MINORITY RETORT

by Steven Kent

“six in 10 Americans say president is doing a bad job” —The Guardian, May 3, 2026

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books. 

INTERVAL

by Rajat Chandra Sarmah 

They said

this is your moment.

So we sat—

a few rows in—

watching

democracy

adjust its lights.

Promises entered first.

Well-dressed.

Fluent.

They spoke

in our language—

better than we do, sometimes.

Jobs arrived next—

counted aloud,

like blessings

no one stopped to check.

Cash followed quietly.

No speeches.

Just something understood

without being said.

We clapped.

Not loudly—

just enough.

Somewhere between

need

and negotiation,

we stopped thinking too much

about what was ours

and what was being offered.

The button—

small,

decisive,

mercifully simple.

Press.

Nothing to show later.

Interval.

Lights dim.

Noise settles

somewhere behind us.

When the curtain lifts again,

the stage is lighter.

Fewer promises.

Some things

just not there this time.

What was announced

comes back

“under process.”

What was certain

slows down—

then disappears.

We do not protest.

We adjust.

Survival stretches itself

over the years.

Dignity—

it comes and goes.

Outside,

the posters fade first.

Inside,

something follows.

Next election,

they will return—

with improved scripts,

cleaner numbers,

and our own words

borrowed again.

And we—

seasoned audience,

repeat believers—

will take our seats

before the lights come on.

No one will ask

what the first show changed.

No one will ask

why we stayed.

The applause will begin

on time.

And we will give it—

not because we believe,

not because we forgot,

but because

we have learned.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah is a poet and writer based in India. After a 36-year career in India’s power sector, he now focuses on literary writing. His work explores public memory, environmental crisis, social change, and everyday human endurance. His poetry has previously appeared in The New Verse News and other international journals.

HOME ON THE RANGE NO MORE: TRUMP WANTS BISON GONE

by Debbie Benson

Graphic from Center for Western Priorities. Poem title after The New York Times headline May 4, 2026

once the U.S. was down2 one remaining bison, 

trains paused 

in prairie 2revere the lonesome fellow.

amtrak texts apologized 

4delays w/ artificial curtsy-

patrons sawed their teeth w/ love of somewhere,

playing various films.

the bison, for his part, grazed in sputtering light,

engaged in gentlemanly banter

of phaseout,

and- in quickening air, shook grain from his eye.

the light is blotting soon.

call it rain or god,

but i saw the grasses bend 2sky, in cathedral, as

all recourseless do.

i think i’ve fallen, too.

Debbie Benson’s new poems are forthcoming in Indiana Review, Passages North, Bennington Review, Ninth Letter, and The Penn Review. Past awards include the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, Vern Cowles Prize, an International Merit Award from Atlanta Review, inclusion in Best New Poets, and a “Best of the Net” nomination. She works as a clinical psychologist in NYC. 

I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN MAJOR-GENERAL

by Anne Herrick

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

 

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information of minerals and anything profitable
I know the constitution, and I quote our rights historical
From Iran to Venezeula, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with my good navy piratical,
I understand blockades, both the simple and impractical,
About strategies I teem with ever changing views and news,
And with many cheerful facts about every missile use.

I'm very good at destruction and anything that’s tactical;
I know all leader’s names no matter they’re fantastical—
like those in space—the squirrels and hypotheticals—
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

 

In fact, I know what is meant by "bitter end" and "ravelin",
And I can tell at sight a Beretta from a javelin,
With affairs like bombings and boasting I'm very good at,
I also know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",
Yes, I know what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
And I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery—
In short, I've more than a smattering of elemental strategy—
No other Major-General has ever had this capacity.

With my military knowledge, I'm plucky and adventury,
There’s no-one as good as me since beginning of all centuries
Yes it’s true—I know of minerals and anything that’s profitable
I am the greatest model of a modern Major-General.

 

 

Anne Herrick has published a few poems and prose in the US and UK.

ARTIFICIAL ANALYSIS

by Zumwalt

The commonwealth of Pennsylvania is suing Character AI to stop the artificial intelligence platform's chatbots from representing themselves as licensed medical professionals and providing medical advice. According to a lawsuit, a Character AI chatbot falsely claimed to be a licensed psychiatrist in Pennsylvania… —CBS News, May 5, 2026

A chatbot once said, "I'm a shrink, it's true! 

I'll give a full psychoanalytic review."
But the state of PA
Said, "Get out of our way—
that's the racket us humans still do."

Zumwalt's poetry feeds on alienation, shifting reality, and forced adaptation. Zumwalt, a proud repeat contributor to The New Verse News, has recently been published in Euphemism and Issues 1133 and 1135 of Bewildering Stories.

INDEPENDENT EGG

by Albert Hwang

Los Angeles, May 1 (CNA) A U.S.-based coffee association that organizes the World Coffee Championships (WCC) said on Friday that its decision to change the designation of competitors from Taiwan as representing "Chinese Taipei" was in line with international conventions at sporting events. The decision has drawn criticism from Taiwan's coffee community, particularly after the WCC website recently changed references to Taiwanese competitors--including this year's World Latte Art Championship winner Lin Shao-hsing (林紹興) pictured above—as being from "Chinese Taipei" instead of "Taiwan."

We're trying to hatch this island

egg-shaped, that was born already.

Thousand-year-old, incubating

in a standoff, we were born already.

They say to be careful, step-ball-

change what you call yourself,

dance around words like

Taiwanese and Country.

Special administrative,

inner outer autonomous,

hyphenations on a name,

that was born already.

Imagine, standing

on eggshells that spell     I-N-D-E-P-E

N-D-E-N-C-E     trying to take a step.

Birth being brokered, pawned by two

protrusions, jutting into the Pacific. But

we were born     already.

Albert Hwang is a Taiwanese American poet from Illinois. He writes about alienation, distance, and inherited grief in the Asian American experience. He is a 2004 James B. Reston New York Times Gold Key winner (Scholastic Arts & Writing). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Inscape Journal, Unbroken: Prose Poems, Heavy Feather Review, Eunoia Review, Unleash Lit, DIHP, Anxiety Press, Pen Pushers, Longmeadow Literary, and other publications.