PLEA TO A FORMER PRESIDENT

by Philip Kitcher

Deceit provoked our warfare with Iraq,

Leaving a million people dead or maimed.

How can you win your reputation back?

How is a leader’s legacy reclaimed?

 

A con-man threatens to destroy our nation,

Seduces voters into fatal choice.

Please make your country partial reparation.

You have been silent.  You could raise your voice.

 

Perhaps you still have power to shift our course.

Not speaking out will signal your consent.

Revive your party’s heritage, endorse

A woman fit to be our president.

Philip Kitcher has written too many books about philosophy, a subject which he taught at Columbia for many years. His poems have appeared online in Light, Lighten Up Online, Politics/Letters, Snakeskin, and The Dirigible Balloon; and in print in the Hudson Review.

DO WE NOT BLEED?

by Nolan Dannels

Painting (1886) by John Everett Millais of Kate Dolan as Portia.

“Though justice be thy plea, consider this:

That in the course of justice none of us

Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy …”

— Portia, IV, 1, from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare 

 

The kids caught in the crossfire

never stood a chance—

they just stood there,

wrong place, wrong time,

and we didn’t do a thing,

just let them die

 

as we chose a side,

as if it were a color

in a world of

black and white

that we should have let be

blue and green

 

But who would we be

to dream of peace

when we don’t stand

in the way of the war—

the innocent plead,

we ignore,

so how can

they have hope anymore?

 

And who would we be

to feel a thing?

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

If you hurt us,

do we not grieve?

And if you don’t listen to us,

do we still speak?

 

Air raids and bombs… guns and hate—

this is neither the beginning nor the end

And it will only get worse if we wait

We’ll see soon enough even if we are blind now,

but our hands will be slow on the draw,

too little, too late:

we only do good

when the bad has already died down

 

Where will the refugees go

when their camps are attacked

before they can even cry out?

Which way will the world turn

when the sun sets on the other side

than the one it does right now?

 

I wish I knew the answers,

and I wish I could say them loud and clear,

but I can only beg, vocal cords torn,

for a fair and just end to the conflict

But I can only see it getting worse

from day to day and year to year

 

Yet, who would I be

to say a thing?

If you spit in my eyes,

can I still see?

If you put me in chains,

can I be free?

And if you tear out my tongue,

can I still speak?

 

But who are we

to be in need?

If you chase us,

do we not flee?

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

 

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

​whether our tears are true

​if they can never leave

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

If you prick us,

do we not bleed?

whether we’re white and blue

​or red, white, black, and green

 

Nolan Dannels is a Persian American poet/musician with a Master's in English Language and Literature from the University of Edinburgh. He is currently a Literature PhD candidate, specializing in modern and contemporary Anglophone poetry at the University of California, San Diego, where he served as the Editor in Chief of Alchemy, Journal of Translation. His poetry and music appear in Kissing Dynamite, Trouvaille Review, Wine Cellar Press, Wishbone Words, Snakeskin Poetry Webzine, and Hare's Paw Literary Journal.

SALMAN

by Indran Amirthanayagam

Indran Amirthanayagam's newest book is Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks). Recently published is Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun.(Dialogos Books). In 2020, Indran produced a “world" record by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and has twenty poetry books as well as a music album Rankont Dout. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He won the Paterson Prize and received fellowships from The Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, US/Mexico Fund For Culture, and the MacDowell Colony. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.

LIZ

by Jo Ann Steger Hoffman

Only a few are brave enough, a few

only, who listen to the inner voice

that does not lie, speaks clearly what is true.

These few decide to make the harder choice

 

to stand apart, alone, claim truth out loud

despite the storms that blow the House apart

when one with strength of purpose stands unbowed

beneath the weight of censure, dares to chart

 

a course that steers its way by compass points

unshaken by fierce winds of ambition,

steadied by faithfulness to what anoints

a leader with the right to set direction.

 

What some will view as weakness in this hour

will soon reveal itself as peerless power.

Jo Ann Steger Hoffman’s publications include a children’s book, short fiction and numerous poems in literary journals, including The Merton Quarterly, Persimmon Tree, Pinesong, The New Verse News, Kakalak, Red Clay Review, Broad River Review and Flying South. Recognition from Palm Beach Poetry Festival contests and a Pushcart nomination are among her awards. Her narrative non-fiction book Angels Wear Black recounts the only technology executive kidnapping to occur in California’s Silicon Valley. A native of Toledo, Ohio, Jo Ann and her husband now live in Cary and Beaufort, North Carolina.

OPEN CARRY

by Michael L. Ruffin

“‘I Need People to Hear My Voice’: Teens Protest Racism.” High school students have organized protests in California, Maryland and Michigan. In one Texas suburb, three teenagers led hundreds of people in a march, and they say they aren’t done organizing. —The New York Times, June 23, 2020

My sisters and brothers,
I declare to you that we
have practiced concealed
carry for too long. The
time to practice open
carry has arrived.

Henceforth, let us openly
carry our right to speak
freely, our right to assemble
peaceably, and our right to
petition the government for
a redress of grievances.

A suggestion: this time,
when our grievances seem
to have been resolved, let’s
not conceal our rights of speech,
assembly, and petition again.

Not ever. Never.


Michael L. Ruffin is a writer, editor, preacher, and teacher living and working in Georgia. He posts poems on Instagram (@michaell.ruffin) and prose opinions at On the Jericho Road. He is author of Fifty-Seven: A Memoir of Death and Life and  of the forthcoming Praying with Matthew. His poetry has appeared at TheNewVerse.News and is forthcoming in 3 Moon Magazine and Rat's Ass Review.

PEACE BROKERS

by Angie Trudell Vasquez

Peace Brokers dance
even when there’s no chance
of winning, they move to
their own beat path
plan for the best and worst
and recant all previous positions
if necessary – they are not
too proud to say they were wrong
or misguided; and listen to the hand
extended in warmth, gripping
close with their own heart
all that they hold dear; and
perchance a day of reckoning comes near
and the dead rise from their graves
find their tongue and debate
with heat about the success
of so many years spent lying beneath the grass;
the peace brokers listen, take tea,
nod when they agree,
hold up a pen
when they do not
indicating they’d like time
at the podium of truth
when the others are done speaking;
peace brokers take notes, ask questions,
and resolve not to leave the table
until all has been said, heard and agreed
until an action plan is set for the next meet
and they do not give up ever or admit defeat
because what is to gain is so sweet.


Angie Trudell Vasquez is a poet and writer currently living in Milwaukee, WI. She's been published by Verse Wisconsin, Burdock, Raven Chronicles, Real Change and was the featured poet for the Latina Monologues from 2009 to 2011. In 2003 she was a featured poet at Bumbershoot, Seattle's Music and Art Festival. Her first book The Force Your Face Carries has been published under her own label, Art Night Books.