"Gettin' His Twang On" by Patricia Smith

The premise of this poem is talking about George Bush going to play music with a country singer for an audience's amusement when others were suffering in New Orleans because of the effects of Katrina. The structure of the poem is set up is short stanzas. Almost as if they were lyrics to a song. The final lines in the first two stanzas cut short in the middle of a sentence like a vocalist would while singing a song if he or she wasn't able to fit all of the words in with the music. They would simply stop on a word, and begin with the next once the next movement came in.

A line in the third stanza sticks out above the rest. "Look like this country done left us for dead." It's italicized, showing importance in the poem. Like the title of a song or a chorus that is repeated. The next stanza talks about how the line is the soundtrack and the lyrics are shadow in everyone's throat. Expanding on the song/situation comparison.