LEFTOVERS

by Daniel Romo

I’m waiting or dehydrating in this midlife loop, 

stuck between nothing and what to do, thirsty 

for a shot of life’s finest spirits and a sip of 

more than just stagnancy. Meanwhile, the 

taco man that sets up across the street from 

me everynight calls out sick on Instagram 

for fear of being caught up in the immigration 

sweep that’s devoured the Southland. One 

minute you’re slicing al pastor for a hungry 

Caucasian community, the next you’re seized 

by men hiding in masks and Americana. I 

prefer my carne asada with a slight char and 

I’m not even mad as the protesters burn the 

US flag in the Long Beach streets because the 

man who likes his meat rare and the neighbor 

who wants it well-done both bleed out when 

hurt and my city is being stabbed, which 

resurrects me as my blood boils into an 

inferno while I offer a torch to scorch every 

dirty star, to incinerate every misplaced stripe.

Daniel Romo writes, lives, and loves in Long Beach, CA.

A PRAYER FOR THE LIVING, FOR OUR COUNTRY: AFTER THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, AUGUST 2024

by Jan Zlotnik Schmidt

 

in response to Deborah Digges’s “The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart”

 

Let the wind break through

the walls of our chests

draw out curdled breath  anger

from past reckonings.

 

Let the wind race through the chambers 

of our hearts   cleanse the pathways  

erase the stench of hatred 

strip away the detritus of ridicule.

 

Let the wind eddy through us 

through small openings  

dissolve the particles of despair

that clog the beating heart.

 

Sweep them away, sweep

away passivity   turgid like

the air after a tropical storm.

Pointless static gone from our brains.

 

Clear out the darkness in  

our house of gall  darkness hardened like dried

blood   until we are again open-hearted

joyous   vessels of infinite worth.

 

Jan Zlotnik Schmidt’s work has been published in many journals including Kansas Quarterly, The Alaska Quarterly Review. Her poetry volumes include We Speak in Tongues; She had this memory (the Edwin Mellen Press), Foraging for Light (Finishing Line Press), and Joseph Cornell: The Man Who Loved Sparrows, co-written with Tana Miller (Kelsay Press).  Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Press Prize.