DEAR MAGAS

by Anita S. Pulier

Republicans Target Social Sciences to Curb Ideas They Don’t Like: Conservatives in Florida have moved from explosive politics to subtler tactics to uproot liberal “indoctrination” in higher education by removing classes like Sociology from core requirements.

—The New York Times, November 21, 2024.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

—William Shakespeare, Hamlet

What’s missing is the welcome,
the worry, the asking, the hesitation
to inflict irreparable damage.

What’s missing is the listening,
the hearing, the ingesting
the Other’s story.

What’s missing is the raised eyebrow,
the rejection of weaponized prayer
fueled by hate and anger.

What’s missing is the nod
to Earth’s feverish future,
the grief of broken promises.

What’s missing is an apology,
the agonized regret,
the elasticity of empathy.

What’s missing is vulnerability,
the failure to fear a charred
barren planet.

What’s missing is the poetry.
Every atom belonging to me
as good belongs to you.*

Oh yes, and joy.
Joy is missing.

*Walt Whitman “Song of Myself”

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 out in Jan '25 from Kelsay Books. Anita’s poems have appeared in many journals and her work is included in many print anthologies. Anita has been a featured poet on The Writer's Almanac and Cultural Daily.

ARE WE THERE YET?

Passover 2022

by Anita S. Pulier

Marc Chagall's "Passover Haggadah"

Celebrate forty years of wandering.

40 years of searching.

Read Haggadah to the children,

give thanks,

sing praises

for the tribe surviving.

Focus on the ancients,

not the news.

Ignore ICE, as it issues

this warning: if officers

view you as Other,

hear a foreign accent,

take notice of shabby clothes,

you will be wrangled

like cattle into pens

and, paperless or not, deported.

To where? Weep, explain

you have lived here

since you were two,

this is your home.

Your wife, your children,

your aged mother

may never see you again.

Glory be to what?

Listen! Angry screams nurtured

by hatred, drown out the cries

of kids in Florida, or Texas, or next door.

How many more will be force fed this poison

in the name of a merciless God

punishing the sin of survival?

Tonight, we Jews co-opt words;

suffering, pain, freedom.

I imagine the day that

anyone’s God

will deliver enlightenment,

angels will sing,

heavenly light will shine

on the cruel irony of the self-righteous,

the day each of us will be revealed

as the supplicant,

each of us the Other.

The day our ancient journey,

our Passover celebration,

will not fall so woefully short

of the promised land.

Anita S. Pulier’s chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane, and Sounds of Morning and her books The Butcher's Diamond and Toast were published by Finishing Line Press. 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.

T***P TAKES ON THE FOUR SEASONS

 by Anita S. Pulier

Editor's Note: @TotalSeasons is a parody account on Twitter.

The world hears him

banging on the courthouse door

filing comical briefs,

blustering nonsense 

against Fall,

against colors turning,

against leaves falling,

against gearing up for Winter.

And in liberty’s fading light 

he waves his flabby arms, 

proclaims Winter will never arrive

he simply will not allow it, 

screams plot, fraud, fake.

Eyebrows raised, we

take a deep breath,

await Winter's chill.

In this pandemic year of challenges Anita S. Pulier can share some good news: her second full-length poetry book Toast will be out from Finishing Line Press in February! In a past life, she was an attorney. Now she writes poetry (published in many journals and anthologies) and hangs with poets.

THANKSGIVING 2019

by Anita S. Pulier

Pay attention
to this table
to this gathering
to the fall sky
the people who are here
and the people who are not.

Accept the truth.
Pilgrims did not come for religious freedom
but to insist on the practice of a punitive religion.
Indians not lost to gunfire or smallpox
were vigilant warriors, tribe pitted against tribe.

All this imperfection has
evolved into our holiday
celebrated by feasting,
reworking history,
telling apocryphal tales
as though history can be recast.

But please,
through the din and chatter,
find a moment,
pay attention, and
notice this rare opportunity

to be grateful,
to raise a glass,
with joy and hope,
that against all odds
we can yet become

that Nation,
that one Indivisible Nation,
of decent, fair minded celebrants—
and for that possibilty
we can be truly thankful.

After retiring from her law practice, Anita S. Pulier served as a U. S. representative for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the United Nations. Her chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane, and Sounds Of Morning, as well as her book The Butchers Diamond were published by Finishing Line Press. Anita’s poems have appeared both online and in print in many journals and several anthologies. Recently she has been the featured poet on The Writers Almanac.