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# In Times Like These
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/in-times-like-these/
- Published: 2025-11-21T06:34:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-18T20:57:22.000Z
- Description: In times like these I clean the gutters monthly and the lint trap every day;
- Author: Andy
- Tags: America on the Brink, Be The Change, poetry, #Migrated-1784090317409, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 04:39

In times like these  
I clean the gutters monthly  
and the lint trap every day;

buy a time-share in the  
Sutton Public Library, invest my life  
savings in the Holden Arboretum;

and stockpile proverbs—  
*The ax forgets, but the tree remembers*—  
to arm myself for Tomorrow.

See how I worship potable water  
and fresh-picked carrots!  
Polish the bulbs of street-lamps!

Refuse a sweater and complain bitterly  
of the cold! Speak without irony of  
*the times that try men’s souls*!

I admit a cup of oatmeal is a blessing,  
even, especially, at 4 AM, before  
the swept-up dust has gone back to work,

before the keeper of the sky  
has lost his key,  
a wily sun still lying in wait;

and my goldfish, in its fishbowl,  
is happier than me, in my bowl of flesh…  
In times like these.