Raleigh resident writes to Council about Budget Priorities

Hi Everybody,
I heard that you were considering paying $20,000 to a “poet laureate” for Raleigh.
I asked Gemini AI to create a poem about it. This is the result.

Title: We Don’t Want a Poet, And You Know It

The mahogany’s polished, the coffee is hot,
While the rest of us check what little we’ve got.
Oh, Mayor Janet Cowell, do lead the parade,
While the budget’s in debt and the citizens fade.

We’ve got a shortfall that’s quite the display—
$13 million just floating away.
But hey, Corey Branch, don’t look so distressed,
I’m sure that a stanza will fix all the rest.

Jonathan Lambert-Melton, pray tell,
How a sonnet pays rent when life is a shell?
With Megan Patton and Christina Jones,
Ignoring the shivering, skin-and-bit bones.

Stormie Forte, is the gas price a joke?
When filling the tank leaves the workers all broke?
Jane Harrison, darling, Mitchell Silver, my dear,
The logic you’re using is perfectly clear:

“The housing is gone and the wallets are thin,
But let’s bring a Poet Laureate in!”

Twenty thousand dollars for verses and rhymes,
In these—dare we say it?—unprecedented times?
Keep your metaphors, keep your iambic pentameter,
We’re measuring grief on a broken diameter.

So cheers to the Council, so savvy and wise,
Finding “art” in the budget while the cost of living flies.
If words are so pricey, then here is a clue:
The only word we’ve got for this is “Adieu.”
—
If you want any more poems, contact me…I’ll create them — FOR FREE!

Lorilyn Bailey
Raleigh, NC