In the lobby of the hotel beside the convention center
\nYou stand and seethe, smoke curling from your ears,
\nWhite-knuckle grip on the credit card in hand
\nWhich has just been so politely declined.
\nThere are thoughts you think at these moments,
\nCrazy trainwrecks of credit card fraud, of hacked systems,
\nOf banks that had collapsed without warning,
\nOf fat cats in billion-dollar suits blowing your savings
\nOn trillion-dollar toilets and vacations on Mars.
\nYou think to yourself what could have happened,
\nThe money was there last week, yesterday, this morning,
\nYou’ve been traveling frugally, but did something happen?
\nWas there a bill you’d paid but forgotten about?
\nDid you buy a car when you weren’t looking?
\nThis is America, this is fear,<\/i>
\nThis is terror not of Jihad but of grocery bills,
\nOf unexpected children, of opportunities missed
\nDue to the chains clapped round your ankles by student loans,
\nThe bill for the American Dream coming due
\nAnd despite all your work and glory and degrees
\nYou’re still found so, so wanting.
\nIn the end, the truth comes out –
\nA freeze slapped on your card not for lack of funds
\nBut for lack of locality, a skepticism of travel,
\nA suspicion of fraud that you find all too understandable,
\nCleared up with the help of an operator and a few clicks of a mouse.
\nIf only all of our fears could be assuaged so easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the lobby of the hotel beside the convention center You stand and seethe, smoke curling from your ears, White-knuckle grip on the credit card in hand Which has just been so politely declined. There are thoughts you think at these moments, Crazy trainwrecks of credit card fraud, of hacked systems, Of banks that had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4e5QR-t1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geoffreylong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}