ANAPHORA: UKRAINE ENLIGHTENMENT

by Bonnie Naradzay

Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Asked about Ukraine, Trump talked about windmills

due to concern about his Scottish golf resort.

Asked about Ukraine, Don Jr. crowed that his dad

played Putin like a fiddle.

Asked about Ukraine, Alex Ovechkin said I am

not in politics.  I’m an athlete.

Asked about support for Ukraine, the House easily passed

another $1 billion to add to Palestinian suffering.

Asked about bombing Ukraine’s hospitals in Mariupol,

Russia’s foreign ministry said it’s fake information terrorism.

Asked about Ukraine, fans said they don't want to miss 

baseball season.

Asked about Ukraine, Paul Gosar said, I remain firmly convinced 

that our southern border security should take precedence.

Asked about Ukraine, Tucker Carlson of Fox News claimed Russian

buildup of troops on its border was about a simple border dispute.

Asked about Ukraine, Congressman Good said we should secure our border.

Asked about Ukraine, Congressman Norman said it’s too late

to help now that Russia has invaded.

Asked about Ukraine, Madison Cawthorne called its president a thug

and said its government is evil.

Asked about Ukraine, Ted Cruz, wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses, said truckers

want the government to leave them the hell alone and to keep their gas prices low.

Bonnie Naradzay's poems have appeared recently in AGNI, New Letters, RHINO, Kenyon Review Online, Tampa Review, Florida Review Online, EPOCH, Split This Rock, and her essay on friendship was published in 2020 in the anthology Deep Beauty.  For many years she has convened poetry salons with homeless people and with, residents of retirement communities in the Washington DC area.

GASLIGHTS

by Jeremy Nathan Marks

Above: In a scene from Gaslight (1944), Brian (Joseph Cotton) demonstrates to Paula (Ingrid Bergman) that her husband has been lying to her in an attempt to drive her crazy. It is the title of this drama that gives us the word that describes the Big Trumplican Lies. 

We need mo’ body armor, Mo

We need the Man on the line, Jim

Andrew, the Shaman says he used Carlson

Wagonlit to book his trip which is proof that

 

It was a tourist visit.

 

Kevin says, Elise, you take it

610,000 examples and it’s up to you

to suggest each one’s fakin’ it

 

We’re setting up an audit

and they’re all gonna turn up

in the same valley of dry bones

where Ezekiel hid the ballots  

Tucker and Laura gonna move the jam

while Sean will provide cover 

urging our supporters to get

 

The jab.  

Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in Canada. Recent work appears/is appearing in As It Ought To Be, Unlikely Stories, Bluepepper, The Journal of Expressive Writing, Sledgehammer Lit, The Pangolin Review, Every Day Fiction, Ginosko Review, Dissident Voice, 365 Tomorrows, and New Reader Magazine. His full length collection Fat Dogs and Amorous Insects is being published by Alien Buddha Press this fall.