Guidelines



Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com.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.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

BLUBBER IN A PALE

(since you didn't ask)


by Scot Siegel


I think Palin pales in comparison to Biden
who pales in comparison to Obama
who pales in comparison to Clinton
who pales in comparison to Kennedy
who pales in comparison to Lincoln, a Republican
who pales in comparison to those
Native Americans
who pale in comparison to those
who came before them
across the land bridge
from Russia
to Alaska
When neither existed
and had no need for oil
but had whales and seals
and endless ice, and real
names, like:
     Aleut
     Koyukon
     Haida
     Gwich'in
     Tanana
     Ahtna
     Tlingit
     Yup'lk

Don't believe me?
     just ask the Inuit


Scot Siegel is an urban planner and poet from Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he serves on the Lake Oswego City Planning Commission and the Board of Trustees for the Friends of William Stafford. His first full-length poetry collection Some Weather is forthcoming from Plain View Press in 2009.
________________________________________