Tony Dawson

THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY

An orange miasma has once again spread
throughout the States leaving many braindead.
The stench is so strong it’s starting to choke
democracies everywhere, and that is no joke.
The same miasma is giving off spores
that also prove noxious away from its shores.
A near lethal strain has lately infected
some parts of our World that were left unprotected.
The miasma is planning to force everyone out
of the Gaza Strip to insert its large snout.
To the miasma it smacks of a Strip Club, whoopee!
It’s expecting to move in and claim it for free.


Tony's YouTube reading of "The Crime of the Century"


Tony confesses: "I was shocked when Trump was re-elected President and even more shocked by his sock puppet’s arrogant speech in Munich, encouraging European leaders to embrace Fascism. Something had to be said."

TONY DAWSON, an English writer, has been living in Seville since 1989 and continues to publish widely in the USA, UK and Australia since he took up writing during the pandemic. Many of his poems have been published as three small collections:

Afterthoughts ISBN 9788119 228348, published by Cyberwit.net. First edition: 2023 and reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2023/06/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson/

Musings ISBN 97819115 819666, published by Impspired. First edition: December 2023 and reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2023/12/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-2/

and Reflections in a Dirty Mirror ISBN 9781915819949 also published by Impspired. First Edition: April 2024and reviewed at: https://londongrip.co.uk/2024/04/london-grip-poetry-review-tony-dawson-3/

In addition, he has written a number of pieces of flash fiction, a selection of which appeared in Curiouser and Curiouser ISBN 9788119 654932, published by Cyberwit.net. First edition: 2023.

Jennifer Lagier

SHADOW GOVERNMENT

Purchased by an unelected oligarch
as part of a hostile takeover,
democracy teeters, then starts to fall,
hollowed out by mass firings,
dismantling agencies and departments,
infiltration of government databases
by teenage incels.

Old white men mistake The Handmaid’s Tale
as an instructional manual,
introduce legislation to prevent women
from exercising the right to vote
or control their own bodies.

Daily, I doom scroll headlines,
ponder each unfolding outrage,
wonder how to prevent ongoing assaults
against established rule of law,
separation of powers.

I resist and speak out,
refuse to concede
or bend the knee
to corrupt egomaniacs
who are stealing my country.


Jennifer's YouTube reading of "Shadow Government"


Jennifer confesses: "Every day since January 20, 2025, has brought a flurry of unconstitutional, repressive executive orders. An unelected oligarch has seized control of our government while spineless legislators ignore their constitution, country and needs of their constituents. We are witnessing the death of democracy, murdered by greed and ignorance."

JENNIFER LAGIER lives a block from the stage where Jimi Hendrix torched his guitar during the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. She is a retired college instructor/librarian who taught with California Poets in the Schools, edits Monterey Review, helps publicize Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium reading series. Jennifer has published twenty-three books.

Eric D. Goodman

BLACK NECK BLUE

Some say it was the weight of the knee,
but you and I know better—

it’s the weight of centuries,
bruises pressed deep upon black skin.

We watch from across the street,
from behind window blinds and screen doors,
using smartphones to record rather than report.

And report to who, when the attackers
are those intended to protect?

Watch Floyd’s face go blue,
stale air becoming harder to breathe,
as though blue and black haven’t been
sharing streets and skin
longer than this country has existed.

There on the street, black neck blue,
gasping voice calling for his mother,
echoing the howls of other men,

their faces pressed to the ground,
struggling for breath
beneath the weight of that same relentless knee.


Eric's YouTube video reading of "Black Neck Blue"

ERIC D. GOODMAN is author of Faraway Tables (Yorkshire Publishing, 2024), Wrecks and Ruins (Loyola University's Apprentice House Press, 2022), The Color of Jadeite (Apprentice House Press, 2020), Setting the Family Free (Apprentice House, 2019), Womb: a novel in utero (Merge Publishing, 2017), Tracks: A Novel in Stories (Atticus, 2011), and Flightless Goose (Writer's Lair, 2008).

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.