ACTORS IN SEARCH OF A PLAY

by Lynn White

The Manchester United Muslim Supporters group says club co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe "must go" after he spoke out against immigration levels and said the country was "on the slide". —BBC, September 18, 2026

UK in talks about joining global defence bank led by Canada. —BBC, September 16, 2026

UK foreign policy is going through a period of extreme volatility, with the country’s international position more uncertain than at any time since the end of the Second World War. —The Foreign Policy Center

In every performance

on the World Stage

their are those 

landing the leads.

Then there’s the rest -

the main players

the coming up

the soon to be forgotten 

or remembered,

the speakers 

and walk-ons,

the has-beens,

the also rans

propositioning the Producer

desperate to find a play,

desperate to find a place

in any cast.

All metaphors for a state,

once a great player,

puffed up

with muscular might,

and a starring role in every play,

invading,

colonising,

great at genocide

but now faded and fragile,

self-starved and skeletal,

once mighty muscles wasted,

infra-structure broken

and decayed

deluded and overspent

mighty only in mind 

a washed up actor

pleading for a play

pleading for a place

somewhere in the cast.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality and writes hoping to find an audience for her musings. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Peach Velvet, Light Journal, and So It Goes

A PIVOT

by Imogen Arate

With you I am 

never alone

never in comfort

With me you 

have meaning

find purpose

A reflection of myself

an imprint

a ghost of the past

Your perpetual search

for mommy-

dearest Facts forsake

My forward motion

propelled by reenactment

of recurring cursed roles

you find reassurance

That devil you know

offers no surprises

I flee into the unknown

and you drag in fear

"Let’s go back”

You plead

“Let’s find comfort

in the familiar”

“Remember the good times”

“When I was the slave

and you the master”

Author's Note: I would like to acknowledge the influence Emma Rhodes’ “Johnny Depp Wins, and I Like So Many Others, Think of the Man Who Abused Me” had on my poem.

Imogen Arate is an award-winning Asian-American poet and writer and the Executive Producer and Host of Poets and Muses, a weekly poetry podcast that won second place at National Federation of Press Women's 2020 Communications Contest, where she has served as a national-level poetry judge in 2021 and 2022.  She often reacts to news in verse, which you can read here, on The New Verse News, as well as in other publications. You can find her @PoetsandMuses and @ImogenArate on Twitter and Instagram.

WORK WE'VE FAILED TO DO

by Barry Koplen

In the wings,
trouble greets submission;
guns speak. Murder calls
random numbers.

Mine? Yours?
The guy who commands
Curiosity to find water
on Mars?

He's distracted or
he will be
when the Super Bowl draws

nigh or when Miley
wears little or nothing but
the gunman is not

distracted. Like an actor,
he loves his role so much
we can't keep him
in the wings.


For more than fifty years, Barry Koplen has been writing poetry and prose. Often published by friendly journals too arcane to mention, he received his MFA from Queens University in Charlotte, NC. Recently, he completed the second half of a two-volume collection of poems and essays. The first, Whale of Grief, complements Wail of Joy, the second; both are related to impressions of life as a Jew in a non-Jewish world. His No Gold Stars tells his personal story of the integration of the Greenville, SC school system. His latest Why Don’t They Believe Me? Four of Us Saw the Saucer will be available in January. Currently, he is completing two collections of poems while teaching Creative Writing in Virginia at Danville Community College.