Teachers taught their students

about the Great Compromise 

that produced the Constitution—

Now the word connotates 

something bad.

but for low income Americans

let slip the dogs of war.

Losers

mobilize.

It’s one to dance like Fred Astaire;

Ginger Rogers did it backwards

and in heels

Pragmatic solutions

to difficult problems 

are as rare these days

as virgens

on Jersey Shore.

He (Roberts)

has managed to stand

well above 

the viral, toxic cloud

of partisan rancor

He promised,

in an era of Occupiers

and Tea-Party-ers,

the 2,400 page law

(From “The Upholder: How John Roberts vindicated the virtue of compromise” by David Von Drehle)