ABORTIFACIENCE

by Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

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

The Trump administration has just sent $10m worth of birth control to be burned—rather than donate it as aid. The supplies, including pills and implants, have already been paid for by US taxpayers—and will cost another $167,000 to destroy. —The Independent (UK), July 29, 2025

Abortifacience is a word you may

Be unaware of: it's the use of meds

Or other agents to abort. Today

Republicans—who are at loggerheads

This week with global charities about

Incinerating contraceptive aid

For Senegal—have used the word without

Awareness of its meaning: what's unmade

Can not abort. The condom, coil or pill

Is saving lives, not ending them. The stocks

Expire not soon. America pays nil—

Not one red cent—to ship them to the docks ...

Can you explain why they'd be set alight—

Excepting that the reason is pure spite?

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His acrostic poems have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Better Than Starbucks, the Creativity Webzine, Current Conservation, the Daily Mail, the Ekphrastic Review, Grand Little Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, the New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, the Satirist, the Washington Post and WestWard Quarterly.

FAYE’S INAUGURATION

by Anayo Dioha

Just over two weeks ago, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was a little-known opposition leader languishing in jail, detained without trial on charges including inciting insurrection, who had never held elected office. One week ago, he defeated the governing party's candidate, Amadou Ba, in the country's presidential election, winning 54% in the first round. On Tuesday, the 44-year-old has been sworn in as the fifth president of Senegal, becoming Africa's youngest elected head of state. In a region where a large majority of the population are under 30, his victory offers hope to those young people frustrated by a lack of economic opportunities, with old elites seemingly clinging to power. —BBC, April 2, 2024

Rotten roots from decades past

Sinking deeper. Branches

Decaying, falling apart

Into their rancorous unrest

From this foisted tree of shrouded

Democracy.

Evergreen leaves pruned, trampled

Black, mutilated barks

Of overburdened trunk and branches

Bearing colonial scars and fresh bruises.

The rape, the loot; plagues and

Persecutions–the tale of many

Dark cities.

But look! A spark ignites in Dakar!

An ecdysis seems in progress.

This bloom just may smile

At the sky; it could be left to bask

In the sun.

But how will it fare around the pack

Of predators gathered at the lounge—

The inauguration lounge?

 

Anayo Dioha is a Nigerian and has been previously published in The New Verse News.