Second Coming No. 143 — June 11, 2025

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

Laura Ann Reed
All You Need

—after Meryl Natchez

It’s Wednesday. The President says, “We don’t want ‘em”
as he expands the travel ban
and our neighbors crank up their stereo loud
enough for us to hear The Beatles
preaching love.

I suppose I could start with forbearance
towards my dentist’s hygienist
who voted Red.
But would that make a difference, really?
Would anything make a difference?

“Still, I’m uneasy doing nothing,”
I say to my husband
as we stand on the porch at twilight
watching the dragonflies
zigzag over the peonies and pines
stitching up the dusk
and taking out the mosquitos with their bloodthirsty goals.
While we go on doing the best we can.

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Laura Ann Reed is the author of the debut poetry collection Homage to Kafka (The Poetry Box, 2025). Her poems have appeared in One Art, The Galway Review, SWIMM, Willawaw Journal, Sheila-Na-Gig, and other journals, as well as in a number of anthologies including Poetry of Presence II: More Mindfulness Poems (Grayson Books, 2023), edited by by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby Wilson. Reed is a contributing editor with The Montréal Review.

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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 occupant of the White House. 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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