Second Coming No. 135 — June 3, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House and his regime
Pam Sinicrope
A Walk Around Willow Creek Reservoir
He knows the way.
I know the way.
The way is simple,
a circle around water.
Toby tenses, his tail pointing
to the stench of manure and mold.
He erupts from the car
like a horse at the starting gate,
but then quickly circles back,
nose to the snow-patched mud,
more like a truffle pig.
I remember the time Toby leapt
into the blue-green, broke habit
to bag a goose, how they performed
a water ballet, his circling
while she dove, resurfaced,
dove, and resurfaced
until he gave up.
But today, we’re working
with winterkill. Dead fish,
their stink, laces the shore.
Rolling and wagging,
he perfumes himself
with death. Why do I struggle
to start the circle?
Do I turn right to open
sky or left into the complexity
of trees, weeds, and shifty slopes?
No matter the choice,
I need to, I must go through
all of it. I feel stuck.
Inaction is not a choice.
But winter is breaking.
The ice floats the current
like little boats dissipating
into a multiverse manned by geese.
Just in case I’m never seen again,
I post pictures, share my location.
Being alone is thrilling,
But I keep my ears tuned
to the frequency
of male malfeasance,
to the footfalls of the serial killers,
rapists, and right-wing politicians
my fear-mongering mother installed
in my school-girl hippocampus.
Closing clouds, slipping sun, the ceaseless wind,
tongue-tied. We are automatons,
pre-programmed. Toby circles me
in ever-increasing arcs,
makes sure I do not disappear.
Pam Sinicrope‘s poems have appeared in Anti-Heroin Chic, The Night Heron Barks, Poems in the Afterglow, FERAL, SWWIM Every Day, and other journals. Sinicrope holds an MFA from Augsburg University and a doctorate in public health from the University of Texas-Houston. She lives in Rochester, MN with her husband, her mother-in-law, and their Pudelpointer, Toby.
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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