News item: The Montana House of Representatives on Feb. 24 rejected a bill to reimburse the state-appointed poet laureate for travel expenses.
Once upon a winter dreary, while they pondered, weak and weary,
While they nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at their chamber door;
“Tis some bookish liberal,” they muttered. “tapping at our chamber door”;
Only this, and nothing more.
Ah, hastily they did render judgment on any spender,
And each dying proposal wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly they wished the morrow; vainly one had sought to borrow
From the coffers surplus a stipend for the bard who all adore,
Just a small purse for Montana's ambassador of verse.
The request went unfunded forevermore.
The heated words that followed, both in speech and print
Thrilled them - filled them with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So then, to still the beating of their hearts, they stood repeating,
“Tis some bookish liberal entreating at our chamber door,
This is it, and nothing more.”
Presently their souls grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said they, “or madam, truly your forgiveness we implore;
“But the fact is, we were napping, as so gently you came rapping,
“And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at our chamber door,
“That we scarce were sure we heard you. Your expenses you want to restore?”
There's just the honor, and nothing more.
Deep into the darkness peering, long they stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, debating: “If we did wrong, would we even know it?”
But the silence was unbroken and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Poet?”
This they whispered, and an echo replied, “Poet no more!”
Merely this, and nothing more.
And the poet, never bitching, still is hitching, still is hitching
To every workshop and reading, passing the hat at every door,
And her duty to her state renders her purse ever thinner,
And the limelight o'er her streaming throws a shadow on the House floor;
And Montana's soul from out that shadow floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!
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