SCHOOLYARD ATTRITION

by Zackary Ross Wiggs

Illustration by Golden Cosmos, The New Yorker, May 25, 2018

Texas alone has suffered 17 mass shootings this year and now lawmakers propose ‘battlefield trauma care’ facilities in schools. —The Guardian, May 13, 2023

Cut the flagpoles in two,

since they're at half-mast 

all year round

We could use the extra steel

to make more guns.

Build another Arlington,

for the brave school kids

gunned down in math class.

Hallowed ground filled,

with children full of hollow-points.

Too many thousand yard stares.

Bottlecap metals sewn on chests,

of children with kindergarten war stories.

Senior trips to graveside services,

for those gunned down at recess.

Zackary Ross Wiggs is a writer from Southeast Kansas. A recent creative writing master's graduate, when he isn't writing he is usually found absorbed in some show or book. His works have also been published in Unstamatic Press, Shacklebound Press, and The Joplin Toad. 

GOVT DISARRAY

by David Radavich

Barnum & Bailey Circus Congress of Freaks c. 1924

Holiday Finds Congress Well Short of Goals  — The landmark Senate vote this week to end the minority party’s ability to filibuster most presidential nominees is just one symptom of the deep level of dysfunction coursing through the 113th Congress . . . The list of unfinished tasks . . .  is daunting — and time is just about out. The House will be back the week after Thanksgiving, but the Senate is taking a two-week break. - NT Times, November 23, 2013



The circus animals
have all run loose.

They can’t be seen
in the night,

but their smell
permeates the fetid air.

Some of them
must be preying

now that the
keepers have gone home.

I can’t report
any more
than what you’ve heard.

The feeding pails
are empty

and water
has been scattered
in every direction.
                                              
Don’t expect cages
to be open

in the morning.


David Radavich’s recent collections include America Bound: An Epic for Our Time (2007), Canonicals: Love’s Hours (2009), and Middle-East Mezze (2011). His plays have been performed across the U.S., including six Off-Off-Broadway, and in Europe. His new collection is The Countries We Live In.