{"id":1321,"date":"2026-04-28T19:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1321"},"modified":"2026-05-01T21:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:13:22","slug":"poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1321","title":{"rendered":"Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
On the second floor landing,
a framed poster 
catches my eye.
How can I ignore it? 

A melanin-deprived man in
grip knee patch breeches
holds a champagne coupe
leans on a chrome-rich Bentley, 
and toasts us, the viewer,
from under the phrase:
\"Poverty Sucks.\"

This head-turning piece, 
which I later learn is 
attributed to Jerry Mesmer,
encapsulates and elicits 
a Rorschach of a response.

Context is key: 
I am viewing this work
while standing in a mansion
(not mine).

I am one of the povvos 
scoping out the departed
owners' belongings and junk
sifting through 
archaeological layers
of people blessed 
with both longevity
and good returns.

Did the buyers hang this
as a warning? 
As a joke? 
Did they come from nothing?
Did this poster remind them?

Or were they born into this?
Did they want to 
never forget
     what it feels like 
             to have everything?

It makes a statement, 
regardless.

This art, 
and we do give it that title,
is held aloft on a central wall. 
The owners must have passed
here several times a day.

Further, this spotted, 
aging poster
in a cheap haphazard frame 
bears a neon price tag: 
$40.00.

Irony is not lost on me.
Nor, I hope, 
did it escape
the prior owners.

Poverty Sucks.
But the plebes can buy 
an ode to elitism for 
two Jacksons, plus tax.
<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cPoverty\u201d written April 28, poem 118 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, “Poverty Sucks,” a poster by Jerry Mesmer, as captured by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[441,327,847,756,754,9,846,843,848,844,845,849],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-april","tag-art","tag-breeches","tag-classism","tag-elite","tag-humor","tag-jerry-mesmer","tag-mansion","tag-poster","tag-poverty","tag-poverty-sucks","tag-rorschach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1452,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions\/1452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}