Second Coming No. 33 — Feb. 21, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Karen Elizabeth Sharpe
Safe as Houses: A Duplex
The dim blue light of the world fills my hand.
A palm full of god seekers stuck in my phone.
I seek too but no gods hide in my phone.
There is only a cage of streaming news.
Only a cage of conflicting news streams.
Wars of every kind and blasted buildings.
Wars in every place and blasted buildings.
Children, deserted, wallowing in rubble.
Desert mothers, elders swallowing rubble.
At my house, the polite sky calmly beams.
A birdhouse, a yellow cat, blessedly beams.
Once upon a time, I too believed in god.
Just once, though, and then, like you, I forgot.
This dim blue light fills the world, my hand
Karen Elizabeth Sharpe is the author of Prayer Can Be Anything (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and This Late Afternoon (Dunn & Company, 2004). Her poems appear in SWWIM Every Day, Split Rock Review, Mom Egg Review, Cagibi, and Halfway Down the Stairs, among others. She is a poetry editor at The Worcester Review.
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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