ANOTHER EXECUTION

by Cody Walker

Cartoon by Nick Anderson

“An individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently,” Noem said, despite video evidence clearly showing an unarmed Pretti being beaten. —The Guardian, January 24, 2026

This isn’t a game—

it’s not Risk, Trouble, Yahtzee.

It’s straight-up Nazi. 

Cody Walker is the author of three poetry collections, all from the Waywiser Press. He lives and teaches in Ann Arbor.

SAY THEIR NAMES

by Pamela Kenley-Meschino

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) on Tuesday read aloud a passage of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s memoir in which she describes shooting her pet dog, Cricket, during a committee markup on a bill related to deporting migrants who harm animals. —The Hill, November 18, 2025

She killed the dog, he said,

reading from her own words,

shot a puppy not yet grown,

its unruliness put down.

 

Fourteen months young,

he spoke the name so we could

witness her transgression,

not the puppy’s—Cricket.

 

Some snickered at the obvious,

a killer of dogs in charge,

rounding up castaways

for gravel pits unknown. 

 

It’s no joke.

 

Some countered stories

from the other side, 

of beagles left behind in labs,

abuse for an abuse.

 

What about that?

 

All agreed that dogs must

not be harmed. 

Save them all from 

cruelty’s bloody hands.

 

We vouch for Cricket’s rights

as we shout for human rights,  

to live without fear or discrimination.

We need to say all their names.

 

She killed the dog; in her own 

words, she hated the dog.

 

Pamela Kenley-Meschino is originally from the UK, where she developed a love of nature, poetry, and music, thanks in part to the influence of her Irish mother. She is an educator whose classes explore the connection between writing and healing, as well as the importance of shared stories.

SNOW WHITE VISITS JAIL FOR A PHOTO OP

by Michelle DeRose

Kristi Noem wears gold Rolex to inspect tattooed inmates at El-Salvador mega-prison —Yahoo! news, March 28, 2025

Everything so black and white.
Her long-sleeved tee, teasingly tucked.
Black ball cap, curled tresses.
Their shirtless tattoos lined up
an aisle of canned beans.
Shaven heads beneath harsh lights.
A long shot—men stacked
like face-masked firewood in the hold.
Her lipstick. Gold around her wrist.
Their cuffs. Her arsenal.

Professor Emerita of English, Michelle DeRose lives and writes in Michigan, where one of the most prestigious state universities in the nation just announced its closure of its DEI offices. She wishes she were Canadian.

THE DEEP STATE MADE ME DO IT

by Steven Kent

"Conservatives condemn Kristi Noem for 'twisted' admission of killing dog" —The Guardian, April 27, 2024

Within the MAGA GOP

It's possible, apparently,

To cross a line. (Who knew? Not me.)

Now Kristi Noem, VP-to-be,

Is suddenly a falling star.

They'll tolerate mere bigotry,

Caucasian male supremacy,

Repealing rights, dishonesty,

Assaults on our democracy,

But shoot your dog? A bridge too far!

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, Light, Lighten Up Online, The New Verse News, Philosophy Now, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, and Snakeskin. His collection I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books.