Orange Alerts

deadline poet

By Calvin Trillin

This article appeared in the April 11, 2005 edition of The Nation.

March 24, 2005

You know the things I miss so much it hurts?
Those orange alerts.
Routines, our leaders said--and this was strange--
Should not be changed:
If we stayed home, or stopped what we'd begun,
The bad guys won.
No, we were only told to be prepared
For being scared.
And when will it return--this orange protection?
The next election.

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About Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation's "deadline poet." He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has written the syndicated weekly column "Uncivil Liberties" since 1986. He has authored many, many books, including Tepper's Not Going Out and Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist. more...
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