WARNING SIGN

by Diane Elayne Dees

The sign is hard to miss,

as shoppers cross 

the parking lot to buy

t-shirts, groceries, toys,

bath towels, cosmetics.

The sign next to it 

is even bigger, and 

just as serious, warning

patrons that abuse of any kind

toward staff will not be tolerated,

and that law enforcement

will be notified. Maybe someday,

those signs will appear normal—

the new normal, that assumes

that we are all under threat of attack

at every moment in any place.

Or maybe someday, 

in a parallel universe, 

it will be normal not to carry

shotguns and knives on errands,

or—in a different galaxy—

normal to treat people with respect.

In the meantime, every time I pass,

I wonder about the little girls and boys

—already anxious, already frightened,

clinging to their teddy bears—

I wonder what must have happened

inside that glass-enclosed pediatric clinic,

and I wonder what will happen next.

Diane Elayne Dees is the author of the chapbooks Coronary Truth (Kelsay Books) The Last Time I Saw You (Finishing Line Press), and The Wild Parrots of Marigny (Querencia Press). Diane, who lives in Covington, Louisiana, also publishes Women Who Serve, a blog that delivers news and commentary on women’s professional tennis throughout the world.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

by Alejandro Escudé

California's COVID State of Emergency Ends Today. What Does That Actually Mean for You? 

—KQED, February 28, 2023

Just today, I scrolled down to an old online video

I bookmarked when the pandemic hit, nothing special,

A rocker playing his guitar, an alternative melody,

A song reminding me of high school, and it brought

Me back there, not high school, but of late 2020,

When I was stuck inside, alone, feeling everyone’s

Vulnerability as though it were actually weather,

A bit stuffed up, wondering if I had it— Covid,

But sensing a kind of warmth between me and my

Students on the computer. Online school over,

I’d usually call it quits early, nobody cared then,

There was a divine feeling to all the ifs and whens.

But that was before it was done, slowly but surely,

And everything went back to rushing, metallic

Again, all expectations, societal wounds, clothes,

Shoes, no more calmness to the sky, only sharp,

Unnoticed clouds, the sun penetrating one’s eyes,

And, well, I’ll say it, the return of unkindness,

Human beings more beastly than before it happened.

So much so that you have to stop and explain,

When nothing needed explaining in those years.

On the mind, only one question: are you vaccinated?

Now we’re back to the usual demonic hairsplitting,

Conversations releasing a plume of mustard gas,  

All of us again soldiers in Great War-like trenches.

I’ve put my helmet back on, sighed, and headed 

Outdoors, negotiating the dragon-tongues, elbowing 

My way to drink from the nearly dried-up wells,

My children in tow, their eyes widened by clamor,

Greed, and the covert gore of our recovered horror.

Alejandro Escudé published his first full-length collection of poems My Earthbound Eye in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches high school English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

HOW NORMAL LIFE IS IN KHERSON!

by Bonnie Naradzay

Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv. Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert “intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson”, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page. The concert on 1 October was intended to feature the Gileya chamber orchestra, of which Kerpatenko was the principal conductor, but he “categorically refused to cooperate with the occupants”, the statement said. —The Guardian, October 16, 2022

How normal life is in Kherson, 

ruled by Russian invaders since April!

A life of repression, kidnapping,

and mass detainment of its citizens.

How normal life is in Kherson!

with Russian invaders planning

a concert for the first of October

to show how normal life is in Kherson 

while deporting everyone to unknown 

locations from Kherson because

this is how normal life is in Kherson.  

The conductor for the concert, 

that the Russian invaders insisted on,

to show how normal and calm it was,

Yurii Kerpatenko, declined to take part .

So in true Soviet tradition the invaders

went to his home and murdered him, 

to prove how normal life is in Kherson.

Bonnie Naradzay’s poems are scheduled for publication in Crab Creek Review, Dappled Things, and The Birmingham Poetry Review, and appear in AGNI, New Letters (Pushcart Nomination), RHINO, Kenyon Review online, Tampa Review, Florida Review online, EPOCH, Pinch (Pushcart Nomination), American Journal of Poetry, Potomac Review, The Poetry Miscellany, and other places, and her essay on friendship was published recently in the anthology Deep Beauty. She leads weekly poetry sessions in day shelters for the homeless and at a retirement center.

NOT OVER

by Dion Farquhar 

I’m Omicron, son of Delta

I skipped generations

from four to fifteen

letters of the Greek alphabet

I’ve outrun Delta

gone after 200,000 more

surpassed a million  

despite decrees, desires

for the old normal

—that hell

for everyone (but the dead)

to get back to work

forget your boosters

travel bans and masks

after all this time 

you still don’t get what global means

you may be faster

smarter now

but after two and a half years

so am I

your rich country as backward

as the ones you’ve impoverished                                                                           

but you win again, America

tally the most dead

so dream on about “herd immunity” 

your unvaxed forty percent

still my gateway

and I’m here to stay

Dion Farquhar has recent poems in Non-Binary Review, Superpresent, Blind Field, Poesis, Cape Rock: Poetry, Poydras Review, Mortar, Local Nomad, Columbia Poetry Review, moria, Shifter,BlazeVOX, etc. Her third poetry book Don’t Bother is in press at Finishing Line Press, and she has three chapbooks. She works as an exploited adjunct at two universities, but still loves the classroom, and she is active in the University of California Santa Cruz adjunct union, the UC-AFT. 

GRAND PAUSE

by Rick Mullin

I can’t relax when Miles tells the band

to keep it tight. He’ll fire you on stage!

I’ve seen it happen. On the other hand

there’s no alternative. An anxious age

provokes an anxious anthem: Straight ahead!

I can’t get back to normal when the news

is so predictable. The cycle never ends.

I can no longer tolerate my views.

I can’t retrieve the names of several friends.

Remember what the poet Rilke said.

About the truth. About the pile of facts.

I can’t find where he said it, though. Can you?

And here’s another thing: I can’t relax.

On stage, there is no exit interview. 

I keep it tight. The spotlight’s turning red.

Rick Mullin's newest poetry collection is Lullaby and Wheel.