CINDER AND SADNESS

by Tricia L. Somers

AP File Photo Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, October 2023

Cinder block pillows  

and satin tears

Our sheets tied

into escape hatches again

The exquisite pain

of a child a mortal sin

Who has enough courage

to not slaughter the children ?

Who is strong enough

to resist the temptation

to crush the soft spot

of a newborn baby's skull?

Anyone? Anyone at all?

Every last Palestinian child

has more bravery and heart

than the moral army

sent to "cut the grass"

With each child killed

we go more in the red

We're going down fast

A centrifugal vortex

Are you strong enough

to win an election ?

Or too weak to stop

the killing of children?

Tricia L. Somers is in Los Angeles CA where she lives with her Significant Other and a couple of other crazy cats. You can find her work on the pages of The American Dissident. Online her poetry can be found at The New Verse News and Rat's Ass Review. For a different perspective on current issues visit her at Bitch n Complain on Substack.

SHIP OF FOOLS ON A CRUEL SEA

by George Salamon

It was later than I thought when I first believed you, / Now I cannot share your laughter, Ship of Fools, —"Ship of Fools," The Grateful Dead, Lyrics by Robert Hunter

April Fool's Eve, 2018

Self-made darkness
Drawing us down
In a vortex of
Psychic disturbances,
Confusion of values,
Flight from consciousness,
Devaluation of knowledge, and
Abandonment of reason.

Led by a rising economic elite
With disdain for morality,
Egocentrism at the core of character.
Its heart chained to management wisdom,
Lacking passion and compassion
To grasp the human condition,
Ill-suited to struggle with our crisis
Of equality, fraternity, and hope.


George Salamon, who lives in St. Louis, MO, arrived in the United States in 1948 when, as the song says, America's bottles were still "filled."