UPENDED, UPDATED

by Phyllis Frakt

Cartoon by Nick Anderson

The West Wing cast 

upholds the Age of Reason

as credits start to roll

to end the third episode

of the second season.

 

Josh asks, What do you say

about a government 

that goes out of its way

to protect even citizens 

who try to destroy it?

 

Sam, C.J., Donna, Toby

solemnly intone in turn,

God Bless America,

defender of liberty,

tolerance, rule of law.

 

But now in dim twilight

we slide into an inverted age,

the age of no reasons,

only whim and might,

divine blessings upended.

 

What would the cast say

about a government 

that protects itself

while its own leaders

try to destroy it?

 

God Help Us, they’d sigh,

then invoke the words

of a slain commander:

Here on earth God’s work 

must truly be our own.

Phyllis Frakt was inspired to write poetry after hearing Amanda Gorman at the inauguration of Joe Biden. Since then, she has written nearly 250 poems, about a dozen published in The New Verse News and elsewhere. She lives in New Jersey.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

by Phyllis Frakt

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

Let’s call them all Department of War.

I love the power in that name.

It shows what America is truly for.

 

At DOJ, HUD, State, or Labor,

offensive goals are all the same.

Let’s call them all Department of War.

 

Power, dominance, mayhem, gore

to injure, disable, cripple, maim.

That’s what each department is for.

 

Commerce, Agriculture, Interior—

old labels are so woke, so lame.

Let’s call them all Department of War.

 

A Nobel for me (if not more)

when they see aggression is my game

and what America is truly for. 

 

Defense was War in the Great Before.

Let’s Make America Great Again!

Call them all Department of War

and show the World what we’re for.

Phyllis Frakt writes poetry in New Jersey. The New Verse News previously published seven of her poems.

WE STILL CALL IT FREEDOM

by Phyllis Frakt

Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Do you still believe 
your world is real?
How medieval! So passé!
Abandon all hope,
enter our new reality—
facts are what we say.
 
We control the news,
can change it at our whim.
Technology will comply,
repeat the truth of every lie
in a thick mix of duplicity
on Fox, Facebook, X, AI.
 
We flood the zone,
you can't catch up.
Chaos is our game!
We still call it freedom.
But when something goes awry,
Joe Biden is to blame.

Phyllis Frakt writes poetry in New Jersey. She has published six previous poems in The New Verse News.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

by Phyllis Frakt 

 

Millions out of work, bellies empty.

Penniless war veterans in rags.

Men out on streets sell apples

or wait in line for bread

as the president’s limo sweeps by.

The ins go out, the outs come in.

It’s always the economy.

 

Always, ever, and now

 

Prices ease down, growth up,

while demagogues drone

down is up, up way down.

Voters wait in line to decide.

It’s still the economy.

But which one do they buy—

the real one or the lie?

Phyllis Frakt writes poetry in New Jersey. She has published three poems in Worksheets. Her previous poems in The New Verse News are "Teach to the Test," "Caught in Between," "Not in Our Star...," "Believing is Seeing," and "The Original Truman Show."

THE ORIGINAL TRUMAN SHOW

by Phyllis Frakt

“Want to understand 2024? Look at 1948.” —Nate Cohn, The New York Times, January 4, 2024

“I trust the people, because when they know the facts, they do the right thing.” —Harry S. Truman, November 1, 1948

Give ‘em hell! they yelled at me.

Then I made 352 campaign speeches
in 31,000 miles of whistle-stops.
Millions came – they cheered,
learned the facts, did the right thing.
I have to admit I inflated a bit,
but you can’t accuse me 
of confusing the issues 
or spewing fake news
like today’s raving orange outrage
with his distortions and contortions,
his lies, denials, indictments, and trials.
My time of truth and trust fell
to an entire age that gives you hell.

 

Phyllis Frakt writes poetry in New Jersey. Her previous poems in The New Verse News are "Teach to the Test," "Caught in Between," "Not in Our Star...," and "Believing is Seeing."

