LAZARUS RISES AGAIN

by Royal Rhodes

remembering “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

White House says it will not return the Statue of Liberty to France. A French politician said the U.S. no longer deserved the legendary monument. —Politico, March 17, 2025

The White House sense of what we owe to France

forgets why we are not a monarchy.

This "mighty woman with a torch," perchance,

shows with her flame its dark autocracy.

Yorktown and the sword of Lafayette

have been suppressed in its new made-up tales.

Will God forget us, if we too forget?

As "world-wide welcome" in our marrow fails?

Exiles sought for freedom like fresh air.

America was built by diverse hands,

ignored by a self-centered billionaire.

A golden door was open to all lands.

For wealth, new tyrants rule by greedy whim.

Can someone teach this statue how to swim?

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

Royal Rhodes is a descendent of migrants here in the 17th century from England, and in the 19th century from Ireland.

LAST SWIM DURING FALL EQUINOX

by Laura Rodley

MORNING SWIM IN THE AUTUMN COLORS OF THE SEA (2022)

Painting by Sergei Gontarovskii (Ukraine)

Swim out so easy, frosty 

cold water hard to break through

but you do, on top there's a green sweater

of warmth you glide through

to the dock where the new owners 

play otter, diving in, out.

On the return the tide of lake

pulls you backwards, each 

stroke only takes you half 

of what it did on the way out.

Still, you keep on reaching out

upon the water, and pulling in,

saving yourself, saving everyone. 

Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley's latest book Ribbons and Moths: Poems for Children won Children's Nonfiction at the 2024 International Book Awards. 

DEFIANCE AS THE TREES LET GO THEIR LEAVES

by Laura Rodley

As repetitious as concentric circles

breaking one upon the other, overlapping

but never touching, the outward circles

encroach on the returning circles,

but the swimmer’s hands keep breaking

the smooth skin of the water

sending back more circles,

her breaststroke a circle;

here, at Ashfield Lake, there is no election,

no Prince of Tides, no princes,

just to swim to the brown house

a quarter mile and return

before it gets dark. 

Laura Rodley, Pushcart Prize winner, is a quintuple Pushcart Prize nominee and quintuple Best of Net nominee. Latest books Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Publishing and Counter Point by Prolific Press.

AN IMMIGRANT'S JOURNEY

by Austin Alexis

Immigrant children at Ellis Island gather around a toy horse in 1920 (NYC Vintage Images). Source: The Atlantic

A sea

she will paddle upon

or attempt a desperate swim in

while hoping to shoo off sharks.

A mountain 

she will hike through,

braving mudslides,

slicing through brambles.

A desert

she will trek across,

stepping over rattlesnakes

as she swallows fear of starvation

and guides her children

to reach milk and honey

even if the milk is sour,

the honey bitter.

Austin Alexis is the author of the full-length collection Privacy Issues (Lotus Press/Wayne State University Press) and two chapbooks from Poets Wear Prada. His work has appeared in Barrow Street, Paterson Literary Review and elsewhere, and is forthcoming in Poetry Pacific (Canada) and The Five-Two: Crime Poetry Weekly.