JANUARY 2026

by Richard Collins

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

Crossing the Rainbow Bridge to Canada,

it’s a bumpy ride over the dry Niagara, 

only a trickle of red from the wound below,

flags flying overhead, the Maple Leaf 

at half mast on one side, twin U.S. banners

on the other: Stars and Stripes, and the McDonald’s 

Arch redacted to add the eight stolen

Venezuelan stars in cheap gold leaf

from Home Depot. 

         And the quickly setting sun:

a leering orange troll with an oily glow

screaming like nails on a virtual chalkboard,

“GREENLAND UBER ALLES!” 

Author’s Note: This poem evolved from the logic of a dream. Like others whose sleep has been disrupted by the Venezuelan violation, I found sleep subconsciously interpreting the ruptures being perpetrated against our allies. Thus the wound at the border with our northern neighbors, the flag of economic imperialism now adding the Venezuelan arch of eight stars, the threats against Greenland. The leering orange troll that keeps torching the bridges to our allies with inflammatory midnight texts will be recognized worldwide. The one hope: that that doomed sun is setting.

Richard Collins, abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple, lives in Sewanee, Tennessee. His books include In Search of the Hermaphrodite (Tough Poets Press, 2024), and Stone Nest (Shanti Arts, 2025). His forthcoming book of poetry, Cartoons for the Chaos (Shanti Arts) contains his political poem, "November 2024," which was published in Clockhouse and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

DEPORTATION RECRUITMENT AMERICAN STYLE

by Mickey J. Corrigan

Isn't it time for you
to help America
reverse cultural decline?

Hey Ho ICE Must Go
to the farms to pick
up the fieldworkers!

Give us a urine sample
give us an interview
get two thumbs up
if you clean and mean.

Hey Ho ICE Must Go
out to Home Depots
to grab working invaders!

Get you a medical screen
pass our fitness test
the background check
and cover your face.

Hey Ho ICE Must Go
to immigration courts
for the law abiders!

A stint at ICE Academy
(it don't last long
they cut the weeks
by more than half)
strap on your firearm!

Hey Ho ICE Must Go
into the streets
to look for foreigners!

You don't need Spanish
vehicle pursuit training
education or skills
you don't need much
just the choice to join
our band of masked thugs.

Hey Ho ICE Ready to Go
show the whole world
what America stand for
kidnap some baby moms
crying kids, working folk
off to the secret camps
to god knows what-all
in El Salvador, Africa. 

Ready, young patriot
to reverse cultural decline?
So sign up now
for that 50K bonus
be America First
and kick alien ass!

Originally from Boston, Mickey J. Corrigan hides out in the lush ruins of South Florida. She writes pulp fiction, literary crime, and psychological thrillers. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and chapbooks. A collection of biographical poems on twentieth century poets is in press with Clare Songbirds Publishing.

BROODING STILL

by Indran Amirthanayagam

Eva Millwood holds Brood X cicadas on her property in South Knoxville in this photo at Hellbender Press.

Who recalls Brood X cicadas today, after Hurricane Ida,

earthquake in Southern Haiti, flight of refugees and US military

from Afghanistan? What about the deranged Sri Lankan who

knifed six people in an Auckland supermarket? They have not

expired I read, thank God. Meanwhile, Uncle Gratien went off

to the shade with thousands of others this week in the pandemic.

So how to take stock, to sift through losses: eleven drowned

in New York City basements as Ida roared past, twenty odd

their lungs filled in cars and basements, crushed by trees

in New Jersey, and then in Louisiana, millions without power,

hundreds without homes, various bodies but miracle of miracles,

the reinforced levees of New Orleans held. But then the next

question, for how much longer? And where are sump pumps

today in Home Depot? Can we make sense, God, of these

disparate violations, punishments by wind, fire and tectonic

plates? Yes, I forgot there are thousands of acres and some houses

burning in California. So back towards the future. Where are Brood X

cicadas now, and have they turned into Brood X1? Are they ready

to fly 17 years early just in case the globe cannot cope and needs

another miracle to keep its head above water, above the fire line.

Indran Amirthanayagam produced a “world" record in 2020 by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He has just published Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun.(Dialogos Books). He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and has twenty poetry books as well as a music album Rankont Dout. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He won the Paterson Prize and received fellowships from The Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, US/Mexico Fund For Culture, and the MacDowell Colony. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube.