Space and Fences
David Kerr

When volcanoes spew
sulphur, meteorites lace
the earth with holes,
and oceans begin to bubble,
will the lawyers care
that a fence bestows
proprietary rights
that soar to outer space?

Space and Fences – David Kerr

David Kerr, has lived most of his life in Africa (working at Universities in Malawi, Zambia, and, at present, Botswana).  He is a practitioner of theatre and media for transformation and human rights, about which he has written widely, including a prize-winning book, African Popular Theatre.  His collection of verse, Tangled Tongues, was published by Flambard Press (www.flambardpress.co.uk) in 2003.  His novel, Passages (written under the pseudonym Derrick Zgambo) was reissued in 2008 by Brown Turtle Press (www.brownturtlepress.com), USA.

Romney at CPAC
Frederick Pollack

Before I enter history (whose work
is that of an intern, vaguely patronized),
I want to say I’m sorry
for disappointing you, and to express what I’ve learned.
I thought that in my tense delivery,
its desperation so impacted
for so long that it seems, to me,
ease, you would recognize
a shared yearning of the soul: to hold
the foe down, then praise oneself for hurting him
as much as necessary but less than one could.
Admittedly my jokes, etc.,
failed; but isn’t every attempt
to be a regular guy, a white man,
just that, an attempt? Requiring lenience
from those who somehow benefit from it?

I would have spoken had I been allowed,
until my voice was gone, about my faith.
It’s like yours, but more so. To the Father, Son,
and other free-weights of the mind, it adds
a lurid epic, and a peculiarly resolute
denial of death. Trained thus,
I could espouse wholeheartedly whatever
you wished, kiss unborn babies, eat your food.
Because faith, I thought, was faith: your faith
that you in essence are as rich as I
though temporarily embarrassed; the faith
we share, that the wealth
of one is that of all; and mine,
that the barbed wire around factories
I buy in China is there for safety.
Surely, I felt, my faith had earned some slack.

But finally we let each other down.
A parody resents a parody
of itself, as well as the real thing.
Black fascist muslim communist jewish
bankers on welfare are coming
for your guns and other talismans of freedom;
you knew this but I didn’t. Or rather
I do, but we both know I’m safe from them,
and so they don’t exist for me
except as a convenience, like yourselves.
I wish you leaders who can feel your fear.
With them you may, as Kafka once foresaw,
march arm-in-arm, invincible, reclaiming
the cities from the unproductive, singing
full-throatedly while at each other’s throats.
For man is a wolf to man, but howls in chorus.

Romney at CPAC – Frederick Pollack

Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure and Happiness, both published by Story Line Press.  His work has appeared in Hudson Review, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Die Gazette (Munich), The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Representations, Magma (UK), Bateau, Chiron Review, etc.  His poems have appeared online in Big Bridge, Hamilton Stone Review, DIAGRAM, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire  Review, and Mudlark among others.  Recent Web publications in Faircloth Review, Camel Saloon, Kalkion. Pollack is an adjunct professor of creative writing at George Washington University.

LOCKDOWN
Steven D. Stark

 Lockdown – Steven Stark

Steven D Stark‘s  fiction and poetry have recently been published (or will be) in 3 am, Litn’Image, Mudlark, McSweeney’s, The Cafe Review, HOOT, Otoliths, Mobius, fleeting, and, among others, Clapboard House, where he won the short story prize. He lives in the Boston area where he was locked down, along with a million of his neighbors, while the police searched for the Marathon bombing suspect.

The Haditha Massacre
Peter Branson

For Woody Guthrie

Haditha, Iraq, where 14 men, 3 women &
7 children were killed, Nov 19th, 2005.

Come all fair-minded people,
pray listen to my song,
You police a foreign country,
How things go badly wrong.

Small town down by the river,
no special claim to fame,
Till US troops were ambushed
And one of them was slain.

A passing car got peppered
Beneath a blazing sun.
Five bodies were recovered
But not one single gun.

They stormed the nearby houses
And heard their sergeant say
“Fire first, ask questions later,”
For someone had to pay.

Bad apples in a barrel,
The warning signs ignored,
Each time we turn a blind eye
Means bigger trouble stored.

Three women, seven children
And fourteen men lay dead.
The youngest still a toddler,
Aged one, the locals said.

It’s hard to find excuses
when so much blood was shed.
Yet no one has been punished,
No justice for the dead.

They shot some at close quarters,
A bullet in the brain.
An old man in a wheelchair
Was numbered with those slain.

I don’t know why we came here,
I’ve no idea at all,
‘less it’s for the money men
Who buy and sell our oil. 

The Haditha Massacre – Peter Branson

Peter Branson’s poetry has been published by journals in Britain, USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, including Acumen, Agenda, Ambit, Anon, Envoi, The London Magazine, The Warwick Review, Iota, Frogmore Papers, The Interpreter’s House, Magma, Poetry Nottingham, South, The New Writer, Crannog, The Raintown Review, The Columbia Review, The Huston Poetry Review, Barnwood, The Able Muse and Other Poetry. His first collection, “The Accidental Tourist”, was published in May 2008. A second collection was published at the beginning of last year by Caparison Press for ‘The Recusant’.

More recently a pamphlet has been issued by ‘Silkworms Ink’. He has won prizes and been placed in a number of competitions over recent years, including a ‘highly commended’ in the ‘Petra Kenny International’, first prizes in the ‘Grace Dieu’ and the ‘Envoi International’ and a special commendation in the 2012 Wigtown. His latest book, ‘Red Hill, Selected poems, 2000-2012’, by Lapwing Press, Ireland, is due later this year.

henry 7. reneau, jr.

n.
1.) a recurring thought, beautiful as the temptation of sin, like an animal thought dead suddenly scrabbling to its feet 2.) the sound of unforgettable pain, breathing underwater, like shoes without owners strung from power lines 3.) a hole fallen into, like debt, burying our lives by inches of longing for status & things 4.) a waning moon drawing last breath above cold steel lines, a rail-bed frozen with ice, but the train engine in the distance keeping good time—as in, even old men with broken teeth need love 5.) resistance we are shaped against, as in, a strength that cannot be measured

 protest – henry 7 reneau

henry 7. reneau, jr. writes words in fire to wake the world ablaze, & illuminated by courage, that empathizes with all the awful moments: a freight train bearing down with warning that blazes from the heart, like a chambered bullet exploding inadvertently.