Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/category/arts-cultural-critique/poetry__fiction/page/4/)
She fumbled for the bedside lamp as her husband asked who was it now, for the love of Pete, and what made college students think they could wake up their professors in the middle of the night. She kissed his forehead and told him it was probably one of those wrong numbers again.
“And the moment I was able to look them / in the eye, they opened theirs, // as surprised as I was to find themselves alive.” A new poem from Jon Swan.
“someone came back / from the edge of the world […] / chanting the word tolerance / over and over, as if / that would change anything.” A new poem from Steven Kleinman.
“The sea that tumbles onto shore is not the sea / we waded in as kids. We’ve changed its nature.” A new poem from Jon Swan.
“The problem was excusable, almost: / that they thought there should be a place / in the world that would welcome them. / But why?” A new poem from Steven Kleinman.
“Swaddled in sweet fiction / they will rise from the ground again / laughing like the cheaters they are.” A new poem from Kim Roberts.
“Your wings are institutions, and therefore / too slow. / They weigh you down.” A new poem from Stephanie Burt.
“so now we […] may nightly observe […] the deft undoing of what we once / had thought would long endure.” A new poem from Jon Swan.
“And then there will be another election, / and then the takers of bribes will be shown the door, / or possibly fed to the dogs.” Two new poems from Stephanie Burt.
“This is / why every day I thank God / I was born a woman.” A new poem from Julie R. Enszer.
In this powerful poem, Hilton Obenzinger uses dark humor to address our gun crisis. “So much to shoot and so little time/ Let’s shoot the small quiet wind . . .”
In this poem, Liz Marlow speaks to the fear of bullets killing our loved ones. “I know the unlikeliness / of a bullet / shot into the air / killing / my children . . . ”
Richard Michelson reflects on the Pittsburgh massacre: “An anguish of mothers / A coward of congressmen / A plague of Martyrs / A martyr of angels.”
J. David Cummings’s poem calls for solidarity in grief: “he taught me that the grieving heart / speaks everywhere a single prayer.”
