INVASIVE SPECIES

by Rikki Santer

Cartoon by Jack Ohman

Sometimes a jackass

is just a jackass 

a president once said

when he thought

no one was listening.

And some say

that when God

created the world 

he dispatched an angel

with a sack of fools  

to distribute 

one per town,

but the harvest of folly

seems plentiful these days

with its dangerous parable staining.

Tiny phones

in their back pockets

to showcase glowing selfies

and toothy tweets,

all these Looney Tunes legislators

who always have a guy

or know where to get one.

And they fantasize

about winning more

epic battles between

the us and them

or want-to versus should-of.  

Beneath the peels, 

so many sad bananas

vying for the pratfalls

of others.

Beneath their blindfolds, 

they swing hard

at political piñatas 

with tantrums

of taketh away.

Too late to send them

to their rooms to think

of what they’ve done

or have them vulcanized

when Mars attacks.

Their heads brim

with knuckles clenched

feverous for playing

again and again

their most favorite game—

capture the flag.

And now fat-fingered justices

join in.

In 2023, Rikki Santer was named Ohio Poet of the Year. Her forthcoming collection, Shepherd’s Hour, won the Paul Nemser Book Prize from Lily Poetry Review Books.

TO A COMMERCIAL JUDGE

by Francisco de Quevedo (Spain, 1580–1645)

translation by Julie Steiner

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito did not disclose luxury gifts from GOP mega-donors, including Alito's Alaskan fishing trip, or recuse themselves from cases the donors had before the court. [...] Last July, after Alito wrote the Dobbs decision, he was a keynote speaker at a gala in Rome with the trip paid for by Notre Dame University Religious Liberty Initiative. He hadn’t disclosed that either, or recused himself from any of the multiple cases RLI had filed ‘friends-of-the-court’ briefs with. Ruling in Alito’s favor has been his fellow Justice Clarence Thomas who has been feted with financial favors from billionaire and GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow. Those favors include Crow buying Thomas’ Mother’s home, which she still resides in, and also paying Thomas’ grandnephew’s tuition while he was in his care. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 23, 2023

A corrupted, partisan United States Supreme Court is how we will lose our democracy. —Mike Davey, The Miami Herald via Yahoo! News, June 25, 2024

The laws in which your court, Batino, deals
you’re less inclined to study than to vend.
They buy you things: that’s all you comprehend.
To you, the Fleece—not Jason*—is what appeals.
Your take on laws of man and God reveals
that either sort you rule on, you offend.
Your grasping hand, preparing to extend,
foretells which way your judgment fails. (Er, falls.)
You don’t know how to hear a low-cost case.
Who gives to you receives doubt’s benefit.
Your side-deal contracts take the law-tracts’ place.
Since bias and bribes are vices you won’t quit,
go wash your hands with Pilate, or unlace
your purse with Judas and hang yourself with it.

Author's Note on Line 4: An Italian jurist named Giasone del Maino (1435-1519)—Jasón de Maino in Spanish—wrote widely influential legal commentaries, and is referenced in several Spanish dramas of this period. His legendary namesake Jason led the Argonauts in search of the ram that bore the Golden Fleece.

A UN JUEZ MERCADERÍA

por Francisco de Queveda (España, 1580–1645)

Las leyes con que juzgas, ¡oh Batino!,
menos bien las estudias que las vendes;
lo que te compran solamente entiendes;
más que Jasón te agrada el Vellocino.
El humano derecho y el divino,
cuando los interpretas, los ofendes,
y al compás que la encoges o la extiendes,
tu mano para el fallo se previno.
No sabes escuchar ruegos baratos,
y sólo quien te da te quita dudas;
no te gobiernan textos, sino tratos.
Pues que de intento y de interés no mudas,
o lávate las manos con Pilatos,
o, con la bolsa, ahórcate con Judas.

Francisco de Quevedo, one of the most famous poets of Spain's Golden Age (Siglo de Oro), wrote many savage caricatures of greedy lawyers and judges.

Julie Steiner is a pseudonym in San Diego, California. Besides The New Verse News, the venues in which Julie's poetry has appeared include The Able Muse Review, Rattle, Light, and The Asses of Parnassus.

JUSTICE IN TRIPLICATE

by Lavinia Kumar

Know the constitution is not just a ye-olde parchment scroll, it
Amplifies restraint of judicial roles, not an attempt to cover them in
Gown, black or white. Know congress not court make law. We
Angrily, we must, protect all American people knowing that in this
Number are color, gender, poverty, and most of all, reality.
 
Sickening is constitutional subversion rolling back racial equality
On the backs of spoiled children and mommies
Touting “unfairness” to a receptive group of
Outed outward rightists with no interest in settled law, nor
Maintaining a semblance of right. Where is Equal Protection against
Anchors around Black necks not just for
Years, but for decades, for centuries – such
Ongoing abuse, such dehumanizing lack of recognition of
Rights, yes, equal rights.  Right…
 
Just as ostriches in sand, some justices in a white marble palace wish
Away race, inequality, lack of opportunity in a
Collective blindness that racism isn’t racism as though not
Knowing oft-scribed history, so whitewash it to
Satisfy their simpering sycophancy as though legislated law too
Onerous.  They use diamond blinders given to them unethically by
New and old millionaire pals divorced from reality.

 
Lavinia Kumar’s latest book is Spirited American Women: Early Writers, Artists, & Activists—very short prose of near 90 amazing women writers, poets, publishers, painters, artists, abolitionists, early suffragettes, and activists.