Second Coming No. 41E — 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

Lisa Andrews
I’ve been meaning to thank you.

Forgive me for taking so long to thank you,
but the list—Vance knows—is so long,
and, really, how to thank you is a question
I’ve been asking myself. Is there enough ink
in this pen? Enough rare earth in this phone?
Enough blood and bone in each finger to thank you
for taking democracy to the tanning booth,
where you lie (but always with that long, red tie).
Something covers your eyes. How to thank you?
Vance, too, for helping me in this matter.
How doubly forgetful of me. The lies
are so beautiful. I have eaten them all.

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Lisa Andrews is the author of The Inside Room (Indolent Books 2018) and Dear Liz (Indolent Books 2016). Her poems have appeared in Cagibi, Cordella, Gargoyle, POSTstranger, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Zone 3, as well as in anthology Braving the Body (Harbor Editions 2024), edited by Nicole Callihan, Pichchenda Bao, and Jennifer Franklin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, visual artist Tony Geiger.

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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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