Roger Netzer

"D" FOR DALLAS

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out,’” Mr. Trump said. —The New York Times, February 10, 2025


A 1964-D Kennedy half-dollar brings twenty-six times
that much in today’s antique-coin market.
D for Denver Mint, then as now the single largest producer
of coins in the world. It took only four months after
“the events in Dallas” for the new fifty-cent piece
to be authorized, designed, struck -- nine tenths silver,
one tenth copper -- and in the hands of a heart-broken nation.

I got my 1964-D on date of issuance.
Mom and dad gave it to me.
They were working-class Democrats,
children of immigrants, Austrian Jews (dad),
Irish Catholics (mom). I never saw my parents weep
before the afternoon of Friday, November 22, 1963.
Dad especially, a big guy who served
in the same war as JFK, cried for days.

Where was I when I heard the news?
Fifth-grade Social Studies, with twenty-seven
pals and crushes, my classmates. And Mr. Mason,
our teacher. Twenty-eight alibis.

Like JFK, his successor LBJ did not run for re-election
either. LBJ was only sixty-three, had won
by a landslide in ‘64, but by ’68 he had had enough.
It was the year of King (murdered April 4th)
and RFK (June 6th). Year of the Tet Offensive.
Sixteen-thousand-five-hundred-and-ninety-two Americans
died in Vietnam that year, the worst of the war.
When numbers start a sentence, you must spell them out.

One of those who did not come back
was Lieutenant Donald J. Trump,
whose selfless valor on the battlefield, rescuing
wounded comrades at peril to his own life,
would have earned him promotion had he served.

Since FDR, no President has stayed in office
more than eight years, but D for Donald is hinting
he will try. I have been watching Presidents
since 1960, but this I have not seen or heard before.
And, barring a Lee Harvey Oswald style term limit,
Trump may make it, who knows?
The 22nd Amendment says no,
but there are ways around the Constitution.

I still have my 1964-D. The pristine condition
boosts its value, but instead of hoarding it
for sixty years I should have let it circulate.
I wish mah fellow 'Mericans -- Johnson called us that
in his I-won’t-be-running-again speech --
were tarnishing my 1964-D right now
in their oily palms and pockets. I wish
undocumented Aladdins were rubbing
Jack Kennedy’s skull to new life
in interstate commerce. I wish
my sisters and cousins and nephews
were pressing pressing pressing
the coin into service with their thumbs
and trigger fingers. For the sake
of my grandchildren -- one boy so far
(a beauty) and another on the way --
I would be glad, so help me,
of another killing in the market.


EPILOGUE

Knock-Knock it’s the Secret Service. “I was talking
about a killing in the the silver-coin market!
Can’t you guys take a joke? Poetry makes
nothing happen,” as they lead me away in cuffs.

Because make no mistake: We have a New Order.
It’s armed and dangerous and the law won’t protect you.
So stay safe, have a good alibi, and destroy
this poem as soon as you have it memorized.


Roger's YouTube reading of ''D' for Dallas"


Roger confesses: "The wicked have grown strong. Desperate in defeat, the ruin of what you hold dear, and the collapse of hope -- fuck, might as well grab at lightning."

ROGER NETZER is a yellow-dog democrat. From the day he turned eighteen he has voted without exception for his party’s Presidential nominee, from George McGovern in 1972 through Kamala in 2024. Alongside his wife of forty years Francie Campbell, he canvasses, too. His poems have appeared in Chiron, Mas Tequila, Meat for Tea, Valley Voices, Green Hills Literary Lantern, The Potomac, Syndic, and Naked Knuckle, among other places.

Robert Cooperman

TRUMP REHIRES FIRED FEDERAL WORKERS: THE VOICE OF TRUTH

In a bold move, President Trump has proclaimed
federal workers from the Parks Department
will be rehired to man the nation’s farms, formerly misrun
to the point of collapse by now-deported illegals.
Since these Park workers have experience with the outdoors,
they will be ideal for their new, necessary assignments.

To ensure that they report for work punctually and ready
to serve in any capacity needed to guarantee
the nation’s food supply, they will be rounded up
by the Armed Services, local police forces, and FBI agents
who have publicly vowed loyalty to the President.
The pay will be minimum wage, the President declared:

“Far more than what those lazy bastards deserve,
for finally doing an honest day’s work.”

They will be housed in simple wooden structures
and purchase provisions at Company Stores on site,
to prepare healthy meals after their daily assignments
have been completed to their overseers’ satisfaction.

