Second Coming No. 108 — May 7, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Patricia Valese
On Duty
Meanwhile, at the top of the mountain stand a few great men. Sometimes they look down and nod and say: Good, the boulder-pushers are still on duty.
—Doris Lessing
There is a way of carrying this thing
of holding up the chest,
without the chin sticking out,
of tightening the stomach
by keeping the breath in
the back straight, like ash bark
or the angle of fir.
There is a way of walking this path,
sure-foot in front of sure-foot,
of scouting the trail for ambush,
the ditches for arrowroot,
the thickets for silkworm,
of tracking the split branch of deerjack
in the still field of game.
There is a way of braving this road,
holding the boulder with both hands,
pushing the wood-mites away,
sneaking past the prisons of Mordor,
through the gray crusted dead leaves,
under the gold statue of Sauron
into the white cloak of day.
Patricia Valese's poems have appeared in Lips, Paterson Literary Review, Liberty St., and other journals. A retired public school teacher who taught language arts and creative writing, she lives in New Jersey.
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.
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