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Friday, September 12, 2025

DEBATE RESTS

by Chad Parenteau




Gang violence?

Missile drills 

by buzzwords.

 

Hard evidence.

Fingers fumble

to investigate. 

 

Cannot say

Now show me

another one.

 

body already

set in place

as latest step 

 

next armchair

commander 

strides over. 

 

 

Chad Parenteau hosts Boston’s long-running Stone Soup Poetry series. His work has appeared in journals such as RĂ©sonancee, Molecule, Ibbetson Street, Pocket Lint, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, Off The Coast, The Crossroads, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The New Verse News, dadakuku, Nixes Mate Review and The Ugly Monster. He has also been published in anthologies such as French Connections, Sounds of Wind, Reimagine America, and The Vagabond Lunar Collection. His newest collections are All's Well Isn't You and Cant Republic: Erasures and Blackouts. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine and co-organizer of the annual Boston Poetry Marathon. He lives and works in Boston.