COMMON-TATER COMMENTATOR

by Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

A book-keeper whose boss repeatedly shouted the word "potato" at her "in a strong Irish accent" has been awarded more than £23,000 by an employment tribunal after it found she had been racially harassed. —BBC, March 11,2026

Potato is

The racial slur

An Irish Ms

Got hurled at her

Repeatedly:

Her spud-brained boss

Turned out to be

An albatross.

But Bernadette,

Though sore abashed,

Refused to let

Her worth get mashed

And went to court.

Now judgment's sealed.

Long story short:

His spud got peeled!

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His poems have appeared in Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Light, Lighten Up Online, The New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, WestWard Quarterly, and several other journals. In 2025 he won the Children's Unpublished category of the Eyelands Book Awards with Flora’s Flock and Other Stories to Read Aloud.

TONIGHT WE’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 1939

by Steven Kent

UPenn faculty condemn Trump administration's demand for “lists of Jews” —The Guardian, January 13, 2026

At U of Penn, who's in the Tribe?

The whole thing has a 30s vibe:

Demand a list, some names get crossed—

Say, how much does a Holocaust?

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.p

THE WOMEN

by Eileen Ivey Sirota

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

David Marcus of Fox News warned that “organized gangs of wine moms” are using “Antifa tactics to harass and impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.”  —Fox News, January 11, 2026

roving gangs of wine women

terrorize my neighborhood

brandishing corkscrews

and Prosecco

weirdly disrespectful

they have book club paperbacks

under their arms

multi syllabic words 

on their glossy lips

with their illegal varietals 

and their unlicensed vaginas

they imagine they could

turn back regiments

make the world safe

for children

Eileen Ivey Sirota is a psychotherapist, poet, and potter.  Her poems have appeared in Calyx, District Lines, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Voices: Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, NewVerseNews, Ekphrastic Review, Lighten Up Online and elsewhere.  Her first chapbook, Out of Order, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.   Having been raised in a family of political junkies and activists in the Washington DC area, political and cultural issues infuse her poetry.  She lives in Bethesda, Maryland where she alternates between sputtering outrage and gob smacked wonder. Her latest book Watching from the Bleachers (Finishing Line Press, 2024) unites these two tendencies.

A NOTE FROM US

by Marshall Begel

Art by Ann Telnaes

We hope Venezuelans will value the respite
that comes from abducting your self-serving despot.
We, too, love our country and venture to save her—
so, won't you consider returning the favor?

Marshall Begel became a serious poetry hobbyist when he found that bad jokes are better received when presented in meter and rhyme. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin and has had many pieces in the journals Light and Lighten Up Online.

LOST HIGHWAY

by Steven Kent

It will not be an easy process [to rename streets called after Prince Andrew]. Details on residents’ bank accounts, credit cards, driving licenses, utility bills, property deeds, even pet microchips, will have to change, as will business letterheads and cards. —The Guardian, November 29, 2025

The cost is high to change a roadway's name,

But those which honor Andy (some now claim)

Should be rechristened, each and every mile,

To spare us walking single-pedophile.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.

LOGIC DOWN THE DRAIN

by Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

Burcu Yesilyurt said enforcement officers told her it was illegal to dispose of the remnants of her coffee in a road gully. —BBC, October 22, 2025

The morning joe

That you don't drink,

At home, will flow

Down through your sink

To later meet

The coffee poured

Straight down a street-

Drain when you board

Your bus. Their slime

Pollutes the same,

But one's a crime,

One gets no blame...

The law's designs

Are out of bounds—

For coffee fines,

There are no grounds!

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His poems have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, the Creativity Webzine, Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Grand Little Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, The New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, WestWard Quarterly, and other journals.

DOGE ORDER—LAST ONE OUT

by John Stickney

Will the last immigrant out
please sweep their cage
and turn out the lights
(another 1 Billion in savings!)
on their way to 
their rendition flight

Please think 
of the children 
expecting 
a clean 
and
empty cage

John Stickney is a poet and writer, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, who currently resides in Denver, NC.

COFFEE ROBUSTA

by Marshall Begel

"[researchers] found that drinking three cups of coffee each day could extend one's healthspan—or time spent without serious illness or disabilities of aging—by approximately 1.84 years." —Men’s Journal, December 25, 2024

No longer vegetarian, no longer gluten-free,
My menu has expanded to cuisine from A to Z.
Because of this elixir made from caffeinated beans,
No longer am I mandated to bitter salad greens.

I've given up the treadmill, no more sit-ups on the floor.
The gym's athletic trainer doesn't own me anymore.
The benefits of exercise are matched by substitution
With remedies contained within this silky brown solution.

So whether it's espresso, or a Mr. Coffee drip,
You'll feel your health improving after each delicious sip,
And you can count the life extending benefits you'll reap
While staring at the ceiling when your spouse is fast asleep.

Marshall Begel lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He has several pieces in Light and Lighten Up Online.

TRASH OF THE TITANS

by Steven Kent

Elon gladly goes where he goes—

Wait until these mammoth egos

Clash, two bigmouth bros turned bitter,

Trading shots on Truth and Twitter.

Point of fact: They're both a bore, so

One we loathe, the other more so.

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, 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.

