Friday, June 24, 2016

ANOTHER USELESS HEADLINE POEM

by Ed Werstein




"US Senate Response to Orlando: Nothing"
                     The Guardian, June 21, 2016

I’ve been thinking about flesh
and blood
and guts
and guns
and bullets
and assaults
on our sanity.

And I’ve been thinking about guts
and guns
and gold
and gilt
and guilt
and gullibility
and gushing blood
and the gumption
it might take
to change things.

And I’ve been thinking about how
we must not be
disgruntled enough
disgusted enough
about how we must not be
dis-gutted enough
to stop watching the news reports
to stop posting on Facebook
to stop writing ineffective
and useless poems
about it,
to finally rise up
and do something real
to change it. 


Ed Werstein spent years in manufacturing before his muse awoke and dragged herself out of bed. In addition to NVN, his poems appear at Re/Verse and Your Daily Poem. He is East Region VP for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. His chapbook Who Are We Then? was published by Partisan Press. His contact information can be found at the WFOP.