DAYS AFTER

by Indran Amirthanayagam

Bombed, shot, knifed 

into silence, no more. 

I will walk to the store. 

I will walk to the post 

office. I will send a letter. 

I won’t go postal. I will 

not melt down inside

or out. I will love you, brother. 

I will hug you, sister.

I will get up, turn up,

count, be counted. 

I will not let the darkness 

triumph. I will not allow 

the dark night permanence.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. 

Indran Amirthanayagam writes a Substack. He has just published Isla itinerante ( Editorial Apogeo, Peru, 2025) and White Space Sonnets ( Sarasavi publishers, Sri Lanka, 2025). His other publications include El bosque de deleites fratricidas ( RIL Editores), Seer (Hanging Loose Press),The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil), Powèt Nan Pò A: Poet of the Port (Mad Hat), and Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (Broadstone Books). He is the translator of Kenia Cano’s Animal For The Eyes (Dialogos Books) and Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly, hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube, and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.

WHERE NO ONE COUNTS

by Lynn White

Source: The Guardian

When will we count the dead in Gaza?
Those buried in named graves we know, 
all the tens of thousands of them,
those buried in the rubble,
the disappeared 
with no one left to name them,
are still unknown
uncounted.

Then the other Disappeared,
prisoners of war
if it were a war,
but with only the rights
of terrorists
who have no rights at all
in this unequal conflict
that some call ‘war’.

And how can we count the injured in Gaza
when there are no hospitals left
and its people don’t count
so no one can count those numbers.
and perhaps no one will
in a country where people don’t count.

Now the starved and starving 
have joined them,
the bags of baby bones
the unaccounted numbers
of intentional famine
in Gaza where still
no one counts.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality and writes hoping to find an audience for her musings. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Peach Velvet, Light Journal, and So It Goes.

YOUR VOICE * YOUR VOTE

by Jen Schneider

I.

Our Vote Is Our Voice. Why Can I Not Hear It?

 

Question 1. 

If my ballot is complete yet not received, do I still count? 

 

Question 2. 

Which of the following words is least like the others? Most?

A.    Vision

B.    Victory

C.    Voice

D.    Vacuum

 

Question 3. 

If I speak yet no one hears, does my voice matter?

 

Question 4. 

Which of the following words is least like the others? most?

A.    Count

B.    Calculate

C.    Curate

D.    Collect

 

Question 5

Which color is least like the others? most?

A.    Blue

B.    Red

C.    Purple

D.    Green

 

Question 6

What percentage of inmates in county jail are innocent of all charges?

What percentage of inmates in county jail are allowed to vote?

What percentage ultimately plead guilty, despite innocence?

What percentage ultimately fail to vote, despite eligibility and desire?

 

Question 7

Define fundamental.

Define right. 

 

Question 8

When Election Day bleeds and blends with the days that follow, does the notion of a 24-hour day persist?

 

Question 9

Define day.

Define vote.

Define right.

 

Question 10

If I lose an absentee ballot, am I too absent?

 

Question 11

Which word doesn’t belong?

A.    Left

B.    Right

C.    Wrong

D.    Accurate

 

Question 12

Which word doesn’t belong?

A.    Territory

B.    Prison

C.    Jail

D.    Shelter

E.    Cell

 

Question 13

How do the following terms differ in meaning?

A.    Suppress

B.    Oppress

C.    Repress

D.    Regress

 

Question 14

If I look like a different person on each of my 3 forms of ID, who am I?

 

Question 15

What word would you add to this list? Why?

A.    Patient

B.    Patience

C.    Poll

D.    Pure

E.    Pacify

 

Question 16

Define Hope. 

Define Crossroads.

How are the two concepts similar?

How are the two concepts different?

 

II.

Where Crossroads Meets Paths Forward

A Crossroads

1.     The color of fear

2.     A bitter flavor, seasoning, and word. Three words. 

3.     A sound that comes from the sky

4.     A sound that comes from the ground

5.     The word for when fear, anger, disbelief, and disillusionment meet 

6.     The word for where fear, anger, disbelief, and disillusionment meet

7.     A favorite hobby

8.     Adjectives that describe your worst qualities - three

 

A Path Forward

1.     The color of a favorite garment

2.     Lyrics from a beloved song. Three words.

3.     Another word for cry

4.     A sound that describes sadness

5.     The word for when hope, empathy, and understanding, and compassion meet

6.     The word for where hope, empathy, and understanding, and compassion meet

7.     A bemoaned chore

8.     Adjectives that describe your best qualities - three

 

Hope

Hope is the color of _1__, the flavor of _2__, and the sound of ___3___ 

and __4__. Hope is ___5__, __6__, and __7__. 

Hope is ___8___.  Hope is everywhere. Choose Hope.

Jen Schneider is an educator, attorney, and writer. She lives, writes, and works in small spaces throughout Philadelphia. Her work appears in The Popular Culture Studies Journal, unstamatic, Zingara Poetry Review, Streetlight Magazine, Chaleur Magazine, LSE Review of Books, and other literary and scholarly journals.

1+1+1+1+1+3+1...= 120,000 AND COUNTING

by Peter Witt

ADAM ZYGLIS, THE BUFFALO NEWS, NY

120, 000 U.S. deaths
a big number,
about equal to the population of
Norman (OK),
Columbia (SC) or
Odessa (TX)

Does this get your attention?

To understand 120, 000
let's break it down
to 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1...
you get the idea,

with each 1 representing a life,
a real person,
someone from our community,
someone's family member.

1 was Yu Lihua, an important
Chinese American writer -
wrote mainly late at night,
smoked True menthol cigarettes.

1 was Valentina Blackhorse,
administrative assistant
for the Navajo Nation,
dreamed of one day
leading her tribe.
Family now raises her
one year old daughter.

1 was James Mahoney,
ICU doctor in New York,
cared for patients
through the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
9/11, the swine flu.
Due to retire
stayed onto help,
he saw it as his duty.

Another 1 was Judy Wilson-Griffen,
clinical nurse who cared
for nursing black women, helping
bring future generations
into the community of St. Louis.

Peter Bainum was 1,
aerospace engineer, who taught
at Howard university for 30 years.
sending students onto NASA
and the aerospace industry.

3 were Nicky, John, Leslie Leake,
Nicky planning wedding,
John the family cutup,
Leslie, dotting mother,
grandmother, great grandmother -
died within 20 days of each other
in Washington, D.C.

and not least was 1 Paul Cary
lifelong paramedic and firefighter,
drove 27 hours from Colorado
to the New York epicenter.
He was carried home in a succession
of ambulances, before his colleagues said
we have the watch from here.

1+ 1+ 1+1+1+3+1 until we have 100,000,
the count goes on,
...1 + 1 + 1+1...

120, 000 is a big number
made up of little numbers,
each of whom
we should never forget.


Author’s note: Life stories were taken from "Faces of the Dead," The Washington Post, May 28, 2020.

Peter Witt is a retired University Professor and 2020 Poet Laureate for the International Poetics Foundation.