Down on the Farm

A wave of bankruptcies is sweeping the U.S. Farm Belt as trade disputes add pain to the low commodity prices that have been grinding down American farmers for years.

WSJ

The times have not been kind to all our farmers in the dell;

with tariffs and low prices they are going through some hell.

Mortgages are falling due and payment can't be met;

Trump has given farmers nothing but a load of debt.

All across the country fields are fallow, as the bank

makes the tillers of the soil begin to walk the plank.

Houses stand abandoned and proud barns begin to sag;

We've got a situation, with a "Grapes of Wrath" price tag.

The farmer always gets it in the neck before the rest

of Uncle Sam's poor children find an asp inside their nest.

Perhaps if we razed Congress and put in a soybean field

we'd help the farmers to increase their agriculture yield.

The Pentagon a hothouse for the growing of fresh fruit

would serve a better purpose and then peace just might take root.

The White House lawn could use some cows to keep our larders full;

of course, the place is already just loaded up with bull.

But then with walls and barriers erected by the cops

there won't be any one at all to harvest any crops.

Seems to me that famine has a chance to reappear

in a land where bounty once prevented such a fear.

But I am pessimistic, just a howler in the wind.

There's no need yet to panic or get very much chagrined.

No doubt a kindly government will soon be interceding

to help the farmers out with all the stuff that they are needing.

There's no need for the 'yellow vests' to start a looting spree.

There's no need for the jackboot in this land of liberty.

We all agree that laissez faire is still the policy

that voters want to keep in place for their posterity.

So tell your sons and daughters that our fructifying soil

is worthy of their labor (and they just might strike some oil.)

Just now there's lots of vacant land available to till;

just get a bank loan to begin -- about a half a mill.

Yes, what we need are blinders to screen adverse cogitation.

THAT will bring the farmer back unto a grateful nation.

This is all the message that we need to say or tweet.

In no time whatsoever grass will grow in every street!