A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Ruth Nicholson
Sonnet for the Absent Poet

Diminished by the threat of winter’s harm,
the ceremony still involves a throng
of luminaries, special guests who charm
with tributes, reminiscences, or song.
But notice, there’s no poet here today—
no chance to greet a new prophetic voice.
No hand placed on the Bible to affirm
a covenant with all who made a choice.
The dais groans with men of property.
A musky scent hangs heavy in the air.
The leader who has promised unity
instead spews insults, proves he does not care.
Burned featherless by hatred, choked by lies,
democracy’s canary slumps and dies.

Ruth Nicholson‘s poems have appeared in Persimmon Tree, Emrys Journal, Kakalak, Fall Lines, and American Journal of Nursing. A Pennsylvania native now retired from a long career as a public librarian, she lives in West Columbia, SC.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Davidson Garrett
Clobbering Culture

          Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
          —William Shakespeare

On many glorious occasions
I embarked on pilgrimages 
to the iconic Kennedy Center

located in the heart of Washington 
to hear the magnificent soprano
Leontyne Price in recital.

In the sold out Opera House
this legendary Diva of All Divas
(considered an American treasure)

poured forth creamy halcyon sounds
from well known classical composers 
such as Strauss, Puccini & Verdi 

mesmerizing rapt audiences
with a distinctive golden/bronze voice 
sent to planet Earth by Almighty God. 

At the end of these special concerts
I always dashed down the aisle
tossing red roses to Miss Price

begging for more encores—
aware I was in the presence
of Art Incarnate.

And now, a crass classless felon—
spoiled brat hatched in Queens
famous as a reality TV showman  

begins to abruptly dismantle
a beloved cultural institution
appointing demonic nitwits 

to its Board of Directors
governing this hallowed landmark
naming himself—Chairman.

Surely Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
must be spinning in her grave
at Arlington National Cemetery.

Davidson Garrett is the author of the poetry collections King Lear of the Taxi (Advent Purple Press, 2006) and Arias of a Rhapsodic Spirit (Kelsay Books, 2020) as well as of the chapbook Cabaletta (Finishing Line Press, 2022). A Manhattan-based actor and former New York City taxi driver, he trained for the theater at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated from City College.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Kryssa Schemmerling
Coming of Age

Flashback: California, 1980.
I’m in the car with my mother
who’s running late to cast a ballot
for Carter. We turn on the radio—

he’s already conceding.
This is the moment I learn
that the bad guy can win
and keep on winning,

that a B-movie actor who named names
and unleashed the National Guard
on student demonstrations
was the beginning

of an end where a reality TV star
ascends to the White House, not once
but twice. I grew up trying
to rewrite this script with

my feet. March, knock on doors.
Call politicians who don’t
pick up their phones. Wring, wring, wring
my hands. Still, the plot

unfolds against our will. The protestors
got old, People’s Park has fallen
but Grover Norquist
is alive. We are living

his dream: government gutted,
democracy drowned
like an unwanted animal
in a bathtub.

Kryssa Schemmerling is the author of the poetry collection Iris In (Broadstone Books, 2016). Her poems have been appeared in The Cortland Review, Mudlark, 2River, Glint, and Silver Birch Press, among other journals. A 2022 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow in Screenwriting, Schemmerling holds an MFA in film from Columbia University and teaches screenwriting at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn and at Rutgers University in New Jersey. A California native, she lives in Brooklyn.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Myra Malkin
Anti-Ode to Ken Paxton, Attorney-General of Texas, and Willing Lady-Killer

—He jes’ loves those tiny little foetuses,
Ken does!

Keep ‘em in the womb, for the whole nine moons
—even if they’re dead, even if they’re doomed.
Handy little prunes, thinks pro-life Ken.

But listen, Ken, we called up God—
he couldn’t have been nicer, that Great White Shard.
God, we said, could you confirm
that every foetus has to go to term?

God says: huh?
God says: wha?                                  

God says: sometimes it’s better to abort.
God says: let’s keep the suffering short.
(Why do we have to have suffering at all?
—we’ll save that for another call.)

God says justice does take time,
but he’ll make the punishment fit the crime.

Down there in Hell, Ken, there ain’t any bans:
Devil’s gonna get you and make you TRANS!
Take away your night-stick, fit you with a womb—
a thousand Kenny-foetuses, all of ‘em in bloom.
No more trying to Tyrannosaurus Rex us
—you’ll own a uterus that’s heftier than Texas.
Great big padlock, between your legs,
that says NO EXIT to the sperms with eggs.

Morning sickness, each day of the week.
Pre-eclampsia’s malaise-boutique.
Maybe some gestational hypertension?
Hyperemesis? Yeast infection?

