WHEN OUR ROOKIE QUARTERBACK IS AS FAMOUS AS TOM BRADY, WILL THIS JANUARY 20 MATTER?

by T. R. Poulson

Caleb Williams [at the center of the above] photo received a series of phone calls Monday afternoon [on January 20, 2025] that elicited immediate emotion, followed by a sense of long-term clarity and anticipation. The Bears quarterback's phone rang while he was driving down the highway in Florida. President & CEO Kevin Warren, chairman George H. McCaskey, general manager Ryan Poles and special advisor to the President/CEO and chief administrative officer Ted Crews were on the line. Calling from Halas Hall, the group told the 2024 No. 1 overall pick that Ben Johnson would be the team's new head coach. —Chicago Bears, January 23, 2025

Stocks spike green today and hands hover on Bibles

while I think of football—do glorious days lie

ahead? Fans know something about faith and tribal

loyalty. Consider the Chicago Bears, the ways they

stumble. Fun fact: Caleb Williams, in his rookie

season, played nine straight games without a lazy

or dumb interception. Sometimes you have to look

hard to find stars. Still, faithful fans lit the stands

orange and blue. I dubbed Caleb unlucky

when he fell.  Fun fact: all nine games in that span

without a pick were losses. His line crumbled

around him while he darted among grasping hands.

You keep going, he said. Did he ever fumble

faith? Only a girl who still wears a Walter

Payton jersey would dream of seasons jumbled

with wins. Imagine! Our new head coach will alter

history, make Caleb a legend, make Soldier Field

great again, so great nothing else will matter. 

T. R. Poulson believes the best way to deal with a bully is to ignore him. She's a passionate Bears fan, and was excited about the hiring of Ben Johnson as head coach on inauguration day. Her work has previously appeared in The New Verse News and various publications, including Best New Poets, Gulf Coast, American Literary Review, and Booth.  She is currently seeking a publisher for her first manuscript, tentatively titled At Starvation Falls.

LOST FLIGHT

by David Chorlton

Between the disappearance
and the find, there is a time
imagination flies
to an altitude above
unhappiness or discontent

and circles the globe
following the possibility
that nothing is wrong, that
the pilot simply tired
of gravity and when
his announcement was broadcast
in the cabin, all

the passengers applauded.
A wonderful lightness
took hold at a cruising speed
of survival with a view
down on the earthly struggle
where bad news

is the only kind expected,
but waiting for a signal
we can watch

for the perpetual flight
passing overhead: a silver
arrow pointing
at beyond, at
wherever it is
such freedom ends.

David Chorlton has lived in Phoenix since 1978, and still sees his surroundings with an outsider's eye. This helps his writing projects, which include a new poetry collection,"The Devil's Sonata," from FutureCycle Press.