Those of you who are avid readers of The Week in Preview may have noticed that this week’s column was a bit shorter than usual. (I wish I could make some sort of crack here about my mom being the only one who reads it, but even she doesn’t read it every week). Due to the need to include information on local polling places, an item was cut.

This item, sadly, was a very special poem by TWiP’s poet laureate, Stephen Scaer, written especially for the grand occasion that is the New Hampshire Primary. Even though it didn’t make it into the paper, I wanted to share it online, because some poetry is just too good to go unread.

The poem is in bold. All other text was written by me as a part of the rest of the item. So, originally, it should’ve gone like so:

It feels like ages since you’ve been able to set foot in a local diner without tripping over a presidential hopeful. Today, all of that will change. Yup, the New Hampshire primary has finally arrived.