If you look to your right,
\nyou will see much bigger buildings,
\nsome oil wells, large vehicles producing
\n‘harmless’ emissions, nuclear facilities,
\na well-armed police presence, strong displays
\nof military might, golf courses, tennis courts
\nand plush homes with gates, pools and dogs.
\nNow look to your left and see what’s left.
\nDeteriorating cities and infrastructure,
\npublic transportation, ‘shady’ people
\nin alleyways looking for drugs and abortions,
\nmilitary vets out on the streets, homeless
\nshelters and food kitchens, polluted waters,
\ncrime waves, rogue cops, smog and dogs.
\nWe’ve already got a wall. Front and center.
\nAnd even a street named after it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you look to your right, you will see much bigger buildings, some oil wells, large vehicles producing ‘harmless’ emissions, nuclear facilities, a well-armed police presence, strong displays of military might, golf courses, tennis courts and plush homes with gates, pools and dogs. Now look to your left and see what’s left. Deteriorating cities and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[3,4],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem-2","tag-poem","tag-poetry-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":872,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=872","url_meta":{"origin":841,"position":0},"title":"Glass Pipe","author":"Rick Young","date":"March 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Trapped inside, like water. Outside, chain link and barbed wire. Concrete mesa and rock ledge. Broken glass and bottles thrown from on high. A wave of pulsing oil. Here comes a train again. Lost dogs, guard dogs, devil dogs. Red-eyed and hungry. Screamed languages unheard, almost as in song. Forever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2216,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=2216","url_meta":{"origin":841,"position":1},"title":"Woofers, Not Tweeters","author":"Rick Young","date":"November 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"There'll be dogs back in the White House pretty soon. They'll replace the current resident baboon. The return of shed pet hair will be easier to bear than the current crypto locks of golden doom. There'll be barking, but within the canine way. There'll be no one left inside the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2472,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=2472","url_meta":{"origin":841,"position":2},"title":"I Let the Dogs In","author":"Rick Young","date":"May 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Therapy dogs solved my problem. I used to be an angry cat. After just a couple sessions, I forgot about all that. Now I jump and play outside, and roll around in dirt. Therapy dogs encourage that, as long's I\u00a0don't get hurt. I hope to spend all of my life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1032,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=1032","url_meta":{"origin":841,"position":3},"title":"Dry Mouth","author":"Rick Young","date":"December 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Checking their watches by the radium glow, three dogs salivate same time each night. Pavlov rings them up with news. Pound is down. Old bones in Sahara found. Ears perk. Tails wag. Notes are taken, lab coats washed and dried. \"We tried,\" say the working hounds, knowing humans respond well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":644,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=644","url_meta":{"origin":841,"position":4},"title":"Denture Adventure","author":"Rick Young","date":"January 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My teeth were sent to outer space, as part of some experiment with dogs and several poker-playing cosmonauts. Now I have a growing taste for Mars bars, starfish,moon pies, sun drieds and plutonium, which tastes like Tang. An old NASA joke. At night I feel them orbiting my bed and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":605,"url":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?p=605","url_meta":{"origin":841,"position":5},"title":"Shoes Abused","author":"Rick Young","date":"June 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My tap shoes are tapped out. My clogs are clogged, no doubt. My wingtips have all flown away with herringbone. My loafers just look tired, my brogans uninspired. My cleats are dull from sporting lull. My car shoes got hot wired. My sneakers snuck away because I would not play.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poem"","block_context":{"text":"Poem","link":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redtinnoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}