Anyone can put up a political lawn sign; Terry O'Neill, the Republican candidate challenging incumbent Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, for the 104th Assembly District seat, is taking a more unusual approach.
O'Neill, a poetry-writing attorney, has written the following poem (he couldn't quite squeeze it onto a lawn sign):
WINNERS ALL (McEneny v. O'Neill, 2008)
Election time is when they sing that happy days return.
Just watch our race in Albany and I think that you will learn
That that old song's as true today as when it first was penned.
I'll tell to you the story if your ears to me you'll lend.
It seems there was a poet who had seen a lot of gloom
But he would not just write about it snug inside his room.
"There must be something I can do to lift from us this pall.
The people need some leadership and I must heed their call."
He looked around the landscape; where castles ought to be,
Instead he saw but prisons full of woe and misery.
Perplexed he looked on all this drear and mightily did wonder
How can we escape from all these clouds that we are under?
Circus? Party? Carnival? They won't do the trick.
No games, parades or festivals are quite the thing to lick
A case of blues as bad as those we've picked up on our journey.
At last the thing occurred to him: Two knights meet in a tourney.
In days of old when knights were bold, they did not have elections.
Just two guys charging down the field from opposite directions.
They met and clashed together somewhere midway on the course
Leaving one upon his duff; the other on his horse.
In Albany at this late date, the object isn't winning.
It's more to give the town we love a bright and new beginning.
So on the field honor we've got poet versus pol.
They cannot help but save the day. And that's a worthy goal.
For complete local election coverage, including a list of all local races, a link to find your polling place and biographies and video Q&As for candidates for state and federal offices, visit DailyGazette.com's special election section at www.dailygazette.com/elections.
