NO MERCY

by Steven Kent

“Groyper” meme, the namesake of the group.

Nick Fuentes has denied speculation circulating on social media his followers, known as “Groypers,” were responsible for conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death, after messages on unfired casings written by Kirk’s alleged shooter Tyler Robinson appeared to be linked to the far-right movement. —Forbes, February 13, 2025

A revolution always eats its young,

Devouring true believers in its urge

To prove itself more faithful to the cause.

With cries of heresy on every tongue,

There has to come a fateful final purge,

And then the end. Same as it ever was.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, Light Poetry Magazine, Lighten Up Online, The New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collection I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books.

BOTH DOORS ARE OPEN

by Joanne De Simone Reynolds

Will he be called back at last

Or granted a stay—

The ultimate ordinary Francis

Reassuring the faithful

Shepherding

The convert

As to ordo amoris

(Heart of the father)

(Mother to each and all)

(Delicate radiant essence)

Refers to Aquinas—

Love dilates the heart

 

What could be more

catholic than that?

Fit to write to the last letter

The ultimate ordinary Francis

Says in essence—

Advance the orders 

Of your heart

Reassuring the faithful

Reminding the convert

Of what it can mean

(A pasture)

To the lost the least . . . the last 

Joanne De Simone Reynolds has been an ekphrastic poetry participant in Art On The Trails at Beals Preserve in Southborough, Massachusetts for many years.She won first prize in poetry in 2022 and was poetry judge in 2023. Her series of sixteen ekphrastic poems for 2020 Art Ramble, in Concord, Ma, can be viewed online alongside images of the sculptures at theumbrellaarts.org.

LET ME CALL THEM DOGS

by Tricia Knoll

A golden retriever named Kilian is part of a Swedish rescue team in Morocco after the earthquake. He's a veteran of past disaster rescue missions and his handlers say he helped find 18 people alive under the rubble in Turkey earlier this year. —Carol Guzy for NPR

Those furry creatures I live with,
the ones on a mission to sniff hunt,
find the dead, subdue, lead the blind, 
alert to illnesses. Detect mines.
Walk side by side with people 
who need them.
 
K-9 simplifies the patches 
on uniform sleeves, dispatched
cars, rescue units, disaster teams.
A term coined during World War II.
 
Let me know them as dogs,
the faithful we call to live with us,
who serve in whatever way they can
and look for a hand, a voice, a toy
to tell them job well done. 

Tricia Knoll lives in gratitude with two non-pedigree dogs in Vermont. She has known search and rescue handlers. Her poetry appears widely in journals, anthologies and seven collections—the most recent being One Bent Twig (FutureCycle Press, 2023) which highlights trees Knoll has planted, loved, and worries about due to climate chaos.

MOVING GEORGE H. W. BUSH

by Tricia Knoll

I walked four miles on a gym treadmill
as the hearse moved to the airport.
I looked at Sully’s picture at the casket
and loved how his care dog loved him.
How voice-over friends said he was kind,
decent, a good man as well as a President.
I know made mistakes and told his share of lies
but not every day, not four or five or six a day.
He was faithful to his wife, a love story
that played out in public. Gentle.

I never voted for him. He signed laws
to protect people with disabilities;
he never bullied them. He befriended
people he lost to. He voted against
his party when the candidate running
shocked him. Yes, a man who owned all
the sparkles of white privilege . . . a man
who fought in World War II; a man
of that generation. The most despicable
President in history is invited to his
funeral because that seemed right
to a man who honored the office
if not the weirdo sitting in the chair.


Tricia Knoll's How I Learned to Be White is now available from Antrim House—and on Amazon.