Second Coming No. 95 — April 24, 2025

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House

Roberta Spivek
Photo from CECOT

Head bowed, legs
stretched out in a vee,
the man sits, his nearly
naked groin mashed
into the prisoner’s
buttocks in formation
before him. His head’s
shaved so close,
I feel a vein throb.
Against the wall,
guards finger their guns.
There are too many
prisoners to count.
I don’t try.

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Roberta Spivek‘s poems have appeared in Muleskinner Journal, Naugatuck River Review, New Croton Review, Ritualwell, One Art, and other journals. She is the former editor of Peace & Freedom, journal of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, and former economic justice coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee.

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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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