Second Coming No. 41C — March 1, 2025

Part of a SPECIAL EDITION of several poems over the course of today in solidarity with President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine

Lou Orfanella
Back in the USSR

Where have you gone King Richard?
Your ill-advised surreptitious reel-to-reel recordings
Were at least kept under lock and key
Until there was no damage left to be done
Never did you publicly malign a foreign leader
Or throw one to the curb like a lover scorned
You continued to seek “peace with honor” abroad
While sinking amid chaos on the home front
And you stepped aside rather than
Attempting to masquerade as a president
While striving for a dictator’s throne

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Lou Orfanella is the author of the poetry collections Radical Acceptance and Unexpected Guests among many other books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His essays, columns, reviews, and poems have appeared in periodicals including The New York Daily News, College Bound, English Journal, World Hunger Year Magazine, Discoveries, Teacher Magazine, and New York Teacher. He holds degrees from Columbia University and Fordham University. (And as his college floor mate, I can attest that he is an inveterate Beatles fan. —Ed.)

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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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