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      April 11, 2017Bids for Border Wall Now Being TakenEllen Steinbaum

      a found poem

      One bidder wants
      to cover it with solar panels.
      Another suggests a deck
      to offer tourists scenic views.
      Traditional bids are interspersed
      with more whimsical ideas
      like polished concrete
      studded with stones and
      artifacts to make the wall a piece
      of art. Designs must be able to
      repel pickaxes and sledge-
      hammers for at least an hour
      and be aesthetically pleasing
      from the north side.

      from Poets Respond

      Ellen Steinbaum

      “This is a found poem: taken from an AP story and exact in all but one word (‘studded,’ rather than ‘augmented’ because the syllables sounded right). I had not been thinking of submitting a Response poem but this presented itself in all its horrifying perfection. The thought of a person desperate enough to use a sledgehammer or pickax for an hour haunts me.”

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