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Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.

Monday, June 12, 2006

DICTIONARY'S LAMENT

by Jon Wesick


Groupthink whisks meaning from my pages
and hides the gaps behind news anchors’ smiles.
The status quo puffs cigars of self-congratulation.
A ceiling fan’s blades cut blue
smoke and mirrors into sound bites.
The motor drowns lone voices in white noise.
Words that could once turn a bullet
form a puddle on the library floor.


Jon Wesick has a Ph.D. in physics, has practiced Buddhism for over twenty years, and has published over a hundred poems in small press journals such as American Tanka, Anthology Magazine, The Blind Man’s Rainbow, Edgz, The Kaleidoscope Review, Limestone Circle, The Magee Park Anthology, The Publication, Pudding, Sacred Journey, San Diego Writer’s Monthly, Slipstream, Tidepools, Vortex of the Macabre, Zillah, and others. His chapbooks have won honorable mentions twice in the San Diego Book Awards.