THE COMEBACK KID

by Marshall Begel

Figure skater Alysa Liu, seen here at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, is to come out of retirement and return to competition.

The years since my retirement

Have left me unfulfilled—

Not meeting the requirement

For one uniquely skilled.

My body's manifested change

Since I was in my prime.

Returning to a decent range

Would be an uphill climb.

But I will muster up support—

Ambition? I have plenty.

But time to shine is running short,

For soon, I'm turning twenty!

Marshall Begel lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He has several pieces in Light and Lighten Up Online.

HALEY'S COMMENT

by Steven Kent

She hems and haws about the cause
   Of War 'tween North and South,
And how absurd: There's just one word
   That should be in her mouth.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer, musician, and Oxford comma enthusiast Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, Journal of Formal Poetry, Light, Lighten Up Online, New Verse News, Philosophy Now, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, and Snakeskin. His collection I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books.

MY CAT AND I HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT TALKING WITH WHALES

by Matthew King

So now, I tell my cat, we talk with whales.
He yawns in pointed answer: it’s beneath
his dignity to suffer such tall tales.
His rough tongue flashes out across his teeth.
I ask him, well, should we use cats instead
to study alien communication?
Look, he says, you say what’s in my head
without the need for my participation.
You’re doing it right now! I haven’t said
a word, it’s all you, even this frustration!
Good luck, whales and Martians! Me, I’m fed
up with one-sided human conversation.
Oh, I tease him, don’t trust my translation?
Wait until you hear me speak cetacean.

Author's note: Some scientists believe they have successfully conducted a conversation with a humpback whale, and that this is good practice for communicating with aliens. My cat is skeptical.

Matthew King used to teach philosophy at York University in Toronto, Canada; he now lives in what Al Purdy called "the country north of Belleville" where he tries to grow things, counts birds, takes pictures of flowers with bugs on them, and walks a rope bridge between the neighbouring mountaintops of philosophy and poetry. His photos and links to his poems can be found at birdsandbeesandblooms.com.

RIZZ ON RISE

by DeWitt Henry

Got rizz? The actor Tom Holland claimed to have none, sending the internet into a tizzy and inadvertently propelling the slang term to victory as Oxford’s Word of the Year. Photo: Araya Doheny/ Getty Images via The New York Times, December 3, 2023

Credit...Araya Doheny/Getty Images via The New York Times, December 3, 2023

Newly listed as noun
from cha-RIS-ma.

The power to captivate,
charm, compel, lead,
sway, stir, and attract 
mass followings.

Jeepers, creepers,
where’d you get those eyes?
How they hypnotize!

Personal magnetism.  It!
Grace.  Magic.  Presence.  Genius. 
Brand.  Whiz of a wiz 
in the sleight-of-hand biz.

Pot-bellied roue, quarterback,
or material girl. Swami
or clown: media messiahs,
though diz-dained by Orwellians,
have become so common
that abbreviation names 
their rise, claim, and fizz.

DeWitt Henry’s recent books are Restless For Words: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2023), a new U.S. edition of Foundlings: Found Poems From Prose (with art by Ruth K. Henry) and Trim Reckonings: Poems, both from Pierian Springs Press in 2023. He was the founding editor of Ploughshares and is Prof. Emeritus at Emerson College.

CELLULITIS

by Felicia Nimue Ackerman

Felicia Nimue Ackerman is a professor of philosophy at Brown University and has had over 260 poems published in places including American Atheist, The American Scholar, Better Than Starbucks, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Down in the Dirt, The Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin, Free Inquiry, Light Poetry Magazine, Lighten Up Online, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Times, The Providence Journal, Scientific American, Sparks of Calliope, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Your Daily Poem. 

NOT TODAY, PINKO!

by Steven Kent

"Rightwingers say 'pink-haired liberals' are killing New York pizza"

—The Guardian, 29 June 2023

A plot, a plot, a plot's afoot;

   These commies can't deny it.

They claim they want to cut down soot,

   But patriots don't buy it!

Our ovens they will never take

   And leave us in the lurch here.

Clean air's a ruse, a hoax, a fake—

  We did our own research here!

Editor’s note: Here’s what’s really happening.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer, musician, and Oxford comma enthusiast Kent Burnside. His work appears in Light, Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, and OEDILF, among others.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

by Ferdi Wheeler

While people currently make better assistants than chatbots… A.I. can already do a good enough job handling many administrative tasks. Widespread use of chatbots could potentially shift the duties of executive assistants away from rote tasks and toward more strategic problem solving, or replace humans altogether. —Brian Chen, The New York Times, March 29, 2023

AI is rife now,

with its failings and its pre-eminence,

but as for the former,

there are many warnings:

like that  it is easily mistaken,

its facts are dodgy,

and it gives many explanations

of the same faulty kind;

well then, I think,

the engineers have recreated

the perfect human mind.

Ferdi Wheeler is a South African and retired archivist. He lives in Bloemfontein, a city in the Free State Province. He published in print and online in local magazines. His short stories and poems appeared lately on Litnet and Roekeloos—Plek van die Uitverkorenes. He writes in Afrikaans and English. Examples of his work can be viewed by Googling “Ferdi Wheeler Litnet.” He holds a Masters degree in Communication.