G. Emil Reutter

STANDARD POLICE PROCEDURE
Do not shoot at a moving vehicle

In the land of liberty where
Citizens are under attack by
Rogue agents of Immigration
And Border Patrol led by a
Rogue secretary where laws
And rules do not apply
Do not apply
Shoot first, shoot them, beat them
The pink haired leader proclaims
Condems the victim in the violence
First shooting in Minneapolis
Next in Portland... .
Are any citizens safe in the
Land of Trump?

Across the land
Standard Police Procedure
Do not shoot at a moving vehicle.
Local, State, Federal
Do not shoot at a moving vehicle.
Unless you are one of those who
Attack people while wearing masks
Commando uniforms when you
Are civilian law enforcement... .
Not military... .
Do not shoot at a moving vehicle


g.'s YouTube reading of "Standard Police Procedure"


g. confesses: "The poem was inspired by the events unfoliding in Minniapolis and Portland that refect on what is going on across the nation. We must speak up!"

G. EMIL REUTTER is a writer of stories and poems. He can be found at https://gereutter.wordpress.com/about/

Robert Cooperman

TRUMP'S PROCLAMATION

“Effective immediately,
all streets, avenues, and boulevards
named for Martin Luther King, Jr.
will be renamed for the slain
American martyr, Charlie Kirk.

“In addition, all public sculptings
of King will be torn down, melted,
and recast as equestrian statues of me,
your president, Donald J. Trump.

“It’s time to start honoring us great
American heroes, not a rabble rouser
with the bad luck to get in the way
of a stray bullet when he had slinked off
to Memphis to meet his mistress.

“America needs role models
who look like its citizens:
like Charlie, true Christian men,
who built this country
and are now threatened
by snarling, woke hordes of savages.

“Any city or state that fails
to carry out these orders immediately
will lose all federal funds, plus suffer
the summary imprisonment of all officials
responsible for this act of treason.

“Are you listening New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, D.C.,
and any den of leftwing extremist traitors?
The soft times are over for you.
Real Americans are back
and we want answers and names.”


Gerald So's YouTube reading of "Trump's Proclamation"


Cooperman confesses: "'Trump's Proclamation' is just my logical conclusion to his fulminating that only "real" Americans should be honored, and by 'real' Americans we can surmise the president-would-rule-for-life means Christian white men like Charlie Kirk and even more so, himself. So why not take it one step further and make them he mandatory subjects of all public art?"

ROBERT COOPERMAN's latest collection is The Death and Rebirth of Ophelia, a retelling of Hamlet, with a slightly happier ending, at least for Ophelia. Steerage is the highly fictionalized story of his grandfather's misadventures on the Lower East Side of New York in the early 20th Century. An Oar for Odysseus is the final collection in Cooperman's lifelong love affair with Odysseus and The Odyssey.

Richie Narvaez

KNOCK KNOCK
After Hal Sirowitz

Open the door, I need to ask some questions,
the ICE agent said. I have the authority to question,
detain, and only mildly inconvenience everyone inside.
I don’t need a warrant, lady, I’m just doing my job.
You have nothing to fear, seniora,
I’m a friendly guy, trust me. It doesn’t matter
if you can’t see my face. This won’t take long,
then you can go about your life,
whatever is left of it.


Richie's YouTube reading of "Knock Knock"


Richie confesses: "I was inspired to write this poem by the death of my friend, the great poet Hal Sirowitz, and by the current crime-filled state of our government. Note: ICE agents must have warrants signed by judges in order to enter residences. They have been known to fraudulently identify themselves as police officers to get people to voluntarily let them into their residences."

RICHIE NARVAEZ is the author of two novels and two short story collections.

John Kaprielian

LA COSA AMERICANA

We used to call it "The Mafia."

Untouchable man at the top
Capos run
criminal enterprises
insinuate themselves
everywhere
funnel money
up the chain

Extortion
Bribery
Blackmail
Money laundering
Sex trafficking

Bent cops and thugs
do the enforcing
corrupt lawyers and judges
keep everyone out of jail

Get out of line
get in their way
guys in black masks
throw you in a van and
you are "disappeared"

This is also
an accurate description
of the current Administration.

Government?
No. Organized crime.


John's YouTube reading of "La Cosa Americana"


John confesses: "This poem grew directly from a comment I made online, where I said I felt like the current administration was behaving more like a crime syndicate than a government, doing all the stuff "Organized Crime" is notorious for. The parallels were too close not to try to write a poem about it."

Now retired from a career as a natural history photo editor and a digital asset librarian, JOHN KAPRIELAN has been writing poetry for over 4 decades. He brings his keen eye for natural history and a progressive point of view to many of his poems. He studied creative writing at Cornell with the poet A.R. Ammons while getting his undergraduate degree in Russian Linguistics, and holds a Masters in Information and Library Science from the University at Buffalo. He has been published in Minute Magazine, The Blue Nib, Young Ravens Literary Review, Poetry Quarterly, What Rough Beast, and many other journals, and has a poetry collection available through Amazon.