CONFLUENCES IN SEPTEMBER, 18 MONTHS OF LOSS

by Mark Danowsky

Fighting a Losing Battle 8, a print by Alexis Lekat at Saatchi Art

It was so nice to read Butler revisiting Butler—

their change to they for our times

* 

We let some people off so easy

& others we will forever push to the limit

* 

Waiting on the next check

for survival

* 

We are losing our birds

& much more than I know how to notice

* 

I want to save our homeless

more than I want to save children abroad 

* 

The people I know are not pleased

with my ethical quandaries

* 

My city’s beverage tax is abysmal

when we’re debating if 200K or 400K means rich

* 

A credit card notification informs me 

my address falls in a natural disaster location

* 

All signs point to no one coming for aid  

* 

I know it’s tempting to pretend

the worst might be over in 6 to 8 months

* 

Try 10 years of losing

only to lose the nexus of all your efforts

* 

Let the record show I tried

Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Senior Editor for Schuylkill Valley Journal, Poetry Craft Essays Editor for Cleaver Magazine, and a Regular Contributor for Versification. He is author of the poetry collection As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press) and JAWN forthcoming from Moonstone Press.

GOVERNMENT 101

by Marsha Owens

This thing called impeachment is a strictly political process I learned when I was 17, this thing is like a hurricane you hope doesn’t happen like you hope every elected official remembers Gov’t 101 too, and remembers that this thing exists like posts supporting the pier buffeted by waves and winds, worn with footsteps from end to end, decade after decade, a sanctuary where you go to feel sunshine, to hear birdsong, to throw out a fishing line, to sit, to dream, to contemplate Ethics 101,

to pray the posts never fail. 

Marsha Owens is a retired educator who lives and writes in Richmond VA. Her poems and essays have appeared at TheNewVerse.News, Huffington Post, TheWildWord, Rat’s Ass Review, and Streetlight Magazine. She is a co-editor of the recently released poetry anthology Lingering in the Margins.

THOUGHTS ON TERRORISM

by David S. Pointer




The Boston Marathon
Bombings had me thinking
about the Olympic Games
in 1972 when Black September
killed athletes, and the world
has never come to laud acts
of terrorism, and can’t find
the will for lasting world
peace yet nobody seems to
know how much ethical
deliberation it takes to light
a fuse, build a bomb or lie
on TV about drones killing
all those global children


David S. Pointer served as a Marine military policeman from 1980-1984. Currently, he serves on the advisory panel at “Writing For Peace.”