WHAT IF I CAUTIONED YOU
found poem, fundraising texts
Can I tell you about my family’s farm?
We stood together under a HUGE tent,
a bit longer than usual.
More butterflies than a freaking’ garden.
Is there anything I can say?
What if I told you,
or what if I reminded you,
or what if I cautioned,
Cruelty and chaos.
I can’t even begin to comprehend.
Revenge and retribution.
STOP
13 million 35 million, 5 now,
10 now, 20 before midnight, 109,201
Any another amount. Anything at all.
Last chance
STOP2END
—from Poets Respond
__________
Laura Tanenbaum: “Political language can be many things, sometimes ethically profound and often profane, but the art of the fundraising text, with its epistolary desperation, has a poetry all its own. All the love to the writers of all stripes who earn their keep crafting these things.” (web)
