{"id":819,"date":"2008-02-20T11:02:24","date_gmt":"2008-02-20T16:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2008\/02\/20\/horse\/"},"modified":"2008-02-20T15:53:36","modified_gmt":"2008-02-20T20:53:36","slug":"horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2008\/02\/20\/horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"

[I note that some of the longer lines spread a word or two a line down. The single words or short phrases by themselves in this piece belong to the lines above them. \u2014r] <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They want to build a box store in the northern end of town:
\nif you ask the city council, they think manna’s falling down;
\nif you ask the local shoppers, they all pretty well agree:
\nfree parking and low prices sound like heaven don’t you see.<\/p>\n

It won’t take long for council to sign on with every permit:
\nand the planners are exited and the love is flowing surfeit;
\nand the shoppers are so happy they save up for opening day:
\nfree parking and low prices soon will never go away.<\/p>\n

Pretty soon the ground is broken, everybody makes a speech:
\nthe tourists will be flocking in, and heaven’s within reach;
\nprosperity for everyone and shopping to the skies
\nfree parking and low prices make a shopper’s fever rise.<\/p>\n

Bulldozers strip back the ground and soon foundation’s in:
\nand cranes arrive to rig the steel and slap on all the tin;
\nand pretty soon the parking lot is paved and marked with stripes:
\nfree parking and low prices open up on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The crowds arrive, the traffic jams, and all is as it should be:
\nthe ribbon’s cut, politicos make speeches sweet as could be;
\nand pretty soon the shoppers flood the aisles and all is well:
\nfree parking and low prices certainly can ring the bell.<\/p>\n

Far off in the BIA downtown the merchants are alone:
\ntheir stores are all so empty you would think nobody’s home;
\nit won’t be long before their windows all are boarded up:
\nfree parking and low prices mean they’ve finally had enough.<\/p>\n

The wheels of trucks are pounding down the highways to our city:
\nthe roads they use are wearing out, and fuel’s up, more’s the pity;
\nit looks like taxes have to rise, and environment’s going down:
\nfree parking and low prices have a cost for any town.<\/p>\n

The tourists never come here, we’re the same as everyone else:
\n’cause everyone has a box store, offshore products on the shelves;
\ntoo bad we gave up on the things that made us so distinct:
\nfree parking and low prices stole our hearts and jobs\u2014it stinks!<\/p>\n

The moral of this story is as simple as ever was:
\nlook a gift horse in the mouth as the Trojans learned because
\nfor everything free there’s a hidden cost as you may finally think:
\nfree parking and low prices stole our hearts and jobs\u2014it stinks!<\/p>\n

So please don’t let this tragedy destroy your town and lives:
\nmoney sucking box stores turn your downtown into dives;
\nthink ahead and plan it out and keep our jobs at home:
\nfree parking and low prices\u2014just leave well enough alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[I note that some of the longer lines spread a word or two a line down. The single words or short phrases by themselves in this piece belong to the lines above them. \u2014r] They want to build a box … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,7,3,44,17,24],"tags":[325,327,326,324],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lotus-eaters","category-mild-mannered-opinion","category-poetry","category-political-asides","category-screeds","category-serial","tag-city-planning","tag-frustration","tag-politics","tag-shopping-malls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}