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Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.
Showing posts with label TV news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV news. Show all posts

Saturday, February 21, 2026

THE STRANDED CITY

by Iman Oshani
 
 
Tehran skyline at sunset, with the city's iconic Milad Tower rising in the distance, January 2026 —Iran International

 
The smell of gunpowder
lingers for a lifetime.
And in this land,
the snow migrated last year.
Car washes are shut down,
and cars won't move under the weight of ash.

Houses are drained of commotion.
The bedroom.
A large bed.
Sheets neatly made, but gathering dust.
The desk clock faces the wall.
And on the floor,
lies the only corpse: a fly.

The phone will not ring.
The TV is locked on the news.
And behind the window, there is no view...
except
a dog walking by,
sniffing the holes in the buildings.


Iman Oshani is an Iranian writer and poet based in Tehran. His work explores the surreal intersections of memory, objects, and the geography of crisis.

Monday, December 15, 2014

WHO CAN BREATHE

by George Held





            “I can’t breathe.”
                        Repeated last words of Eric Garner, police victim


Like Fate’s arbiters,
Cops crush the breath
of those they oppress,
let the rich breathe easy;

Hawaiians couldn’t
smell the breath
of standoffish whites,
ha‘oles

(men without breath),
distrusting those whose
withheld breath might stink of
treachery.

If you are rich
or white and can breathe
easy these days,
you should shun

city streets, TV news,
and poems that can
take your breath
away.


George Held, a regular contributor to The New Verse News, has a new book out from Poets Wear Prada, Culling: New & Selected Nature Poems.