They will not have access to automobiles, thus
saving money for themselves and for the country
on what they would squander on gas and maintenance.

We applaud President Trump’s foresight
in remanning farms to save the nation’s food supply
and to reduce unemployment levels
that have exploded of late: workers, especially
DOJ traitors, spitefully walking away from their jobs.
to sabotage the President’s plan to Make America
Great and Moral and American Again.


Gerald So's YouTube reading of "Trump Rehires..."


Cooperman confesses: "When Trump announced all the layoffs and firings, I thought he'd cause massive unemployment and inflation, and just utter disruption and ruin to good, hard working people's lives. So I put myself in Trump's head (not a pretty place to be) and came up with the 'solution' presented by this poem. If it sounds like something once perpetrated in America's ignominious past, that's intentional."


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.

Amy Grech

SILENT JUDGMENT

George Gage sits in silent judgement,
watchful hazel eyes keenly focused on a
woman sitting next to him on the crowded,
Manhattan-bound R train as it rumbles
through tunnels threatening to crumble, stopping
at pre-determined destinations, passengers come
and go, silent spectators traversing the
bustling corporate landscape. Keeping pace
in the brutal modern race.
Forced to wear a corporate noose,
his moral fiber quickly untethered.

Subway stare, Shelia Stein doesn’t care.
Her mind’s long gone. She finds it hard
to carry on, but does her best to
bear the weight. A daunting burden
that leaves her hurting more
than he will ever know.
She lost her job to some
corporate slob who robbed her
of her sanity and her dignity.
Now, there’s nothing left and
she’s bereft. A victim of
the ultimate theft.


Amy's YouTube reading of "Silent Judgment"


Amy confesses: "I’ve lived in New York City for over 25 years. I rely on the subway to traverse the city. 'Silent Judgment' was inspired by the ragtag cast of characters I’ve encountered on trains during my daily commute."


AMY GRECH has sold over 100 stories to various anthologies and magazines including 10 by 10 Flash Fiction Stories, Apex Magazine, Even in the Grave, Gamut Magazine, Microverses, Punk Noir Magazine, Roi Fainéant Press, Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, Yellow Mama, and many others. Alien Buddha Press published her poetry chapbook, A Shadow of Your Former Self.

She is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers who lives in Forest Hills, Queens. You can connect with her on Bluesky: @amygrech.bsky.social, Medium: https://medium.com/@crimsonscreams, X: https://x.com/amy_grech, or visit her website: https://www.crimsonscreams.com.

Matthew Sorrento

ALL THE ACCUSED

He finally had his chance.
For just an hour, he’d get
the luxury treatment: a comfy ride
to a press conference,
from the steel
of his cell.

He'll address the charges,
why he showed up that night,
leaving two dead, and "being brazen
enough” to try it
right across from the station.

"Your social media presence is
too much,"
his attorney told him,
a fitted-suit woman, desperate
beneath her makeup,
“with everyone following your story.
It’s why all the accused
now get 15 minutes
of prime-time.
The networks want it back
from the virals
on the phones.
And here's your chance:
Describe what happened.
And don't even think
of getting your glory
here. Show how you were pushed
into it, as we planned last night."

The ride whizzed by
as they moved him
toward the Media,
the logo of
“Fresh Copy: Criminals Speak”
above his chair.
The lawyer watched from the side,
but not close at all,
with the cameras rolling in
and an interviewer
behind bulletproof glass.

He'd have his voice,
reaching out
to put everyone
in his grip.


Terri Lynne Hudson's YouTube reading of "All The Accused"


Matthew confesses: " I was thinking of how social media largely controls communication with immediate updates, and how corporations control this flow of info with algorithms. Meanwhile, influencers -- even dangerous ones -- can exploit these networks. What if a media corporation would promote an older form of media, primetime television, to combat the power for social media, only to Make Criminals Celebrities Again there, too...?"


MATTHEW SORRENTO is editor of Film International Online and Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon. He has published widely on genre cinema/television, documentary film, crime fiction, and genre poetry. His work has appeared in Noir City Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and as accompanying essays for Stark House Press and Arrow Video. His poetry and fiction have also appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, and Chamber Magazine. Sorrento teaches film and media studies at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. HIs forthcoming collection is Becoming Nosferatu: Stories Inspired by Silent German Horror (co-edited by Gary D. Rhodes, BearManor Media).