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Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com.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 bots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bots. Show all posts

Friday, April 13, 2018

BETRAYAL

by Beth McKim


by EvanOfTheYukon at Reddit.


To think I trusted you all that time.
From the first, I revealed intimacies:
what I ate (and with whom), where I went

(and with whom), my sacred political views,
the deaths of my parents, birthday greetings,
family photographs, reunions with friends,
exotic travel plans. In other words, touts

of the good parts of my life. You seemed
to be my friend, asked only for a personality
test, occasionally, to display my narcissism.

You were sterling, helped me renew friendships,
introduce beloved newborns to our world,
confirm my wit and smarts to everyone.
Now I am shocked, baffled by your betrayal

of my love. You apparently sought the money,
sold my secrets to the most lucrative bidder,
placed my finances in jeopardy,  traitorously

sabotaged a presidential election, made fools
of us all. And suddenly, you want me to pay
for protection against thieves.  Not on your
life.  I’ll miss you the way we miss habits

thwarted . But I won’t have the pressure to record
my life for the world to admire. You’ll never know I’m
gone. Goodbye Facebook, my unfaithful friend.


Beth McKim is a writer and actress. Her poetry, essays, and  short stories have been widely published in anthologies and literary magazines.

Sunday, March 04, 2018

THE WATER-CARRIER'S PRAYER

by Denton Loving




Devin Nunes, hallowed be your name.
Hallowed be your midnight runs,
your dark-of-night dashes. Your fake news
echoes from Pennsylvania Avenue
and Capitol Hill across Merika
(“I love the uneducated!”)
as it does in Mar-A-Lago.
Give us your DOJ subpoenas,
your stooge notes,
your assistants’ typo-ridden memos.
No need for redactions.
Forgive us our conclusions
as we forgive our colluders and those
who conspire against us.
Lead us not to Truth
or let us know Integrity.
Deliver us from honest language like
vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus,
evidence-based and science-based.
For the kingdom of party hacks,
the power of military parades,
and the glory of Russian bot farms
are yours now and forever
in the annals of American history. Amen


Denton Loving is the author of the poetry collection Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag, 2015) and editor of Seeking Its Own Level, an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks, 2014).  His writing has appeared in River Styx, CutBank, The Kenyon Review and The Chattahoochee Review. Follow him on twitter @DentonLoving.