Second Coming No. 39 — Feb. 27, 2025

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


Zahra Axinn
Listen

I hold my focus
as though I were

to thread a needle
so that I might

parse a pattern
or rhythmic melody

from disparate rustles
my gut tells me

to be still so that
I might come to know

more than myself:

beyond the cumulus
way past the satellites

where the skin of the seas
meets expansive air

under the mantle
deep in the magma

within wafts of eucalyptus
or campfire smoke

or steam from wet asphalt
slow as the seasons

an imperceptibly
ever-changing twilight

vast and sprawled as a city
bright and contained as a chime

decadent but not heavy
smooth enough to dissolve


Zahra Axinn is a British-American writer raised in Berkeley, CA. She holds a BA in English and Theater & Performance Studies from Stanford University and a dual-degree MA in Visual and Critical Studies and MFA in Creative Writing at CCA. She currently lives in London.


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.



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