Second Coming No. 7 – Jan. 26, 2025
A poem-a-day series in creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current presidential administration
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Henry Israeli
The Ceremony of Innocence
We walked home through a field where
an oil rig and a family of deer compete
for resources. From the winds of attrition
fell the first flakes of a nuclear winter
in a child’s memory of the 1970s.
Lying in the grass, staring at the sky,
watching clouds tell fantastic lies—
that was heaven in a child’s eyes.
In those days, we could still feel the earth
rotating and spinning beneath us.
Now the deer wander empty streets
and we hole up inside our homes
with shades closed, our children watching
the great summer fires on black screens.
Sleep well, children, don’t worry if
the barbed wire meant to protect you
also snags the most beautiful songbirds.
Henry Israeli is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Our Age of Anxiety (White Pine Poetry Prize, 2019), and god’s breath hovering across the waters, (Four Way Books, 2016), and as editor, Lords of Misrule: 20 Years of Saturnalia Books (Saturnalia, 2022). He is also the translator of three critically acclaimed books by Albanian poet Luljeta Lleshanaku. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals including American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Plume, and The Harvard Review, as well as several anthologies including Best American Poetry. Henry Israeli is also the founder and editor of Saturnalia Books, and teaches in the English & Philosophy Department of Drexel University.
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 presidential administration. 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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This is a great idea.