John Kaprielian

WAKE ME WHEN WE GET TO THE CIVIL WAR

We're heading backward in time
it seems, undoing all
our years of progress
forcing the hands of the clock
back against their will
gears grinding time twisting
laws unwriting before
disbelieving eyes
(it makes sense that my
digestive system wants
to operate in reverse)

Nails scratch at bare ground
desperately seeking a handhold
to stop our plunge into
the past but we keep
losing our grip
as counter-clock demons
latch onto our legs

“it was a better time!
Simpler! Easier!”
they chant but
it was only simpler
and easier for them,
lording over anyone they
chose to “other”
rigging the game
so they always won.

“Get rid of it all” they say:
Trans rights Gay rights
Disabled rights Civil rights
Voting rights Women’s rights!
The only important thing is
straight white male rights!

Ironically they too
have become a minority
and someday soon
I hope they will get
what they deserve

what everyone deserves

equal rights and equal treatment
under the law.


John's YouTube video reading of "Wake me when we get to the Civil War"


John confesses: "My inspiration for this poem, with all the chaos that is going on, was simply the idealistic notion that our country was founded on the idea that no one is above the law, and that all (ultimately) citizens have the same rights and deserve equal treatment under the law."

Photographer, photo editor, and now a digital asset management librarian, JOHN KAPRIELIAN has been writing poetry for nearly four 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, and he has a Masters degree in Information and Library Scince 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.

"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to write."

I'm paraphrasing Goldfinger to let you know poems about fictional crime are fair game at The Five-Two, for example this Star Wars poem by Elizabeth Lash

Yesterday Amazon MGM Studios took over creative control of the James Bond movies from Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, stepson and daughter of original producer Cubby Broccoli. Many on social media are mourning the Broccoli era, fearing Amazon will spin off Bond to death. If you feel strongly about the literary or cinematic Bond one way or another, feel free to write and submit by Monday, March 24.

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Social Media

You may recall I largely stopped using Twitter in November 2022, after Elon Musk bought it. Instead of jumping to something appearance-wise very similar to Twitter, I created a Mastodon account.

Free and open-source, Mastodon is line with my values as a Linux user. It has all the features I want from social media, including custom content warning and post-revising, but it doesn't have the familiarity or user base of Twitter. I wasn't sure how much Twitter got the word out about The Five-Two, but I lost a good deal of my Twitter following in the move.

Mastodon is run by decentralized server administrators. They're better moderators than algorithms are, but I'd feel guilty taking up their limited resources with frequent promotional posts about my projects. With this in mind, I created a Bluesky account two weeks ago, coincidentally the first anniversary of its public rollout. Already I've found many of my friends and Five-Two alums from Twitter there.

Feel free to follow my Bluesky and/or my Mastodon. Most of my socializing and Five-Two promo will be on Bluesky. I'm reserving Mastodon to reply to daily writing-related hashtags.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel and leave Likes on Five-Two videos to boost their visibility.

Beyond that, I'm not on Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media. If you are, I welcome your help spreading the word about our new submissions call.

Our Logo

The Five-Two logo (in the right sidebar) is a flamingo pink octagon cutout with the number 52 in the center, a STOP sign, attention-getting, nonviolent, not associated with police like a badge is.

I hope you like it. I'm exploring putting the logo on merch and donating the proceeds to a humanitarian cause. I welcome your input.