Second Coming No. 13 – Feb. 1, 2025

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current presidential administration

Lynn Schmeidler
After Blaming DEI for the DC Plane Crash, Trump Explains

It just could have been.
We have a high standard.
We’ve had a much higher standard than anybody else.

And there are things where you have to go by
brainpower. You have to go by psychological quality,
and psychological quality is a very important element of it.

These are various, very powerful tests that we put to use.
So we don’t know. And, we’ll see. We’re going to see.
Because I have common sense.

I would not hesitate to fly.
We’ve already hired some of the people that you already hired
for that position long before we knew about this.

I mean, long before, from the time I came in,
we started going out and getting the best people because I said
“It’s not appropriate what they’re doing.”

I think it’s a tremendous mistake.
They like to do things, and they like to take them too far.
And this is sometimes what ends up happening.

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Lynn Schmeidler’s poems have appeared in The Awl, Barrow Street, Boston Review, The Los Angeles Review and other literary magazines. History of Gone (Veliz Books), was shortlisted for the Sexton Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Anhinga-Robert Dana Prize for Poetry. She also published two chapbooks, Curiouser & Curiouser (Winner of the Grayson Books Chapbook Prize), and Wrack Lines (Finalist for the Comstock Review Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Contest and Finalist for the Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize). Schmeidler is also the author of the award-winning short story collection Half-Lives (Autumn House Press).

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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 presidential administration. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

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

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If you like Second Coming and you want to support the work of Indolent Books and volunteer chief cook and bottle washer Michael Broder, consider making a donation to Indolent Arts, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor of Indolent Books.

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