NVN Tuesday: THE TIPPING POINT and THREE ICEFOUND POEMS

"The Tipping Point" by Jill Rachel Jacobs and "Three ICEfound Poems" by Melanie DuBose

THE TIPPING POINT

by Jill Rachel Jacobs

*

(Ode to an Unseen Migrant During Perilous Times)
 
When evil comes a knocking, 
it may arrive with a vengeance, or 
incognito, like some 
Bible-thumping
good ol’ Joe, 
humping a flag.
 
("What we've got here is a failure to communicate")

When rage is sadness and 
sadness is rage, and it becomes
impossible to distinguish the two,
it’s not surprising we may recoil,
hidden in the shadows of the 
reality of what has become 
the new normal. 
 
("But I don’t want to go among mad people")

Like a cancer gone undetected, 
metastasized, 
cell by cell, 
dividing 
conquering,
licking wounds,
stealing secrets, 
tempted by madness,
trying to make sense of 
how we have now become 
that which we once loathed.
 
("Thank you, Sir, May I have another?")
 
When horror is contained, 
darkness has lifted, 
emerging from the underbelly,
dreams intact, 
still blinded by the 
innocence of children’s eyes, 
resting comfortably;
We wait.
 
("We have learned to see the world in gasps")

Unencumbered by reason,
justice now a luxury, 
in a world unrecognizable,
where compassion no longer prevails.
 
(How long? An hour, a year, a lifetime or two?)
 
When will we say when?

When prey becomes the predator,
When captors are held captive,
When cage doors are flung wide open.

*

Jill Rachel Jacobs is a New York based writer, poet whose poetry has been featured in numerous journals. Her features, commentaries, interviews have been published in The New York Times, Reuters, The Independent, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post, Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Tribune, NPR’s Marketplace and Morning Edition.

*

THREE ICEFOUND POEMS

by Melanie DuBose

AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News.

*

1
children formed

a human wall
around
their mother
as 
masked men
reached for her
 
Don't let go
don't let go
a child said
 
"I'm still shaking," —a bystander

2
It's about 

crazy spectacles of violence
dismantling resistance
suppressing dissent
paralyzing the community
authoritarianism and control
gestapo-style intimidation
 
We let them in 
they asked to use the bathroom
they did not use the bathroom
 
"We were not ready," —Museum Worker.

3
3pm to 3am

We dance
honk horns
play music
 
kidnappers
hunt down our family members
throw them down on concrete
question the very workers
who clean their rooms
 
"A peaceful protest just very noisy," —Verita Topoke.

*

Author’s note: Each poem was found in the words of the news report hyperlinked to its title.

*

Melanie DuBose lives under camphor trees filled with parrots in Los Angeles (Highland Park). A graduate of the UCLA film school and an advocate for equity in arts education. Her prose and poetry have been published in many journals, including The Ekphrastic Review, Kelp/the Wave, The Los Angeles Press, Nixes Mate Review,, and The New Verse News. She recently finished writing her first novel, People Who Love You.