WAVES

Poem by Charles Frederickson; Graphic by Saknarin Chinayote

Asian quake shakes global confidence
Tsunami waves capsizing frothy teardrops
Downcast eyelids wide asleep awakening
Miscalculated aftermath ruts left behind

Desalinized dead man’s float seascape
Silent whispers stillborn life aborted
Exquisite fetus wrapped in kelp
Mauve horizon fading mummified dreams

Forsaken prayers begging wrathful pardon
Bottomless reflection pool rainbow overflow
Make-or-break consequential truths falsified
Splintered peg-leg crutches hobble limp

Mushrooming cloud hangs over homeless
Fading gamma sunray future unplugged
Cakewalk strut AC/DC current prongs
Shutdown circuit breakers forced open

Collaborative up-stARTISTS Charles Frederickson and Saknarin Chinayote have created more than a thousand colorful hand-drawn, colorful e-gadfly etchings. Art gallery exhibits can be accessed in the archives of Ascent Aspirations, Listen and Be Heard, New Verse News, Poetry Cemetery and Avant-Garde Times. Published covers and graphics artwork have appeared in Dance to Death, Decanto, Eclipse, Poetry Sz and Taj Mahal Review.
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THE PHILOSOPHY OF STEVE JOBS

by Joel Solonche


iI
ithink
itherefore
iI
iam.


J.R. Solonche is co-author (with wife Joan Siegel) of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). His poems have appeared in many magazines, journals, and anthologies since the 1970s. He teaches at SUNY Orange in Middletown, New York.
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CHARLIE SHEEN IS EXPLODING

by Michael Monroe


Charlie Sheen is exploding
across the front page news:
His eyes landed somewhere near
John Boehner, who’s calling fowl,
threatening shutdowns,
a tear dripping down his tan cheek.
His arms and legs landed on the ground
in front of Scott Walker
who threw them into a wastebasket,
thinking they belonged
to some disgruntled teacher.
His torso landed next to
the protesters in Libya,
who are looking on with confusion
at the drug-drenched blood,
wondering what it’s doing there
during their battle for democracy.
And his brain landed somewhere
near Moammar Gadhafi,
who’s looking on with confusion
at nothing in particular.


Michael Monroe's work has been or will be published in Gargoyle Magazine, Struggle, The Blue Collar Review, The Loch Raven Review, Manorborn, and various other publications.  His poems have also previously appeared in The New Verse News. Two of his poems were recorded on the Words on War CD produced by Birdhouse Studios and he often does poetry readings with Gimme Shelter Productions to raise money for the homeless in Baltimore.
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LISTENING TO THE VETERAN

by David Plumb


She quit the service after ten years to care for her three year old
then joined the reserves, sent to Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
She feels compelled to serve and listening to her clear beliefs   
makes me wish I could share her feelings amidst this awful lie.
How innocence, romance and willful deceit sit
in the same chair, how our undying love
for country falls to unforgivable betrayal and awe.


David Plumb’s latest fiction book is A Slight Change in the Weather. He has worked as a paramedic, a cab driver, a, cook and tour guide. A long time San Francisco writer, he now lives in South Florida . Will Rogers said, “Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” Plumb says, “It depends on the parrot.”
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AMERICA’S LAST WWI VETERAN DIES

by donnarkevic


Such a lie
he tells, fooling the Okie recruiter.
At sixteen, fears are pennies
on a dead man’s eyes.

As the steamer steers for war,
Father chews on a fat cigar
and tosses his black bowler
as the crowd cheers,
and Mother recalls the lantern light
on the night of little Frankie’s birth.
As the summer sun dims,
the cold sea erases the ship
bit by bit.

He expects to return home before harvest,
but instead he reaps the fall
of many, driving an ambulance
behind the trenches,
how the mangled bodies
outlive the memories of French cathedrals,
museums, and the ornate tombs
of kings and heroes.

Years later, in a closet,
like a forty-eight star flag,
his doughboy tunic hangs,
on the mantle a sepia-toned photo,
a boy’s eyes piercing the future
like a fixed bayonet.

