NVN Tuesday: 3 Poems In Other News
“(F)light” by Jen Schneider, “Ukraine (Continued)” by David Radavich, and “Plainfield Township” by Jeremy Nathan Marks
(F)LIGHT
by Jen Schneider
Suzanne Somers, who died Sunday, in New York in 2020. Photo:Mark Sommerfeld for The New York Times
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As a child, I’d watch Three’s Company regularly. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I appreciated the sitcom as revolutionary. From legal work to florist to culinary adventurer, I came to believe I could live wherever and be whatever I desired. Later, the show’s offscreen testimony taught me more than I ever imagined. When Suzanne Somers fought for equal pay and instead received notice of her final day, I understood that while there might be open rooms in set apartments, equity was still off the market. While Cindy and Terri moved into the room recently vacated, they never replaced the space newly renovated. Somers embraced her role as a changemaker at a time when the television was a media supremacy. With authentic resiliency, she took on turkeys, Ropers, bowling, and Wandas in a step-by-step fashion. She’d spin wands of words, as Chrissy, Jack, and Janet created fodder for ideas not yet comfortable. In the process, she created new spaces for hospitality on issues previously closeted. Somers was a master at keeping things light while taking on the toughest of fights. She spun a diet of equal pay and blonde delight. Creator of the ThighMaster and a business blaster, Somers was a fighter of original making. Nobody’s fool, she wielded the script as a tool. Somers never stopped fighting for what she believed, from gender parity to healthy living. Her memory will forever be a prime-time recollection of a life worth regularly revisiting. With deep admiration— Thank you, Suzanne Somers May you rest in f(light).
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Jen Schneider is a poet, essayist, and educator. She is the author of several books of poetry, with her most recent collection 14 (Plus) Reasons Why, published with free lines press, now available. If she’s not writing, you can find her teaching legal and justice courses in her favorite city.
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UKRAINE (CONTINUED)
by David Radavich
Russia-Ukraine war at a glance—what we know on day 601 of the invasion: Russia testing defences around Kupiansk-Lyman as its Avdiivka offensive wanes, says Ukraine; Moscow admits reliance on China for drones —The Guardian, October 17, 2023
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You used to be on our front pages. Now there are other wars, other headlines. Almost a footnote of human suffering. The bombed-out churches and schools, houses and hospitals, are still rubble, the dead are still barely buried. We can only stand so much news: we have our own issues. Forgive us our short attention span, our time-worn generosity. We meant well once.
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David Radavich has published a variety of poetry, drama, and essays. His latest book is Unter der Sonne / Under the Sun: German and English Poems (Deutscher Lyrik Verlag, 2021).
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PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP
by Jeremy Nathan Marks
in memory of Wadea Al-Fayoume (6 years old)
The last words of a six-year-old US Muslim boy stabbed to death in a suspected hate crime over the weekend were "Mom, I'm fine", his uncle said as hundreds gathered to lay the child to rest… Police say Wadea al-Fayoume was attacked because he was Muslim. His funeral was held as the family's landlord appeared in court charged with the boy's murder. The 71-year-old accused was allegedly upset about the Israel-Hamas war. —BBC, October 16, 3023
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Six-year-old sons are supposed to live the dream of a free-range American boyhood. Cowboys and Indians. Minecraft and mumps inoculations. Even gender-neutral pronouns. Muslim or Christian, it shouldn’t matter since we, the people, possess a constitution once amended to address that there is no sin in being subaltern. But our land is filled with weapons. Frontier remnants, perhaps. Anger makes fathers guard their daughters with rifles. We should never ignore that faith is a live wire. What about knives. A mother discovers how a landlord’s grandfatherly fondness for her son turns to murder. He raises his blade to the boy twenty-six times, practically a lunar cycle. How did a man who carpentered nails and boards to build young Wadea a house decide to enlist in sorrow’s circle. Was it Iblis or X. OAN perhaps. Maybe Fox. Did he go mad from the whisper of his neighbor’s dog (like Berkowitz) who said never trust anyone who abstains from swine. I believe property is a theft. Claim a land, claim a life. Now our nation reckons with a terrible debt. Who but a martyred boy can account for that.
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Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in Canada. His latest book is Flint River (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). New and recent work appears/will appear in Mobius, Rattle, Terrain.org, Writers Resist, Topical Poetry, and Belt Magazine. He holds two passports.