Like many people, I tried to catch as much of the United States presidential inauguration yesterday as possible. From watching commentary on Mrs. Obama's dresses to hearing Elizabeth Alexander's inauguration poem, I found the whole event interesting and hopeful (if only for a day).

Anyway, today's prompt is inspired by the coverage CNN provided of the event. While watching the commentators comment, I heard an interesting line from Alex Castellanos: "Nothing unites the people of Earth like a threat from Mars." For today's prompt, I want you to use this line as inspiration for your poem.

You don't have to write about Martians attacking Earth, though that may be fun. In fact, you don't even have to mention either planet. You can focus on the idea of people uniting, or you can write about facing a threat--alien or terrestrial. The nice thing about using quotes as a platform is that you can jump off in any direction that makes sense for you.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"X-ray glasses and hearing aides"

We spent our mornings searching
for odd jobs and loose change,
money to buy comics. We would
read them to know whether Joker
really bested Batman, to know if
The Flash really died this time. But
we also read comics for the ads,
like people watching the Super Bowl
for the commercials. X-ray glasses
and whoopie cushions. Gags and
business opportunities. Our parents
would tell us to quit wasting time
and energy on reading about
people in tights and capes, to quit
bugging them about spending
their hard-earned money on offers
found between their covers. But
we could never see their points
or hear where they came from.