By Becca Lavin

WE TESTIFIED

WE TESTIFIED

WE SIT in the bleachers and...

WAIT, NOT,

FORCED APOLOGIES

Through clenched teeth FROM...

OBFUSCATIONS’ OFFSPRING

WE WILL TESTIFY AGAIN

WAIT AGAIN and...

AGAIN

FOR...

JUSTICE & WHAT?

WE BELIEVED

WAS

‘THE AMERICAN WAY’

By J.I. Kleinberg

Click “read more” to see her visual poems.

By Miriam Bassuk

We are living a hair’s breath away 

from a daily brush with lunacy.

Humdrum plays her ordinary flute

as if gongs of war were not wreaking havoc. 

Plumes of black smoke riddle the air. 

Earth heaves cement ruin 

in a country, far from our shore. 

By Kerry Cox

two-tone teeth, never sleep
in mouths that always dream of meat
Chewing hard
spitting out bones
Ballooning the moon
Till it fits in gods arms

Those famous limbs
That built Rome in a day
Pulled out a rib
and gave Adam
A new name to say

By Lynn White

They waited patiently

standing in line

hunger made them quiet

un-childlike

too quiet for children

standing in line.

By Ali Ashhar

The holiest month witness

the unyielding era of human sanctity;

somewhere, down the alley

insatiable hunger confronts

the invincible faith

the razed hospitals give birth to

the spirits of eternity

By Shontay Luna

Heaven could’ve been here,

if he only acted right.

But common sense got gone,

and took itself out of sight.

He told me that I ‘destroyed’ us,

that June night when I left.

Bypassing his infidelity,

as if it wasn’t dire theft.

By Michael Roque

A year of in-betweens

in a vibrant life

now resembling an ER waiting room—

people-packed in varying states of anguish.

Those wheelchair-bound, abandoned in halls,

those bedridden, speaking in groans

and the many— 

sitting, standing seemingly unfazed,

but to an extent all commonly feeling pain,

a need for a doctor we don’t see,

a need for the aches to be eased,

but malnourished on stretchers—

Our only medics.

By Yuan Changming

During ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired on 29 October 2013, a 6-year-old boy proposed to ‘kill everyone in China’; in reply to the wide protest against such verbal violence, the White House later declared: “the principle of protected free speech is an important part of who we are as a nation."

Apparently, it is not the tiny guy

But his big parents

Who would very much like

To kill everyone in China

No, it is not even his parents

But his teachers, the picture

Books he reads, the movies he watches

The computer games he plays, and

The media bombs he hears constantly

That encourages him to do so

By Catherine Harnett

(written as a tribute to Epstein's survivors.)

You were a flower once, Lilac, Rose,

Honeysuckle; your petals were beautiful,

your intoxicating scents. You were meant

to bloom, hanging heavy on a bush, arranged

in a bouquet or vase, young flowers that

fade with dignity as flowers are meant to;

purple, peach, pink; enticing, turning a

fragile papery brown.

By Richard Wells

(After reading Robert Haas)

I know these poems

won’t stop disasters

brewing or about to burst

It’s easy to write a litany

names of dying beasts

rail against plastics

and forever chemicals

By Shontay Luna

Racism pulses through America’s blood.

In quick, tense rivers that flow through

inner city alleys dipped with police batons.

America is an oblivious skank; not caring

about being a shinning beacon of hypocrisy.

While not wanting anyone to say how she

really is. Scoffing at the plaque on the

Statue of Liberty; pleading to shelter the

masses. She can ask for them all, but

By Michael Roque   

My soul is Cairo

in 2011—

It’s revolution!

At the Tahrir Square of my very being,

voices have risen

demanding change from the corruption

running rampant

through my many facets of self.

By Lewton Thomas Jones

And the trees blossomed anyway

Despite the hairy men firing missiles without mercy

Despite Dow Jones hob nob binky slurp panacea-jihad

All the trees blossomed and bloomed anyway

Spring time snowy apparition did not wait for permission

A fantasy thrown back at the blood- soaked holy lands

Despite business as usual

Despite hospitals leveled

Despite theocratic maelstroms w/ their typhoon vendettas

The trees blossomed anyway in the shadows of Golgotha

By Todd Matson

Love. It’s always only about love. They preach it. They

teach it. They are all about it. Love. Love God with all

your heart, mind, soul and strength. Love your neighbor

as yourself. Love others as Jesus first loved us. Love.

That’s all that God requires of us. Love, love, love. Love

every man, woman and child. Love everyone alive. Unless

they’re black or brown or red or yellow. Unless they weren’t

born here. Unless they’re gay or bi or trans or queer or such.

By Shontay Luna

Someone, whom one wouldn’t normally suspect,

said online “This is not my America.” To which

all I can do is say, “Welcome.” Welcome to what

they’re receiving is just a small sample of what

people of color go through, in this america,

every single day.

By Yuan Changming

Says Confucius, the speech

Will carry no might, or something

To this effect, but I do not care

Nor will I put up any fight

If you call me chink, chinaman

Oriental, ching chong, dog-eater

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan

By Michaelangelo Davis aka MSAJID

So soon you left

Directly after you I ran

At first, I stood midst the

Morning’s dew

It seemed to embrace me.

I felt it’s chill for I had fallen.

I knew mourning was due.

By Rick Ells

The Wind is gathering, swirling,

rising in power and purpose.

Outrage gives voice to millions,

calm in their peacefulness,

strident in their message.

The not-king reeks foolishness,

flails about trying to prove his worth.

His method is diversions and lies,

By Mary Anna Kruch

(The Capitol Building ~ Lansing, MI ~ March 23, 2020)

The sky has gone indigo and

birds have long stilled their songs;

under the darkening sky, stars wink out.

Perhaps the birds and sky

are also laying low,

trying to expunge the memory

of that angry mob that stormed

the Capitol today, guns drawn,

protesting lockdown,

believing lies spread by a leader

who says the pandemic is fake news.