ARREST HIM. DON'T FÊTE HIM.

by Rob Okun    

If Benjamin Netannotajew addresses a disjointed  
session of Congress on July 24 will it be
a day that will live in infamy?
 
You actually have the gall to ask that question!?
Of course it would be.
 
Imagine “Arrest him. Don’t fête him” protest signs popping up across
the country while organizers fill busses from 30 states with patriots
headed to DC to say no way will a wanted war criminal speak in
the People’s house
 
Liberals opposed to the prime sinister will sip wine at fundraisers in Takoma Park
twisting themselves
                                         into impossible-to-achieve yoga positions from
two-state downward dog solution to low down dirty dog final solution
 
“If Israel doesn’t qualify as a true democracy anymore, do we still
have to send them weapons—no strings attached?”
You actually have the gall to ask that question!?
 Yes. We “have” to send them the weapons. If we don’t 
all heaven might break loose—
beginning with an end to the slaughter of Israel’s semitic cousins
 
In this heatwave fever dream, the growing movement of next gen jews
will lead a multigenerational march for peace where it will be permissible 
to use the following words and phrases:
 

38,000…mostly women and children…likely thousands more under the rubble…

humanitarian aid convoys blocked—again…West Bank “settlers” sadistically gone wild…authorities turn a blind eye…they’re committing war crimes… permanent cease fire

 

Note: If possible, however, not to ruffle the feathers of Israeli censors, avoid using 

the words: Palestine… Palestinians… unprecedented number of murdered journalists…

bombed hospitals and schools…starvation…malnutrition…unsafe drinking water…and, 

of course—genocide…

Oh—when discussing the recent daring rescue of four Israeli hostages, absolutely avoid mention of 274 Palestinians killed and 700 wounded. (It is permissible to use the phrase “collateral damage.”)

 
How the hell, you’d be right to ask, has the unlawful firm of Biden, Blinken & Austin
continued to arm this country, ruled by a madman, for so long?
You actually have the gall to ask that question!?
 
There are now—and always have been—Jews who have wept over and still 
weep over the dashed dreams of a 1948 communal Israel-Palestine populated 
by two peoples living side-by-side in a world 
where no one ever heard the word nakba—or spoke
about forced displacement
Is the world ready now—after a full term pregnancy's length of war—
to invigorate that vision...take it from aspiration to realization?
Yaweh and Allah, I hope so.

Rob Okun, editor emeritus of the three-decades old, profeminist magazine Voice Male and editor of the anthology Voice Male: The Untold Story of the Profeminist Men’s Movement, has worked in activist journalism since the 1970s. His commentaries appear in numerous publications and on digital platforms including The Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Ms., and Common Dreams. He is syndicated by Peace Voice.

THE WRONG HOUSE

by Thomas R. Smith

dedicated to Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis

“Wrong House” by Tala Madani (2014)

Say it’s the city, late evening, dark.
You’ve stopped to pick up your brothers,
thought you had the right address,
but now you’re unsure, seeing the pale
man the other side of the glass door.
Something in his hand, something shiny
in his trembling hand. Raises it,
a flash, the sound of glass
breaking, you breaking.

Say you’re in the country. It’s easy
to get lost on those dirt back roads.
Your car pulls into a driveway, but
the number is wrong. Turn back out.
From a nest of darkness
in the trees, bullets spit, one
catches you where you sit. Your
friends get you to a hospital, 
too late.  You’re gone.

Say you’re a country. Thought you knew
the Address, confident in your way
around the shining city. What brought you
here to the door of this horror movie?
Who armed the frightened old man,
the violent sociopath? Why has your
heart taken so much lead? Are you
wounded but alive, or dead? Why do you
keep showing up at the wrong house?

Thomas R. Smith is a poet, essayist, and teacher living in western Wisconsin. His most recent books are a poetry collection Medicine Year (Paris Morning Publications) and a prose work Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival (Red Dragonfly Press).

T***P'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS:AN ERASURE

by Floyd Cheung

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

America,
transfer power
to a small group

not your victories
not your triumphs
little to celebrate
across our land

this moment
belongs to

historic
crucial
Americans

demand a righteous
system flush with
carnage
pain
one glorious destiny

The oath I take today is
For industry
armies
borders
and
wealth ripped

a decree to
power

a vision
America First
ravages

I will
with every breath
let you down

understanding the right
interests first

impose our way
for everyone

old alliances
will eradicate the Earth

the bedrock of
our country,
prejudice.

The Bible tells us, "How good and pleasant it is when
America is totally unstoppable.”

fear
miseries
national
divisions

black or brown or white,
salute the American
child

be ignored again

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.

Author’s note: Erasure poems preserve the order of words in the original text but delete many in order to create a new work, in this case a distillation of Trump’s inaugural address as it might have been heard by some.

Floyd Cheung has taught American literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, since 1999. His chapbook Jazz at Manzanar was published by Finishing Line Press in 2014.