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Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com.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

Thursday, April 22, 2021

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

by Michael Calvert


“The NRA at FedEx.” Cartoon by Nick Anderson, April 20, 2021.


“Even as National Rifle Association leaders are called to testify in the second week of a bankruptcy trial, the gun rights organization is launching plans to lobby Congress against gun-control measures backed by President Biden and leading Democrats.” —The Washington Post, April 22, 2021


Our founders, in their wisdom, did decree
That, to protect their sacred liberty
And keep their wives and sweethearts from all harm,
All had the right to own a firearm.
 
To own a flintlock musket, that is, so
When called, those brave and stalwart men could go
To form up a militia, march off, and
Defend their precious homes and native land.
 
However, there's been one annoying glitch,
A technicality, and it's a bitch,
In the amount of time that they allowed
To load one shot, some nut can kill a crowd.
 
So now we bleed, and more die every day
To make our land safe for the NRA.
 

Michael Calvert has worked as a teacher, writer and editor in the corporate world. His poems have appeared in Light and Writer’s Digest.