The Perverted Village

A poem on the 2011 legislative session by former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby. Read at the Molly Awards dinner on June 9, 2011.

 

Sweet Austin, capital of the Lone Star State,

What have we done to earn this grisly fate?

 

Why do you make of us a state of fools?

To save a buck you close our schools.

 

Because research and scholars you do mock

Once proud, higher ed is now a laughing stock.

 

North and South, East and West

Our highways were once the best.

 

Now, because of what you’re doin’

You’ll let them go to rack and ruin.

 

By now we should have learned to be wary

Of those that gave us Clements, Craddick, Perry.

 

King Richard Perry—the motto of his reign:

If at first you don’t secede, try, try again.

 

The springs over which he rules have run dry in fact,

But, never fear, the Rainy Day Fund’s intact!

 

O for the glorious days when our Lone Star’s light

Shed on the likes of Briscoe, Richards, and White.

 

Once famed, our glories melt away,

Now that the radical right holds its sway.

 

From the Llano Estacado to the Rio Grande

This land is your land, this land is my land.

 

The Lone Star dips slowly into mire.

On dune and headland sinks the fire.

 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!