A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Tina Barry
Iced Over

Three days of snow and now rain
freezes, turns the bare trees into glass.

I’m trying to stay positive, to see
the cold as a blessing, a fairytale

world, where I don’t inch along my ice-
covered walk, anticipating

the tumble, feet flying, hat aloft.
Stuck inside, I watch the news.

People on planes dumping
the contents of their suitcases

on each other’s heads. At Starbuck’s,
a man melts down

when the cream on his mochaccino
isn’t creamy enough, and a guy

on Facebook calls me a “libtard,”
tells me to “cry harder.”

I post a picture of a child
terrorized by ICE,

face-down, hands zip-tied,
tell him I will.

Tina Barry is the author of I Tell Henrietta (Aim Higher, Inc., 2024), Beautiful Raft (Big Table Publishing, 2019) and Mall Flower (Big Table Publishing, 2016). Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in New Verse News, Rattle, Verse Daily, ONE ART, SWWIM, Gyroscope, and other journals. She teaches at The Poetry Barn and Writers[.]com.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Myra Malkin
Adiivka

Both sides
use Soviet-designed
heavy artillery systems.

Guns that can fill
a football field
with shrapnel.

Somebody named them for flowers.

The Carnation—122-millimeter
howitzer.
The Tulip—240-millimeter
mortar.
The Acacia—152-millimeter self-propelled
gun.

In Avdiivka, in the Donbas,
there are tulips in people’s yards.
The cherry trees are in flower.

The hospital has no power.
The surgeon in Avdiivka’s hospital
is living at the hospital.
If he went home at night, he might be shelled.

Then there would be no surgeon in Avdiivka.

Besides the Ukrainian soldiers (dug into trenches),
a fifth of the population of Avdiivka
has not yet left Avdiivka.
Is underground—in hiding.

Rocket fire.
No heat.
Occasionally, power.
No water from faucets
—plastic carboys of water.

On someone’s washed-out quilt,
bosomy roses carouse.

Várvara
—six years old—
is crayoning an alien.

The alien is green.
He has an empty eye
that looks into the future.
Várvara tells a reporter:
“The alien says that you will live forever”

“And what about the war?”

They stare at each other, Várvara and her alien.

“He says he doesn’t know that yet,” she whispers.

NOTE: This poem is based, in part, on an article by Michael Schwirtz, The New York Times, 4/20/22 —Ed.

Myra Malkin is the author of Sunset Grand Couturier (Broadstone Books, 2022), and a chapbook, No Lifeguard on Duty (Mainstreet Rag, 2010). She started out as an actress (mostly way off Broadway) and was a legal services attorney in upstate New York. She now lives in New York City.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Anastasia Vassos
My Necessary Conversation With the Universe

                    grâce à Mark Nepo

The red truck parked across the street
from Star Market is blazoned
on its side: How’s your meat?

I drive past the Trump store
that popped up all neon before the election
now empty of customers.

Has the end of the world arrived?
Every morning I have to remind
myself I’m glad to twist in the sheets—

my aching joints, morning headache
preferable to cancer, diabetes.
So. How’s my meat?

By meat I mean body and by body
I mean the jar that lights my soul intact.
Without a body, the spirit can’t breathe.

It’s 7am, two weeks before the days
get longer. The sun’s angle as it rises
this morning burns into Boston

torching the dark, making candles
of State Street Bank, South Station’s tower
the John Hancock’s 10,344 windows.

Something about morning’s luster
after hours of deep night
elevates us. Meanwhile the thrum

of the furnace starts up
pumping heat keeping time
to this earworm this floating

heartbeat. & speaking
of immovable objects the truck
hasn’t moved in weeks.

& the sad Trump Store
still stands, lights out.
Swag gathers dust. Give me

another window,
a distinct lens to peer
past convention. Not a mirror—

I’ve had enough of reflection
this morning. How’s your meat?
It’s an unanswerable question.

Anastasia Vassos is the author of the poetry collection Nike Adjusting Her Sandal (Nixes Mate Books, 2021) and the poetry chapbook Nostos (Kelsay Books, 2023). Her work has been widely anthologized online and in print journals. Her poems about the Greek-American diaspora have been translated into Greek. A reader for Lily Poetry Review, Vassos lives in Boston.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Meryl Natchez
wishes for lawmakers

                    after Lucille Clifton

let them be pregnant
each man and woman of them.
let them be sick
and spooked

and clueless.
let every clinic
that could help
be closed.

let every doctor be barred
from discussing it.

let them try
bitter herbs and jumping.
let them consider
coat hangers
and grimy knives.

as their mouth fills
with the coppery spit of despair
let them stand before
lawmakers not unlike themselves
who rule against them.

