MONSTER

by George Held

"The last thing I remember is blacking out and Cosby mounting me like the monster that he was.”

--Janice Dickinson

Which came first, the blacking out or the mounting?

Can the Cos turn/be turned into a monster?

Is this just another case of black on white crime?

Is this just another case of white hysteria?

Is this just another episode of Beauty and the Beast?

Why is there a statute of limitations on rape?

Is this just another act of racist vengeance?

Is this just an instance of “buyer’s remorse”?

Is this a case of a black superstar without boundaries?

Is Bill Cosby more like Ray Rice or O.J.?

Is Dr. Cosby more like Dr. King or Dr. Marcus Welby?

How long will Bill Cosby remain beloved?

How long will Bill Cosby remain funny? 

How come Cosby is heavily booked into 2015?

Is the Cosby monster just a diversion from Ferguson?

George Held, a regular contributor to The New Verse News, has a new book out from Poets Wear Prada, Culling: New & Selected Nature Poems.

IT HAD BEEN WINTER

by Roger Aplon

She came to him followed 

by her mother & her three daughters. He waited

sipping strong black coffee 

& reading the interview with Dayan’s wife &

how the country’s moral 

fabric was being shredded, how power soils men.

It had been winter, they’d

made a pact, to plant in the spring, invite neighbors, 

the way it had been then,

as their grandfather’s dreams had been written down, how

the land would bear fruit for those 

who dig the wells, bend to furrow & set the seed.

In his dream, his kids play hard 

ball in Gaza when Rachides’ play in Tel Aviv.

In his dream, the Likud

who strut like crowned-kings in Jerusalem, ignore 

their spite, open the cells, call

off the dogs – demolish these blood corrupting walls.

Roger Aplon was a founder & editor of Chicago’s CHOICE Magazine with John Logan and Aaron Siskind. He has published one collection of short stories (Intimacies) & nine collections of poetry, most recently, The Man With His Back To The Room (2007) & It’s Only TV (2013). He occasionally reads his work with musicians from Wormhole & Trummerflora Collective in Yokohama, Japan & the US: San Diego & New York City. He was recently awarded an arts fellowship from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico.