Today’s New Verse News: 3 Poems after 15 Ballots
MATT GAETZ'S VERSION OF THE STATE OF NATURE
by William Aarnes
with apologies to John Locke
Time to get back to that best of times when each man acted as his own magistrate, each with the right to keep his neighbors in their place. Time to win back that freedom the so-called officials have taken away. Time to bring government to an end. Time to pledge allegiance to only ourselves.
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William Aarnes lives in New York.
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INMATES IN CHARGE OF THE ASYLUM
by Howard Richard Debs
Win McNamee/Getty Images accompanying “The Big Picture: Danger ahead,” NPR, January 7, 2022
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I stayed up until the wee hours wakeful and fearful, riveted by the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives, 435 voting members officially; as if votes matter— which they do indeed since sold on the auction block of avarice and greed for power for the sake of it, for with power comes privilege, aggrandizement, garnering the purse of a play plot based on chaos theory its final act to be the end of a democracy.
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Howard Richard Debs is a recipient of the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. His essays, fiction, and poetry appear internationally in numerous publications. His photography is featured in select publications, including in Rattle online as “Ekphrastic Challenge” artist and guest editor. His book Gallery: A Collection of Pictures and Words (Scarlet Leaf Publishing) is the recipient of a 2017 Best Book Award and 2018 Book Excellence Award. His latest work Political (Cyberwit Press) is the 2021 American Writing Awards winner in poetry. He is co-editor of New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust forthcoming from Vallentine Mitchell of London, publisher of the first English language edition of Anne Frank's diary. He is listed in the Poets & Writers Directory.
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ANOTHER DEAL
by Michel Steven Krug
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Call back after call back. Each reel like a test flight Because my peers look at My prior roles like an IMDB, (Although I call it DIMB) Because the country as a whole Won’t embrace me, Though I’ve acted out every role To perfection. So here I am now, The 14th, 15th, who knows how Many rounds, still standing, but my smile Muscles so fatigued. I need a drink. But Craft service won’t serve on the House floor Anymore, the way they did, I’m sure, When Frederick H. Gillett could get All the recesses and bourbon he needed To convince the zealots that the Roaring 20s Would only prevail under his leadership, And lead to unrivaled economic prosperity. And what about Speaker William Pennington? He maintained his 1859 principled approach to State’s rights, bringing the Country to Brinksmanship, where it belongs again, so Who, I ask, is the real reformer? Fine, I will pledge to insurrect. I will pledge to abandon rules. I will pledge to renege. I can’t be Hakeem I can’t alliterate I can’t inspire, but I must be your next leader. Don’t pull the plug, Please don’t, surely, we can strike A deal for more donations, another deal, for G*d’s sake.
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Michel Steven Krug is a Minneapolis poet, fiction writer, former print journalist from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and he litigates. His poems have appeared in Whistling Shade, St. Paul Almanac, Liquid Imagination, Blue Mountain Review, Jerry Jazz, Portside, The New Verse News, JMWW, Cagibi, Silver Blade, Crack the Spine, Dash, Mikrokosmos, North Dakota Quarterly, Eclectica, Writers Resist, Sheepshead, Mizmor Anthology, Poets Reading the News, Ginosko, Door Is A Jar, Raven's Perch, Main Street Rag, and Brooklyn Review.