv-nor, a cruel twist of fate,

Does place you on justice’s slate.

By dipping the till,

Your coffers to fill,

You’ll learn to make new license plates.

Your pinstripes, you’ll trade for new stripes

For mingling with wilder types.

You’ll wave through the door

In wing forty-four

While banging your speeches on pipes.

By selling Obama’s old seat,

You now brand-new contacts will meet.

They’ll shout, “I believe

You tried to deceive,”

As crow and stale fruitcake you’ll eat.

You’re living the postcard and more,

Sad chapter in Illinois lore –

The piper you’ll pay,

As you’ll go away

For hosting a Senate price war.

And yet, voters might offer grace,

If you would your guilt not erase.

Come clean in a flush,

And put down your brush.

Perhaps you’ll outlive your disgrace.

Love poetry? Check out Simply Snickers, a brand-new weekly poetry prompt. Try your hand with weekly prompts! Or, look into The Meme Express for daily blogging prompts.

Click here to visit Linda Ann Nickerson’s poetry and humor blog, Nickers and Ink.

Throughout 2009, please join us at The Heart of a Ready Writer, a Bible reading and devotional blog, as we read through the entire Bible in chronological order.

Click here to subscribe to an RSS feed for this writer's helpful Helium content. If you wish, click here for a free subscription to this author's online AC content, so you won't miss a single post!