Tony Dawson

ANOTHER N-WORD

Netanyahu like his best mate Trump
is a businessman with a cruel streak.
He’s currently pushing his new
Mediterranean diet, devised especially
for inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
Strip for him means strip to the bone
as you can see on the news each day.
Originally, Palestinians were to eat lead.
He’s now elaborating on this idea.
After setting up food distribution hubs
to concentrate his lead-consuming targets,
he’s offering a virtually food-free version
of the Mediterranean diet to make sure
babies and children, in particular, suffer
as they starve to death. If they survive
they’ll be too brain damaged to cause
the mighty Israel any problems in the future
and so thin they’ll all fit into a single block
on the Gaza Strip. The Waldorf Hotel?
No. I think N said it’s called the “Walled Off.”


Tony's YouTube reading of "Another N-Word"


Tony confesses: "Each time I see the news I’m thoroughly sickened by what Netanyahu is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza. Furthermore, it appears that Israel is forever destined to get away literally with murder under its 'antisemitism dome' that is akin to its 'antimissile dome,' a sort of cloak of invisibility that prevents countries that support it from seeing or understanding the crimes it commits every day."

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.

Charles Rammelkamp

ORANGE LIES MATTER

one of the signs at the protest rally declared.
The man is legendary, spewing falsehoods,
some innocuous, stupid, childish, boastful,
others malicious, dangerous and hurtful.

Remember the one about Haitians
eating other people’s household pets?
How he insisted it was true?
One of the most basic urban legends around,
immigrants eating neighbors’ dogs,
like alligators in the sewer system.
I wonder if he even believed it.

One thing’s for sure:
lots of people did, and those poor Haitians
in Springfield were scared shitless,
righteous MAGA followers ready to kill,
all for the lies of a deranged old man.

A funny Facebook meme –
An interviewer asks Trump,
“What’s your favorite lie?”
Trump answers “I don’t lie.”
The interviewer says:
“Yeah, I love that one, too.”


Charles' YouTube reading of "Orange Lies Matter"


Charles confesses: "Sometimes I think I am over Trump's constant lying - What else is new? Just more background noise. But at others I realize just how dangerous he is and I become enraged all over again."

CHARLES RAMMELKAMP is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore. His poetry collection, A Magician Among the Spirits, poems about Harry Houdini, is a 2022 Blue Light Press Poetry winner. A collection of poems and flash called See What I Mean? was recently published by Kelsay Books, and another collection of persona poems and dramatic monologues involving burlesque stars, The Trapeze of Your Flesh, was recently published by BlazeVOX Books.

Jerry House

POLITICAL DISCOURSE

She supported Harris.
He voted Trump.
The axe hit his head
With a Thump!
Thump!
Thump!


Jerry's YouTube reading of "Political Discourse":


Jerry confesses: "Politics seems to have become a dangerous ground in America today, but I can't help but believe that people on both sides of the aisle have a common decency. The poem does not reflect that belief but does reflect the divisions that some are eager to exploit."

JERRY HOUSE is either disabled or retired, depending on whom you wish to believe. He lives on the Florida Panhandle where he blogs at Jerry's House of Everything.

Peter M. Gordon

ASYLUM

What if you could only take what fits in your pockets
and one backpack? What will you leave behind?

The framed family photos will remain on walls.
House and car repossessed by banks. Furniture,

flat screens, autographed baseballs, books,
and vinyl records painstakingly collected

over decades, never seen again. Say goodbye
to that room full of craft projects and material.

At least you won’t need to worry about unwashed
dishes or dust on the gilt frame holding Grandma’s

portrait. Sure, upload digital videos of treasures
and poems to the cloud, hope where you end up

has internet. But don’t feel bitter about your life
in America during those days we led the free world.

That way lies madness. Accept you weren’t
brave enough to stay and fight for rule of law.

Remember the fate of ancestors who stayed too long
in Russia, Germany, Armenia, Rwanda, Somalia.

Upload your savings to off-shore accounts
and Swiss banks. Only numbered accounts.

No place is perfect but you can find some where
you can be free. What good are things, anyway,

if you can’t take them with you? Sell what you can
for cash, put silver and gold coins in money belts,

fill backpack with meds, jewels, identity papers,
flash drives, change of underwear, one notebook.

Your most important assets stay with you –
brains, skills, experience. Keep low. Stay alive.


Peter's YouTube reading of "Asylum"


Peter confesses: "An immigration lawyer told me that they’re receiving a record number of calls from people who are thinking about leaving the US. I thought about how hard it must have been for my ancestors to leave their homes to come here. Are there any safe places?"

PETER M. GORDON is an award-winning poet with over 180 poems published in various magazines and websites, He's authored three collections, and his latest is Middle Age Spread, available on amazon.com. Peter founded Orlando Area Poets, and is involved in several other poetry groups. He teaches in Full Sail University's Film Production MFA program.