Meryl Natchez is the author of Catwalk (Longship Press, 2020), a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of the Year. Her poems and prose have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, Terrain, Hudson Review, and Poetry Northwest, among other journals. Natchez translated Poems from the Stray Dog Cafe: Akhmatova, Mandelstam, and Gumilev (hit & run press, 2013). She lives in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area and serves on the board of the Marin Poetry Center.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Lesléa Newman
The Morning After

The mean man won
she has to tell
her daughter who rushes
into the kitchen hungry
for breakfast and news.
How? The child stops
in the doorway, face
dissolving into a mass
of tears and disbelief.
That’s not fair! Mom,
he’s a bully! How
to explain to her,
or to herself how
this could have happened?
It’s okay, it’s okay.
She rocks her daughter,
her soothing words not
soothing either of them.
And now what? Cereal
and milk? Work? School?
Crawl under the covers
for four dreary years?
She was raised by
a mother who always
said, there’s no problem
so terrible it can’t
get worse. Are you
happy now? she asks
her long dead mother
who loved being right
though in this case
she might have loved
being wrong though wrong
she is not. But
right now she is
the mother, the motherless
mother of a distraught
daughter who needs her
to dry her tears
slip on her shoes
pour her Lucky Charms
into a yellow bowl
bright as a promise
and somehow explain how
the mean man won.

Lesléa Newman is the author of 87 books for readers of all ages including the memoirs-in-verse I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father; the novel-in-verse October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; and the children’s books Sparkle Boy, Heather Has Two Mommies, and Joyful Song: A Naming Story. Her literary awards include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, and the Massachusetts Book Award. She is a past poet laureate of Northampton, MA.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Dale K. Nichols
Oh, How I Love Him!

Oh, how I love him!
I love the surprise.
I love the illusion
confusion and lies.

I love how he grins
and then frowns like a clown.
I love when his circus
train rolls into town.

I love how his temper
flares up like a missile.
I love how he summons
his dogs with a whistle.

I love how he’s ending
D-I-versity.
I love how he hates
L-G-B-Q and T.

I love all the chaos.
I love the disorder.
I love all his threats
from our side of the border.

I love how his tariffs are
doubling the price
of things that I need.
How I love paying twice!

I love his bravado.
I love his disease.
No more avocado
on my BLTs.

I love how he bullies
our neighbors and friends
I love how he shames them
and bares their rear ends.

I love how he hisses.
I love how he sasses.
I love how he kisses
dictator friends’ asses.

I love how he’s making
America first
I love how he brings out
the best of our worst.

I love how he’s tearing
our nation apart
I love that we’re only
now seeing the start.

Oh, I could go on—
but need I say more?
My favorite Don.
What’s not to adore?

Dale K. Nichols is the author of the recently debuted Substack publication Never Trump Poetry. A passionate environmentalist, he serves on the board of the Shirley Heinze Land Trust, an organization dedicated to the preservation of natural areas throughout northwestern Indiana. A former attorney, Nichols holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan. Originally from Speedway, Indiana—home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500—he lives with his wife in Beverly Shores, Indiana.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Cecille Marcato
What Did You Do Last Week?

Cecille Marcato‘s poems have appeared in Leon Literary Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Husk, Naugatuck River Review, Slipstream, and Solstice, among other journals. She holds degrees in literature and design and graduated from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. A cartoonist as well as a writer, Marcato lives in Austin, Texas.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Paula Rudnick
Changed

A Delta jet landed on its roof last week,
hanging passengers upside down like bats
surveying crumbs from their last snack,
their condition changed from light to leaded,
winged to grounded, safe to dangling
at the moment they thought they had arrived.
I did 45 sit-ups this morning—
not bad for a person my age.
My body didn’t ache too much
when I got out of my organic-fiber bed.
The coffee exceptionally good today,
just the right amount of strong,
mellowed by a splash of half-and-half
sipped slowly from an antique floral mug.
The lemon-ginger scone I quick-defrosted
tasted almost like fresh-baked
and the lilies that I bought on sale
yesterday perfumed the air.
No one shot at me when I picked up the newspaper,
dropped at my front door before dawn’s light,
my life unchanged from how it was
a month ago, except nothing’s the same.
Inside my chest a heaviness I can’t cocktail-hour away,
inside my throat a rant ready to spill.
The small blue leatherette passport
I used to flash invincibly makes me lower eyelids
when border guards request my documents now
like in some vintage black and white movie
where things get bad and then there’s no escape
and I am bolted to my seat prepared for impact,
weighing who to call to pledge my love.

Paula Rudnick is the author of the poetry collection Now is Not a Good Time (self-published, 2022). Her poems have appeared in Halfway Down the Stairs, LA Jewish Journal and Kosmos Quarterly as well as in the anthologies What We Talk About When We Talk About It Vol. II (Darkhouse Books, 2020), Verdant Truth Serum Vol. 5 (Truth Serum Press, 2019), and The Place Where Everyone’s Name is Fear (Anxiety/Outcast Press, 2022). A former television producer and a mother of two daughters, Rudnick lives in Los Angeles.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.