The day before he dies,
on the porch of his farmhouse
in the face of sunshine,
his one hundred and ten years bask.
As he closes his eyes,
comrades resurrect, calling him home,
to muster with them alongside a neat row
of endless white marble headstones.


donnarkevic's recent poetry has appeared in Convergence Review, Earth Speak, and Off the Coast. Recent short story publications include Colere and the anthology, Seeking the Swan. In 2005, Main Street Rag published Laundry, a poetry chapbook. Also in 2005, The Interview, a play, won 2nd place in the Playwright's Circle competition.
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HONOR THE WOMEN

by Mary Saracino

on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day

“I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century.” --US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Honor her right to own her own body
her right to feed her children
earn a fair wage, work under safe conditions
love whomever she pleases.
Honor her right to affordable health care
clean water, clean air, clean land, clean food;
her right to read and write
to laugh and cry, uncensored.
Honor her right to live free from war
oppression, violence, the threat of rape;
her right to speak her voice
write poems, novels, the story of her life
paint pictures, take photographs, sculpt statues
sing her song and the songs of her people.
Honor her right to dream and dance
to live in peace, to revere her ancestors,
bless her grandchildren, remember her Source;
Honor her right to own her own soul.
Honor the women of every hue
from every continent and nation
from whose wombs all life emerges
from whose wombs all memory begins
who cradle the blood and bones of generations
who comfort the babies, the sons, and the daughters
care for the elders, the youth, and the men.
To free the world, first honor the women
from whom all beginnings begin.


Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet and memoir-writer who lives in Lafayette, CO . Her most recent novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. Her short story, "Vicky's Secret" earned the 2007 Glass Woman Prize.
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UNSEASONABLE

by Robert M. Chute
 

The waste of war.
Frost in blossom time
a fruitless fall.
History hobbles
war to war. Blind
commanders training
green recruits.


Robert M. Chute's book of poetry based on scientific articles, Reading Nature, is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
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MORE OR LESS

by Jen Hinton


fewer experts
more action
fewer pundits
more traction

less analysis
more enlightenment
less useless ballast
more “let’s try it again”

fewer benchwarmers
more foot soldiers
fewer just there to talk
more just ready to walk

fewer professors with quotes
more file clerks who vote
less “fairness and balance”
more viewers with remotes

less fanning the bullshit
more shit hitting the fan
less watching the “Boob Tube”
more pickets on You Tube

less Horatio Alger-dreaming
once divided-and-conquered
now together scheming

less alone-and-miserable
once unseen
now becoming visible


Jen Hinton lives in Schaumburg, IL and has participated in performance poetry and literary readings in the Chicago area. She has five previously published poems in The New Verse News, including "Something For Harvey," nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. She is working on a collection of poetry and short stories.
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LOOK! UP IN THE SKY!

by David Feela


Moammar Gadhafi’s hitherto unseen
conscience has materialized 
in the form of two Libyan jets
landing on the island of Malta.

A siege for a new century begins.
This time bullets rain from the rooftops
of Tripoli, and it’s not Maltese blood
that taints the Mediterranean’s blue.

This time it’s the soul’s hunger
that goes unfed, and nourishment
demands Gadhafi’s cornucopia
finally be emptied.  It’s an odd

crusade, these knights of the Libyan
Air Force appearing over Malta
like falcons, requesting permission
to join the ranks of humanity.


David Feela's work has appeared in hundreds of regional and national publications. His first full length poetry book, The Home Atlas, is now available.
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I'M STICKING WITH THE UNIONS

by Barbara Lightner

For Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker

They set the scene.
I’ll not forget.
The dreaded rainbow,
the shimmy-shine shenanigans,
the outside swithering in.

It was all-important,
many sibilant syllables
hissing there;
vague whisperings
from a fringe stage
menacing right;
proscenium unbalanced
in a pursuit of
total disregard.

Our sesamé child,
parturient, bottom
patted dry, furies
a fling of words
against jackdaws
declaiming from the wings.

No, I’ll not forget,
not what was yesterday;
not what today;
not what will be,
tomorrow.


Barbara Lightner is a 70-year old shameless agitator, retired. She began writing incidental poetry in law school to escape the tension and boredom of death by law, and has been at it ever since. She has been published in works by Grey Fox Press, Angel Press, The Feminist Connection, and others. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, including Verse Wisconsin, Poesia, New Verse News, and in the anthologies Letters to the World, and The Lesbian Path. 
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IF YOU THINK UNION IS A DIRTY WORD

by Jean Liebert


I joined my union sixty years ago
To have health insurance I couldn’t lose
And a pension when work-days were over.
I’ve paid for both, plus union dues.

Did Blue Cross lose money on me?
I laugh at that.  (It’s so absurd.)
My pension has managers who invest
And fight off government raids, I’ve heard.

What’s the news today from Wisconsin?
“Our wages were always higher than others.”
Not true but not unreasonable.
Our education oft exceeds our brothers.

Walker says our health costs are lower.
True.  This can’t be dealt with by yourself.
But when you were offered a ‘public option,’
You foolishly blocked its adoption.

What’s the bottom line?
Is the Middle Class on its way out?
Beware these righteous governors.
They all want to take away your clout!