Pamela Ebel

FREDDIE'S DEAD

“The speech is on the coffee table Sir. I’ll be back in 30 minutes.” The door closes as you look at the plush surroundings of the Suite. You laugh out loud. This is one of the best grifts yet. Always stay in your own hotels, with plenty of hangers-on so all that profit goes right into your personal account.

Everyone thinks you use this time to look at your speech, get prepared. Another laugh. You never follow a script written by some sucker who thinks they know you. No! This time is to get the right mood going and for that you need to pick the right song – just like when you were in high school and college. In the sixties it was "The Duke of Earl"; in the seventies "My Life" and a favorite, "I Did It My Way!"

Songs flood your memories, telling how clever and smart you were and are, to have got here. Not once, but twice.

The memories of your father telling you how people wanted to be told that everything, every place was just like when they grew up. You listened to everything he said. You worked to be like him and waited to take over the empire he’d built

There was just one problem. Freddy.

Eight years older than you, favored son in a patriarchal system, the brother being groomed for the job that was rightfully yours. Even at ten years old, you knew the business should be yours.

Then sixty years ago you had an epiphany. On a hot summer day, out boating with Freddy and his college buddies you listened to him say how your father didn’t like him drinking.

“He says after graduation no more drinking or fishing, guys. Just working with him.”

“And it doesn’t help that you keep saying your Jewish because you joined our fraternity.”

That brought a laugh from everyone except you. They saw funny, you saw opportunity.

You still remember the day you set your plan in motion and still marvel at your cleverness.

“Did you have fun on your weekend boating trip with Freddy, son?”

You looked out the car window so your father couldn’t see your face. “It was okay. Except it was hot and the guys were drinking a lot of beer.” Angling your head, you saw the look of disapproval in his eyes as he turned to you.

“Don’t you worry, son. There won’t be any more of that. Freddy will come to work with me and we’ll straighten things out. When you’re finished with college, you’ll come work the business with your brother and me.”

But there was plenty more, drinking, carousing, and pushing back against being in the business. Freddy balked at being berated by your father, hated the stress, and took up flying to get away. Eventually, he flew for a major airline; married; had two children and did what he wanted. But mainly he wanted to drink!

But you couldn’t afford to help him or tell your father Freddy needed help. You made sure everyone knew he was still drinking. You felt some sadness when his wife divorced him, taking the children, but you had the business to run and couldn’t let Freddy back in the picture.

He died of complications of alcoholism and you put on a good front at the family gathering. All went well except you had trouble coming up with a song to get in the mood. To your surprise all you heard was "Freddie’s Dead." That Freddie died a junkie, and Freddy wasn’t much better, so you let the verses fill your mind.

His brat kids are still writing books about you because you cut them out of their inheritance. You smile because they will be the first to feel your revenge and retribution.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States.”

The door opens and you walk to the podium searching for the right song. You shake your head. No, "My Way" or "Duke of Earl" – just "Freddie’s Dead" and Freddy’s face is on the teleprompter.

Staff come to help you off the stage. Media outlets show your face over and over and they spin ‘just overworked from the campaign’ while ‘a mental breakdown’ keeps surfacing and the Vice President wants to know when he can take over?

The next morning, everyone moves around you. Slowly, you walked to the window and look out at the Rose Garden. Freddy looks up, smiles, waves, then disappears and you realize that the only thing that matters is ‘Freddie’s Dead’ thanks to you.


Pamela's YouTube reading of "Freddie's Dead"


Pamela confesses: "'Freddie’s Dead' is my take on just one of ‘the liar in Chief’s’ many unspeakable deeds and based on his real life actions."

PAMELA EBEL was born in Northern California and raised by southern women; part of the diaspora created by the Great Depression. She returned to her roots at twenty-one, receiving an M.A. from LSU-Baton Rouge and a J.D. from Loyola New Orleans. Her careers have included lawyer, university professor, associate dean, and now fiction writer. She travels between New Orleans, California, Alabama and the Mississippi Delta sharing tales from the crossroads of America. And like the ancient Greeks and the Irish, as a southern writer she knows you can’t out run your blood.

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).

Victor Henry

THE GREAT DIVIDE

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” —Benito Mussolini


In Trump’s America
You’re left to die
At your own expense.

The Donald doesn’t pay
Funeral fees.
He governs through arrogance

And ignorance.
His true believers
Duped, conned, gaslit.

Reality TV cartoon characters,
Devotees of The Art of the Deal,
Discover they’ve been funding his weekly golf trips,

Paid for his children’s business excursions.
Remain mute, expressionless, pallid
Like lifeless faces on precoated milk cartons.


Victor's YouTube reading of "The Great Divide"


Victor confesses: "This poem was inspired by The Washington Post fact-checking Trump’s false or misleading claims, totaling 30,573 in his first four years in office. Add Project 2025 to this mixture in his second term and he makes lying palatable once again to his supporters who are under informed about the ramifications of his fascistic, authoritarian takeover of the government."

