Second Coming No. 122 — May 21, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House and his regime
Tina Barry
What I Don’t Need to Share with Mother Now That She’s Dead
Ask me again how her death has changed me,
because I remember the story of the letter,
condolences from a Russian relative with tragic news:
deaths of Grandmother’s father and mother,
eight sisters slaughtered. Did she ever
forget the pounding feet, dogs howling,
Germans looting?
How could she? Mother’s dead so I don’t have to tell her how
ICE hides their faces behind masks. Not just
Jews this time. There are enough “others” to
keep hate sated. Raids in Atlanta and Aurora, in
Los Angeles, and a woman holding a baby in Worcester,
Massachusetts trying to block an ICE car. Crowds link arms in
Nashville and Newark, but no one can save the immigrants.
Oh, not to tell Mother of Proud Boys, toxic rabbits ready to pounce.
Prisoners in El Salvador, rows of men, heads shaved, deathly
quiet, folded and turned upon each other like dominos.
Revolution! she’d say, after Cobb County protesters zapped with
stun guns. Mother may be dead, but at least she’s not in
Texas.
Unburdened, untethered, let men lust for her, their arms heavy with
violets and chocolate cakes. Let every dog she’s ever loved be waiting,
wet-nosed and adoring. She’ll never know the
xenophobia for the Mexican, the African, the Honduran
youth whose shaking looked like dance. Nope, no sharing now.
Zip, nada, fine.Tina Barry is the author of I Tell Henrietta (Aim Higher, Inc., 2024), Beautiful Raft (Big Table Publishing, 2019) and Mall Flower (Big Table Publishing, 2016). Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in New Verse News, Rattle, Verse Daily, One Art, SWWIM, Gyroscope, and other journals. She teaches at The Poetry Barn and Writers[.]com.
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.
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I love the line, "Mother may be dead, but at least she's not in Texas."
"Mother may be dead, but at least she's not in Texas."
I say this often of myself.