CONVERSELY…

by Regina YC Garcia

Bracha Lavee Art Studio

All land is holy/land was holy 
until it is not/until it was not

Land that has been 
planted/has been penned
by hearts beating contrite/or 
hearts lying unrepentant 
with feet that have walked/ or 
feet that have occupied 
and minds with thoughts of peace/ or 
minds with thoughts of plot

The land-now restructured 
The laws-now revised
The people-once free/the people-now contained
live inflamed/ live in flames

We wonder of war
We wail of death
All of it waged by hands
some clean/ some unclean

The terrain, at least large enough,
seems to be not enough and
struggles to be/desires to be reframed/ to be reclaimed
     by new ghosts/by ghosts of old.


Regina YC Garcia is a DAR American Heritage Literary Award Winner and a Pushcart Nominated Poet, Language Artist, and English Professor from Greenville, NC. She has been published in South Florida Poetry Journal, Amistad, Black Joy Unbond, and numerous others. She has also contributed to a variety of podcasts, documentaries, and musical and literary arrangements including the Sacred 9 Project (Tulane University) and an Emmy award winning episode of the PBS art show Muse. Her debut chapbook The Firetalker's Daughter was released in March 2023 by Finishing Line Press.

SOCKS

by Marilyn Peretti

Yuriy Blazhkevych at his home in Brooklyn the day before he left for Ukraine. “I’m so angry,” he said. Photo: Sasha Maslov for The New York Times, March 10, 2022

Zoryana says

   he never wears socks

   just flip flops,

speaking of her father,

   Yuriy, who is packing

   at his Brooklyn home

to fly to Warsaw.

Will he pack socks

   she wonders or still

   go bare, even in snow

as he does here in 

   Brighton Beach, winter

after cold winter.

Yuriy is returning

   to his homeland,

   Ukraine, to fight

Putin’s army, along with

   Ana, Ivan, Bogdani

   and Andrey, Americans

stabbed with pain

   by the cruel invasion.

As recommended, 

   Yuriy bought army fatigues,

   night goggles, belt

and holder for AK47s,

   helmet and boots. 

  Tearfully, she worries

about his freezing feet.

Marilyn Peretti from near Chicago has been published in various journals over the years, including The New Verse News, Kyoto Journal, Gray Sparrow Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Highland Park Poetry, Snowy Egret. Her most recent book is Behind the Mask in 2020... 2021... .

THEY KILLED THE MOON I'D LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT

Photograph: Buzz Aldrin sets up an experiment into solar wind. Credit: Neil Armstrong/AP/Press Association via the Kennedy Space Center

Martha Landman lives and writes in Adelaide, South Australia. Her work has appeared online and in print in UK, US and Australia and she has previously contributed to TheNewVerse.News.