Have fun, Ken!

You’ll stay pregnant for e-ter-ni-tee,
a convex colossus of fe-cund-i-tee.
You’ll be your very own ball and chain.
You’re gonna wax—and you’re never gonna wane.

God says Kenny’s gonna get what’s due:
what you did unto others will be done to you.

Hit it, band—

He jes’ loves those tiny little foetuses.
He jes’ loves those tiny little foetuses.
He jes’ LOVES those tiny little foetuses,

Ken does!

Author’s Notes:

In 2023, a Texas court ruled that Kate Cox, because of the foetus’s condition and the resulting danger to the mother, was entitled to a medical-exemption abortion. Ken Paxton threatened to prosecute any doctor who performed an abortion on Cox; he appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, and they paused it. Cox had to get her abortion in another state.  

In 2024, Paxton charged a NYS doctor, Maggie Carpenter, with prescribing abortion medication to a Texas patient, via telemedicine. In 2025, he charged a midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, with doing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without a license.

In 2025, a Paxton opinion said that transgender people can’t change their sex on driver’s licenses and birth certificates, and that court orders permitting such changes are void.

Myra Malkin is the author of Sunset Grand Couturier (Broadstone Books, 2022), and a chapbook, No Lifeguard on Duty (Mainstreet Rag, 2010). She started out as an actress (mostly way off Broadway) and was a legal services attorney in upstate New York. She now lives in New York City.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

J.I. Kleinberg
Three Visual Poems

The news

they always

to withstand

J.I. Kleinberg is the author of the visual poetry collection She needs the river (Poem Atlas, 2024) and the visual poetry chapbooks How to pronounce the wind (Paper View Books, 2023) and Desire’s Authority (Ravenna Press, 2023). Kleinberg’s visual poems have appeared in The Indianapolis Review, OJAL Art, Venti, Poemeleon, and other journals. She lives in Bellingham, Wash.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Jen Hirt
By Design

          As soon as I saw it, I said, “That is the coolest design.”
          —DJT at Tesla Cybertruck event on the White House lawn, March 11, 2025

The grocery’s egg case, empty on
my last visit, is full and regulated:
One carton per customer per day.
A friendly yellow circle of a
sign, like a yolk. Compliant customers
take a carton and continue.

Outside, a Tesla truck takes a handicapped
space. No placard, no plate. Not busy; there are
other spaces. I watch a man notice too
and he circles, slowly. He is holding his phone and I
am holding my breath.

The driver is in the store,
is into exoskeletons, steel cold-rolled, a pick-up
without paint, the triangle-theory of truck,
maybe also autocracy, the project of this year, maybe
they are buying one carton of eggs, maybe not.
Maybe they are just taking as much as they want
because that’s more efficient.

Cartons keep their eggs
from cracking; a Cybertruck’s steel will
never dent. But it can burn.
What is that if not a design for living.

In the landscape of fear concept,
ecologists observe how vegetation thrives
when prey’s project is caution, not consumption.
Where there is enough for everyone briefly
instead of billions for one forever.

In the landscape of no fear, prey grow
sedentary, salute that one space closer to the entrance.
Their guy won. The bug was a feature.
It’s great again to think only of yourself.

Cybertrucks get featured as design disrupters.
They just remind me of groundhogs, the
opposite of design or disruption, the fattest
chucks forgetting fear to feed in one spot until
their faces seem tiny, necks lost to bloat.
No consequences. No predators left, by design.

The man circling is still taking pictures.
I watch him through the window at check-out,
my carton of eggs bagged carefully
as if the carton is never enough,
as if breaking an egg brings only regret,
as if we all should walk on eggshells.

Psychologists and ecologists talk
about “spatial patterns of risk perception”
in our landscapes of fear and consequences.
I could take my eggs and go, on tip-toe. Instead,
I catch the eye of a manager. I’m by design
a predator with a project, here to make you

move, so people who
need the space of democracy
can have back that coolest design.

Jen Hirt is the author of the essay collection Hear Me Ohio (U. Akron Press, 2020), the poetry chapbook Too Many Questions About Strawberries (Tolsun Books, 2018), and the memoir Under Glass (U. Akron Press, 2010), as well as co-editor with Tina Mitchell of the anthology Kept Secret: The Half-Truth in Nonfiction (Michigan State U. Press, 2017) and with Erin Murphy of the anthology Creating Nonfiction: Twenty Essays and Interviews With the Writers (SUNY Press, 2016). Hirt edits the Journal of Creative Writing Studies and is an associate professor of creative writing at Penn State Harrisburg.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Barbara Lipp
It’s a Feature Not a Bug

What’s become of the Land of the Free?
Well, it was never for all, there was no guarantee.
It’s only for people who look more like me.
Others were hung from the branch of a tree.

