BULLY PULPIT

by Mark Danowsky

was not intended to mean 
what any of us think 
but language changes 
& we change with it 
& you know a bully 
when you see one— 
some preaching leviathan 
who offers a shaky 
social contract
insisting life is
not worth living 
unless we have 
a kind of freedom
from each other— 
say six feet 
or the Grand Canyon 
where your views
stop mattering
unless my views
comfortably overlap
which happens
less & less 
in a crumbling Democracy
while the old guard 
hammers home 
the same tired tales
of Middle Class bliss
with fenced neighbors 
who deep down
share our core 
values & beliefs 
which fall flat  
in the face 
value of daily reminders
hammering home
who we care
enough to protect 

Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry and Poetry Craft Essays Editor for Cleaver Magazine. He is the author of several short poetry books. His latest poetry collection is Take Care (Moon Tide Press, 2025). He writes and curates Stay Curious on Substack.

ODE TO AN OPTIMISTIC FRIEND

by William Aarnes

Image source: The Never-Ending Nightmare That is This Election by Tom Tomorrow

“nasty, brutish, and short” —Hobbes

You tell me to stop
being so pessimistic

so I’m going to start the morning
by ignoring the news

and focus on something random
like cutting my toenails

in hopes that early in the day
someone will see my toes

sticking out of my sandals
and admire my feet,

such lovely, lovely feet,
a compliment so charming

I might stop worrying
about how, despite years

of seeming stability,
it’s conceivable, that—boom!—

by the end of the week
the country’s domestic tranquility

will have collapsed into clashes
in the streets, at times the fighting

among swiftly mustered militias
so intense that the corners

of houses fall in rubble,
nobody bothering to care

who’s caught in the crossfire,
most of us come to grief,
                                                                                             
and I’ll be cowering
(with my lovely toes)

in the plaster-dusted tub
without much hope

of your trying to cheer me up
till—pray we’re among the living—

some well-armed force
imposes peace.


William Aarnes lives in South Carolina.  His latest collection is Do in Dour (Aldrich Press).