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Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com.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, January 03, 2026

MADURO MADNESS

by Catherine McGuire


Art by Nick Anderson


Listen my children and you shall hear

of the midnight raids, as Trump interferes –

just past the end of 2025

with Miller and Marco, he did connive

to throw the world into chaos and us into fear.

 

He said to Bondi, “since he’s already charged

with drug crimes, that makes it all right

to drop bombs on Caracas then barge

into the palace, kidnap and take flight.

Drag them onto our ships, then launch out to sea

where your crooked lawyers had better be

ready to lie and make hash of the arm

of our law, claim criminal harm

which we will prosecute; thus Epstein’s disarmed.”

 

Then he watched all night, with unmuffled roars

as the airmen and soldiers assaulted the shores

of Venezuela, a country so rich in oil

that oil barons willingly embroil

themselves in an illegal war

to abscond with the goods, and to ignore

true ownership—the hell with rules! Far

better to seize, then let countries chide,

gnash their teeth, try to override.

 

You know the rest. In books we will read

how the Orange Pestilence spread, his misdeeds

piling like dung heaps, and the calls

to impeach and arrest ineffectual –

until true patriots chased red hats down each lane

to uphold the rule of law once again.

Under new-minted Congress, we strove

to repair all the damage, our country re-wove.

 

It starts now: this red line cannot be ignored

our cry is defiance, and not one of fear.

Our voice in the darkness must open the door

to accountability for him and each buccaneer

who soiled our history, and their greed financiers.

 

In this hour of darkness and peril and need

the people must waken and each volunteer

to protest and clamor till the country is freed

from the depredations of this profiteer.



Catherine McGuire is a writer/artist with a deep concern for our planet's future, with five decades of published poetry, six poetry chapbooks, a full-length poetry book,  Elegy for the 21st Century, a SF novel, Lifeline, and book of short stories, The Dream Hunt and Other Tales.