BELIEVING IS SEEING

by Phyllis Frakt
inspired by Ian McEwan, Enduring Love

cartoon by Bob Englehart

Self-interest is our malady.
The child cries mine! then grows up
to try a more wily strategy.
She invents suspect evidence,
then advances a conspiracy.
He amends the next textbook
to deliberately distort history.
Deniers, decriers, and liars 
turn science into travesty.
Their desires are a twisted warp
that thwarts all objectivity.
But the rut is cut so deeply
we’re all guilty of complicity – 
Yes, you! Even me, just possibly.

 
Phyllis Frakt's previous poems in The New Verse News are "Teach to the Test," "Caught in Between," and "Not in Our Star..." She lives in New Jersey.

NOT IN OUR STAR…

by Phyllis Frakt

The distant death throes of a star—

entire worlds gassed, doomed, 

consumed in its stellar belly.

 

They say our sun will do the same

and swallow the Earth in the “deep future”

five billion years from now.

 

While we wait, let’s celebrate spring,

a season in love with the sun,

carefree and heedless of remote catastrophe.

 

But humans bring peril five billion years early

Our planet gobbled up, not from afar,

but from us, under our benevolent star.

Phyllis Frakt began writing poems in 2021. Her previous poems in The New Verse News are "Teach to the Test" and "Caught in Between." She lives in New Jersey.

CAUGHT IN BETWEEN

by Phyllis Frakt

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate. The state education department rejected the program in a letter last week to the College Board, which oversees AP classes. Florida education officials did not specify exactly what content the state found objectionable but said, “As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” …In a statement, the College Board said, “Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multi-year pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers.”—AP, January 20, 2023. PHOTOS: From left to right: Poet and social activist Langston Hughes, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and novelist Toni Morrison. All three are among the Black luminaries taught as part of a new AP African American Studies course that is being piloted in high schools across the U.S. Getty Images via TIME

I thought I was born at the perfect time

when fear yielded to democracy

and morality’s arc bent toward justice.

Hopeful they seemed, the sweet years between.

           

But now a time of conspiring tyrants

whose denials belie repeated crimes.

Facts scrapped for lies online and prime time.

I curse the reversal of sweet years between.

          

Skeptics deem all a delusion, a dream.

Grand claims of progress dismiss history

of morality deferred, justice rebuffed.

Deceived by smokescreen, those years between.

 

Some drag with doubt, some dare to dream,

I’m with still others, caught in between.

Phyllis Frakt, formerly an academic administrator, has moved from writing memos to writing poems. Her poem “Recoveries” (2022) appeared in Worksheets 67. Her poem “Teach to the Test" appeared in The New Verse News, also in 2022. She lives in New Jersey.

TEACH TO THE TEST

by Phyllis Frakt

What is “rule of law”?

What stops one branch of government

from becoming too powerful?

What is the supreme law of the land?

What does the judicial branch do?

 

I slip through a distorted looking glass

to prepare the class for US citizenship,

to speak, read, write simple English,

and recite answers to 100 questions

about American history and government.

 

On their side of the looking glass,

I simplify revered founding principles

that most of their American neighbors

learned in school, then forgot.

But the class must learn and remember.

 

So, we thrash through a verbal thicket –

pursuit of happiness, colony, revolution,

Civil War, civil rights, Constitution,

democracy, Confederacy, emancipation,

declaration, representation, discrimination.

 

They grasp at historic words and principles

as keys to permanent homes in America

with steady income, education for their children,

safety from vicious gangs or husbands,

freedom from fierce dictatorships.

 

Feliz once was a high school teacher.

She escaped violence, and cleans houses now.

Selim and his family fled their country,

running from false government accusations.

No job back home for Abeo, a stutterer.

 

On my side, I cringe at lessons about

civic ideals now sullied or out of reach:

no one above the law? checks and balances?

The class waits patiently for me to explain,

and I slip back through the looking glass.

 

Phyllis Frakt's poem "Recoveries" will appear in the upcoming edition of Worksheets 67. She lives in New Jersey, where she has volunteered as a citizenship teacher for ten years.