VICTOR HENRY is a retired reference librarian, a Vietnam veteran, a member of Veterans for Peace. His book of antiwar poems What They Wanted was published by Future Cycle Press. His poetry and prose poems have been published in anthologies and e-zines, such as I am not a Silent Poet; Vietnam War Poetry; Monterey Poetry Review, etc.

Video Notes

You may have noticed a change in the past few Five-Two YouTube videos. I've been trying to incorporate our neon STOP sign logo, but YouTube has been hit-or-miss showing it. My solution is to include the logo in the lower right corner of every frame of every video.

Kenneth Pobo

RED VASE

Such a normal day,
dishes half done,
the cat crying
for extra food,
a Pennsylvania pewter sky.

A thief clamors into
my house, pistol
whips me, grabs
my wallet, knocks
over a red vase
my great-grandmother
willed to me. It shatters,
red tears on
a wooden floor.
He laughs
as he leaves. I put
each piece in a box.

Maybe
shard by shard,
piece by piece,
they’ll rebuild
in darkness. Until
the vase can hold
a thin-stemmed rose.


Ken's YouTube reading of "Red Vase"


Ken confesses: "What inspired the poem: Trump. Many people feel broken into (and broken) and something precious lost, perhaps for good."

KENNETH POBO's March 2025 book from Fernwood Press is At The Window, Silence. Also forthcoming this year from Wolfson Press is Raylene And Skip.

Charles Rammelkamp

(F)ELON

His henchmen something like Alex and his droogs
from A Clockwork Orange,
marching into government offices,
ransacking electronic payment programs,
stealing sensitive personal information–
the classic image of “jack-booted thugs”–
the only thing missing,
the classical music soundtrack
while they pillage the federal bureaucracy.

In his tee-shirts, dark jackets, and pompadour
Musk, the perfect image of a punk gangleader,
doing all the things
the rightwing accuses George Soros ofand more.
But he has the godfather’s blessing,
and he gets away with it all,
the real felon in charge turning a blind eye
while the courts and legislature flail about,
hair on fire with cries of “constitutional crisis.”


Charles' YouTube reading of "(f)Elon"


Charles confesses: "I worked at the Social Security Administration for years. I feel so sorry for the people I used to work with, the anxiety and stress the oligarchs are putting them through. I’m also glad I don’t have to endure any of that personally. Life is complicated enough without the "Department of Government Efficiency” trying to take control."

CHARLES RAMMELKAMP is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore. His poetry collection, A Magician Among the Spirits, poems about Harry Houdini, is a 2022 Blue Light Press Poetry winner. A collection of poems and flash called See What I Mean? was recently published by Kelsay Books, and another collection of persona poems and dramatic monologues involving burlesque stars, The Trapeze of Your Flesh, was recently published by BlazeVOX Books.

Mark Herr

STILL FRESH AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

I am in the crime scene photos,
Carefully watching from the loading dock.
Watching the men go about their routine,
Which, for me, is all virgin territory.
The body is someone I knew,
Just not well.
On sight, really.
And he was gunned down
In front of friends of mine.
They are not in the crime scene photos.
But, I watch, out of curiosity.
And after they have moved the body,
I watch the cop drop a small bucket of water,
To hopefully wash away the last of the man.
It doesn't really work.
There are images burned into our brains
That will last a lifetime.


Mark's YouTube reading of "Still Fresh After All These Years"


Mark confesses: "Long story short: Late 80's, I was working at a warehouse in the suburbs of Baltimore. Surrounded by self-storage units. Drugs found in a tenant's unit. Things spiraled and the manager got gunned down in front of my coworkers and customers. And yes, I am in the crime scene photos."


MARK HERR is "nobody you would know. Some day, he will do something about that. Maybe today. In the meantime, he posts poems much lighter in nature, every day on Instagram @marklherr He grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore, but sometimes, life from The Wire spills out into the county."

G. Emil Reutter

PHINDA BUTTON SPIDER

Not a snake Not low on the ground
Or slithering up a tree
Between rocks
Or lying in wait in weeds
No...not a snake.

So, what then...

atrocious, barbarous, bitter, brutal
callous, cold-blooded, evil, harsh
hateful, heartless, inhuman, inhumane
merciless, painful, relentless, ruthless
sadistic, spiteful, tyrannical, unkind,
vicious, wicked.

So, what then...

Trickster... Overlord?

Not a jackal

Not a Phinda button spider

No...what we have here is

...Jack Napier in charge.


g. emil's YouTube reading of "Phinda Button Spider"

G. EMIL REUTTER is a writer of stories and poems and on occasion literary criticism. His latest collection is On the Other Side of Goodbye.

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.

"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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