Michael Simms: Last Testaments
at dawn you’ll arrive
having thrown your luggage in the River Styx
and we’ll drink from the silver cup of day
Mel Packer: We Must Lay Our Bodies Down
We must stand up against a tyrannical state power that is clearly moving toward fascism, or more and more of us will wake one day to find families and friends gone.
Audio: Adrienne Rich introduces and reads “What Kind of Times Are These”
the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows
near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted
who disappeared into those shadows
Matthew J. Parker: AI is Stupidity’s BFF
My real life encounters with AI, however, mostly on plagiarized student papers, have proven that when it comes to inventive and even fantastical falsehoods, today’s AI not only surpasses our current president, but is in fact unwittingly in league with him.
Barbara Crooker: Praise Songs for Autumn
Each day, we must learn
again how to love, between morning’s quick coffee
and evening’s slow return.
Brett Wilkins: Trump Murder Spree Continues as Hegseth Says 14 Killed in 3 New Boat Bombings
US forces have conducted over a dozen strikes on alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 57 people, according to Trump administration figures.
Abby Zimet: Pity the Nation/ Whose Shepherds Mislead Them
Amidst plunging polls and righteous rage at his Epstein Memorial Ballroom, the inept manchild faces growing resistance, sublime to ridiculous, to his nascent kingship.
Daniella Toosie-Watson: A Series of Small Miracles
Listen: in this poem, there are no men.
I give to myself & give again.
Steve Nolan: Destroying America, The Brand
A malignant narcissist has come to power.
Cesare Pavese: Notes on Certain Unwritten Poems
The poem he will write is like a door, it opens out to his ability to create; and he will go through that door—he will write other poems, he will exploit the ground and leave it exhausted.
Kyle Schmidlin: Republicans Are Trying to Make Fascism Edgy and Hip
By declaring all opposition to themselves anti-fascism, MAGA isn’t leaving much mystery about their leanings.
Louise Bogan: Simple Autumnal
The measured blood beats out the year’s delay.
The tearless eyes and heart, forbidden grief,
Watch, the burned, restless, but abiding leaf,
The brighter branches arming the bright day.
Norman Solomon: How Corporate Democrats Led to the Trump Era
Corporate-friendly approaches by the Democratic Party set the stage for Trump’s faux “populism” as an imagined solution to the discontent that the corporatism of the Democrats had helped usher in.
Ma Yongbo: Your Voice
Your voice, echoing in the narrow and dark corridor,
continuously echoing, warm and bright,
as if beyond this ordinary dusk
there is no hunger, toil and separation in the world.
