Second Coming No. 51 — March 11, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Ted Millar
Constitutional Crisis
My son and father are enjoying their time together bass fishing over there. By the time I return from this traipse among the pines they’ll still be angling for something to make our trip to the Adirondacks worthwhile. It’s moments like this I’m glad I always carry reading material. I bet I’m the only person you know walks around with a pocket Constitution. I start with the Bill of Rights. I’m through all twenty-seven amendments before I look up again to see me son has snagged a couple little shallow dwellers and is chasing a frog. I figure I might then be able to get through the first two articles by the time they’re ready to call it quits, but I’m onto the judicial branch’s responsibilities delineated in Article three, then four and five, and still nothing resembling a capitulation to uncaught fish. By the time it’s getting too dark to continue expecting to catch anything, I’ve finished Article seven where the framers supplied their John Hancocks. I peer up through the fog settling around us at a “Trump WON!” flag snapping on a cabin porch, and I’m chilly, unprotected all of a sudden against the elements
Ted Millar‘s poetry, essays, and flash fiction have appeared in journals including ephemera, A Sufferer’s Digest, Middle West Press, redrosethorns, and 365 Tomorrows, among others. He lives in the Hudson Valley and teaches high school English.
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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