The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
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a great tsunami washed ashore destroying all in its path books tossed off library shelves young people left to drown in a sea of bigotry
then the storm abated the tide receded the public surveyed the damage and saw the harm done to the community by the bigots and blowhards and voted the transgressors off the island
civility returned respect for one another returned and most importantly books were returned to library shelves so that knowledge could again be shared
Mary Janicke is a gardener, poet, and writer living in Texas. Her work has appeared in numerous journals.
that drag queens don to hide and reveal themselves,
the revelation there disguised as camouflage.
I think of the teen performers, their happy hearts
aflutter, swelling at doing good for their friends
and, maybe, speaking their own truth this one night,
free at last of fear. I think, too, of the swim team
I coached, the high school boys and girls in Lycra suits
so tight, their all revealed to minimize their drag,
the chlorinated water streaming over all
those athletic kids, their genitals (whichever ones)
on sanitized display. And the cheerleaders at games,
the girls at school dance shows in scanty costumes clad,
their gyrations, their undulations, their high kicks,
the boys dressed as cheerleaders at powder-puff games
(with balloons for breasts inside those too-tight sweaters),
all well and good and part of God’s great plan I guess
for no tsunami of e-mailed outrage floods
the school board and threatens to bring their righteous faith
to fill the board’s next meeting with the fear of God.
I think of our school board members, no Moses-es
to part the Red Sea, their elected hearts hardened
against LGBTQ kids, those two-faced pols
who applaud the group for supporting our LG
BTQ students who struggle for acceptance
but thank them for not doing it on our campus
where Pentecostal flames yet burn. God, they are snakes.
Cecil Morris wiles away his retirement—after 37 years of teaching high school English!—reading, writing, and riding the bike that doesn’t move through scenery of podcasts and boredom. His recent publications include "The Nine Ways of St. Dominic" at Amethyst Review, "after our daughter passes, we go camping" at Neologism Poetry Journal. He also has poems in or forthcoming in Carmina Magazine, Evening Street Review, The New Verse News, Sugar House Review, and other literary magazines.
The Board has determined that fifth grade, which may be too late for some, is the most optimal time to inform girls that post-birth females are not fully autonomous human beings. No adverse circumstances or plans or dreams or medical emergencies trump your legal and moral responsibility to give birth should any male, whether by force or consent, plant his seed in the fertile ground of a uterus that becomes, immediately upon conception, the sole property of The State. The Board, comprised of five men and two wholly compliant women, strives to remain sympathetic to how hard it must be for you to accept this news, having been so revered before birth and deceived into believing you have the same rights and post-delivery value as boys and men. Let us assure you today, that you do not. Indeed, should you become pregnant and experience a life-threatening situation, the continuation of a fetal heart- beat is all that matters. Furthermore, there are many government agencies dedicated to ensuring that, under penalty of death or life in prison for all involved, no pregnancy is unlawfully terminated. No questions? Then you are, as will often be the case, dismissed.
Terri Kirby Erickson is the author of six collections of poetry, including A Sun Inside My Chest (Press 53), winner of an International Book Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in “American Life in Poetry,” Asheville Poetry Review, JAMA,Poet’s Market,Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS), The SUN, The Writer’s Almanac, Third Wednesday,and many more. Other awards include the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize and a Nautilus Silver Book Award.
The Bible is among dozens of books [including the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank's diary and numerous books with LGBTQ+ themes or characters] removed from this Texas school district. —NPR, August 18, 2022
I like our high school library now—the high ceiling,
the tall windows inviting light, the shelves throwing
their long shadows onto each other, their blond wood,
so easy to dust and polish now. Something stately,
a little grand, a little minimalist—a kind
of puritan austerity, I think you could say,
now that all the books have been withdrawn, all the ideas
removed from circulation, stored now off site and out
of sight. No more books to face or edge or try to dust,
those uneven tops. No more rows of books to cull
for the out of date, the never read—or checked out,
at least—the ones defaced by flip-page cartoons, or drawn-
in dicks, or very personal slurs that should be kept
to lavatory stalls. No more issuing fines
for books late or lost. I know, as librarian,
I should miss the books, both learned tomes and flights
of fantasy, but this vacuous cleanliness
appeals to my love of order and simplicity,
and the kids—the students—still come in with their phones
where they can find the whole world in bite-size chunks,
where they can Google, scroll, and cite Wikipedia.
And I do not have to check anything out or in
or shush any heads bent over the little lights.
I guess this is what the school board and parents want.
Cecil Morris, a retired high school English teacher, divides his time between Oregon and California. He has poems in or forthcoming from 3Elements, Ekphrastic Review, English Journal, Evening Street Review, Hiram Review, Hole in the Head Review, The New Verse News, Scapegoat, Talking River Review, and other literary magazines.