       
Jean Thurston Liebert, age 92, lives in Corvallis, Oregon.   She writes poetry, short stories and a novella, Another World.  Her published work is included in Apricot Memories, a non-fiction history of the apricot industry in California; Linn Benton Community College’s Collections; the Oregon Writers Colony anthology, Take a Bite of Literature and the online site New Verse News.   Her 2010 fiction was cited as notable by Oregon Writers Colony.   
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BAD APPLES

by Michael Monroe


“God hates fags” they say.
If God’s hands of love
are reaching across the world,
they must be the splinters in those hands,
testing the bounds of the First Amendment
like flightless birds
testing the air in a hurricane.
The Supreme Court justices
must’ve been pulling their collective hair
out in clumps on this one:
Say yay and the country hates you.
Say nay and the Constitution crumbles
all because of a handful of bad apples.
The best thing to do is toss them aside
and search for the edible ones.


Michael Monroe's work has been or will be published in Gargoyle Magazine, Struggle, The Blue Collar Review, The Loch Raven Review, Manorborn, and various other publications.  His poems have also previously appeared in The New Verse News. Two of his poems were recorded on the Words on War CD produced by Birdhouse Studios and he often does poetry readings with Gimme Shelter Productions to raise money for the homeless in Baltimore.
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GOVERNOR WALKER—WATCH OUT

by Jane Herschlag

 

Photo of the poet by Karen Guancione at New York City Hall, 16 January 2011.

The temperature is cold,
but the sun shines
and we find a legal spot
five blocks from Manhattan’s
City Hall Rally.

The air is filled with targeted anger,
and camaraderie with all ralliers..
A blitz of photography, reporters,
cell phone dispatches—e-mails,
tweets, blogs and posts.

Dogs wear sloganed coats,
kids wear signs,
union names emblazon red jackets
of college youths, and the old,
some with canes.

Placards and voices are raised
with pride—
Unions Make Us Strong
Cut Bonuses, Not Teachers
Stop Punishing Workers for Wall Street’s Crimes
Stop The Billionaires War On Working America
Stop Welfare For The Wealthy

Save The American Dream
Save The Middle Class
Save My Teachers
Save NPR and PBS

Axis of Evil—Koch  Murdoch  Walker
This Country Does Not Belong To The Koch Brothers
Governor Walker—We Are Laying You Off
When Will The Rich Make Sacrifices
Union Labor Built This Country
Corporations Are Not People
United We Bargain, Divided We Beg
We Love The Fab 14

Tired and hungry,
My husband and I get cookied, coffeed
and revel in the newly-found
middle class voices.


Bully In The Spotlight, Jane Herschlag’s 40 page docu-poetry chapbook is published by Pudding House Publications. Her poems are included in three anthologies and many university presses. She won eight prestigious writing awards from Hunter College and CCNY. She taught creative writing to children and adults at in Manhattan and Danbury. She curated the Open Mic reading series for the Writer’s Voice in NYC for seven years and in Danbury for one year. She has run a poetry peer group for ten years. See poetryjane.com to access poems and current photography shows.
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ONE FEBRUARY DAY

by David Chorlton


With one world moving gently along my street
and sounds from another coming from the radio
I watch the man from the next block tap
his way along with a cane
as he takes his gentle walk
and listen to the latest revolution’s
move by move report
complete with body count and expert analysis.
The sunlight today is diluted.
Shadows blur at their edges.
A Cooper’s hawk slides on the air
a wingbeat above the roof as the Inca doves
and pigeons disappear with a drumming. A book
I was reading blurs too, where Juarez,
Mexico, becomes a portent of the world
the impoverished inherit then pass on to everyone else.
Images begin to act at cross purposes: the cat
sitting peacefully next to the porch flowers,
aerial assaults on the assembled
protesters; the cover illustration with a searchlight
illuminating a corpse; the open case
to a recently played recording
of viol music; a painted landscape with a sky
slashed open by a storm. Piracy;
collective bargaining denied; a rambling speech
of resistance; Purcell’s Fantasia from 1680 -
why can’t I concentrate? This is the twenty-first
century and we aren’t supposed to. We’re
called on to connect the details: cheap labour
to CD players; foreign policy to dictators
to their overthrow; the animals we can save
to the ones who are eaten to the ease
with which a life can be taken to the words
used in describing the act. Cutting throats
to cutting corporate taxes. Powerlessness
to the beauty in old music.


David Chorlton's poems have appeared recently online at Stride Magazine (UK), The Blue Guitar (Arizona), and Pemmican. Chiron Review, Poem, and Pembroke Review will feature more in print soon.
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