by Anita S Pulier
Even a perfect census will not put out the fire
burning in the Nationalist heart.
burning in the Nationalist heart.
Nooses, confederate flags,
swastikas
swastikas
stoke a malicious wind,
tease stray embers ablaze,
tease stray embers ablaze,
decency, fairness torched,
the dead mourned in time
to welcome
the next batch of flatliners,
school children hiding from bullets,
dead folk in synagogues, movies or concerts,
and caravans of the desperate who
wonder how close to an embryo
must one be to claim the right to life?
America, dear,
our once noble experiment
is choking on the foul air
in the autocratic wastebin of
greed and bigotry.
Sure, we will count heads,
tally up racial ancestry,
count votes,
count the dead, but will we learn
why, oh why, are so many
sucking the poison
from the orange beast’s burning breast
while Momma’s milk curdles and dries up?
Anita S Pulier’s chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane and Sounds of Morning and her books The Butchers Diamond and Toast were published by Finishing Line Press. Paradise Reexamined came out in 2023 (Kelsay Books). Her new book Leaving Brooklyn is due in Jan '25 from Kelsay Books Anita’s poems have appeared in many journals and her work is included in nine print anthologies. Anita has been a featured poet on The Writer's Almanac and Cultural Daily.