Jersey City wants a poet laureate. You must be old enough to drink.

The term: one year. The yearly pay ($3K) is about what you'd think.

Let's support the arts big and small, so says the mayor:

They make the city better, safer, a major player.

Your work must be "of the highest caliber" if you want to be picked.

So no dumb verse or bad verse or someone's verse that you nicked.

The council may approve on Wednesday when they meet,

Unless the plan's critics get enough votes to defeat.

That outcome, however, must not be expected.

The laureate, while secret, has already been selected.

Just two years for one laureate, no more are allowed.

We're finally getting term limits, as Fulop once vowed.

Critics will gripe: there are problems to address.

Potholes and shootings, school funding's a mess.

Whether the council says yes on this, no one can tell.

Asked whose idea this was, one councilman said, "Lol."

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.