What’s become of the home of the brave?
The founding fathers turn in their graves.
They had a good plan but they also had slaves.
Their plan’s now in tatters, not much left to save.

It’s quite a contemptuous version of wisdom
To hand AI chatbots the keys to the kingdom.
Oligarchs, billionaires, friends and relations
Have taken the reigns of our floundering nation.

Malevolent pride consumes all in its path
The slightest of slights will unleash its wrath.
It cares about nothing except retribution,
And laughs in the face of our land’s Constitution.

Fearing tyranny’s scorching hot blast,
Fearing how long this bad dream may last,
Fearing tomorrow and mourning the past,
Fascism’s stench has arrived much too fast.

The voters who chose this must now own their choice.
The people have spoken, with rancorous voice.
A creeping malignancy’s now in full swing.
My dear, defunct country, of thee I sing.

Barbara Lipp is the author of the books Ask Marcel: Sage Advice from a Wise Cat (2025) and Pandemica: A Souvenir of a Most Dreadful Year (2022). Alongside her day job as a graphic designer, Lipp appeared as a performance artist in New York City clubs, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and on Late Night with David Letterman. Her collaborative videos have been shown in art museums worldwide. Now retired, she lives and writes in Peekskill, NY.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Gail Thomas
Nowhere to Hide

When my three-year-old ears heard
hooves clop and wagons creak
on our unpaved street, I dove
under my parents’ bed. Fear
of the ragman who shouted
Rags, bring out your rags.
I was warned to be good or
he’d come for a naughty girl.

Now, my old ears hear
the rattle and whirl of wind
banging windows. Not fear
of the storm, but howls of
the bully-child who would
be king of white America

who betrays
grandmothers and grandfathers
who worked underground, laid
tracks, poured steel, taught
children, planted wheat,
soldiered,
who paid with taxes
and blood.

When we are silent, we are still afraid.
So it is better to speak,
wrote Audre Lorde.
So we say black/gay/trans
Say race/ethnicity/immigrant
Say women/bias/gender
Say climate crisis
Say injustice

The rag man of our age
erases history, recycles chaos.
When our voices drown out
his lies, we will hear
red/white/blue
again.

Gail Thomas is the author of Leaving Paradise (Human Error Publishing, 2022) and five other poetry collections that have garnered a number of awards. Her poems have appeared in One Art, Summerset Review, SWWIM, Nixes Mate, among other journals, as well as in anthologies. A former high school English teacher and college professor, Thomas lives in Western Massachusetts and teaches poetry with the Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop in Northampton.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Janna Schledorn
Pineapple Avenue

I

Janna Schledorn is the author of the chapbook Those Nine Days (Barnes & Noble Press, 2021). Her poems have appeared in The Marbled Sigh, SWWIM, Presence, Adanna, and other journals, as well as in the anthologies Phenomenal Women (Laura Riding Jackson Foundation Press, 2023) and Mother Mary Comes to Me: A Pop Culture Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2020). Schledorn teaches composition and creative writing at Eastern Florida State College.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Kris Beaver
When pressed on Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson, he said

he was being a little bit sarcastic,
a little bit rock and roll
over Rover, a skosh jokester
about war in the Ukraine,
itching to start bitching
and blame. He was a tad
mad as a hatter, a pinch
within an inch of firing
some other stupid sucker
he can’t even name. Eager
to beleaguer any opposing
fucker brave enough to call
him out online, in public,
on AM radio, cable news TV.
It’s all a Ponzi scheme, you see.
DEI, EPA, Dept of Ed, SSA, VA,
Medicare, Medicaid, Kennedy
Center, national parks all
Monopoly property to desiccate,
overtake, rape. It’s rotten mojo.
Kinda criminal. Same old same old.
Don’t take him so seriously.
His comment was a fluke.
No fool could end war with Russia
in 24 hours without firing off a nuke.

Kris Beaver’s poems have appeared in Bracken Magazine, Rattle, Mezzo Cammin, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, and Ergo! among other publications.  A retired elementary school teacher, Kris lives and writes poetry in the sublime Pacific Northwest.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

If you like Second Coming and you want to support it, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

You can use the form below to donate as little as $1.00 (not visible in the email version of this post) or use this link to visit our donation page where you can donate as little as $1.00 or choose titles from the Indolent Books catalogue as thank-you gifts for donations starting at $25.00—The more you give, the more thank-you gift books you get, up to six books for a donation of $100 or more.