Saturday, June 30, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY SEVEN


what are you proud of?

the nights are
are a wasteland of vodka and wine
in the mornings i walk it off
i pass so many homes with flags
sometimes it feels like i’m drowning
i’ve never owned anything with the flag on it
well…that’s not true
the fourth of july after 9/11
my mother bought me a u.s.a t-shirt
that i never wore
and threw away two years later
when i found it while packing to move
on my soberer mornings
or maybe it’s the i-might-still-be-a-little-bit-drunk ones
i want to knock on some patriot’s door
and ask them what’s the deal?
i want to say, hey, fellow citizen
what exactly is it that you are proud of?
what am i not getting from america that you are?
i’m sure they’ll say something
about freedom or liberty
or some other hypocritical crap
that doesn’t sound at all like willful ignorance
or they’ll do something so totally american
like threaten me with a gun
and chase me off their manicured-by-mexicans lawn
i’m willing to bet most of the people with flags
are white and old
and think they made it in this country
out of sheer drive and determination
but that might just be my prejudice showing
in truth
sometimes i wish i could walk around here at night
plucking their flags from their little lawns
and putting them all into a pile
in the middle of the street
set them on fire
and then stroll home humming the national anthem
while they all come out of their pretty homes
screaming and yelling and trying to put out the fire
of course
that’s if i can even remember the words to that stupid song
at this point.

--John Grochalski

Friday, June 29, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY SIX

Politics 103

The greedy
The takers
The abusers
The misusers
They forget we outnumber them
All we need to do is remember that
And act

--Steven B. Smith


Thursday, June 28, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY FIVE

                                       Postcard from Harman WV

she wears camo skirt
british flag t-shirt
waits tables
busses and cooks
in a seven table
four calander restaurant
under the shadow
of a mountain
the woman
ahead pays, tips, says
you work hard
buy yrself something nice;
a gift from jesus

--Jason Baldinger

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY FOUR

Question

If Parrots
are smarter
than a
three year old
and gorillas
learn sign
language having
vocabularies
with hundreds
of words
if we
grow enough
to feed
the world
if computers
beat us
at chess
and give
speeches
to grad
students
if physicists
say God
is only
one equation
away from
being found
and the
next wars
will be
fought in
outer space
then why
are we
all just
standing here
waiting for
the sky
to fall
pretending
there is
nothing
we can
do?

--Matt Borczon

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY THREE

SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT TRUMP

When he stands alone,
if he ever does,
before the maid comes in,
or his aide brings in
his files of morning flattery,
if he ever looks
at his ageing body,
at the shriveled prick
beneath his bulging belly,
does he ever want
to put an end to it
with a pistol
from his gun nut sponsors?
Does he weep a little
and then sniff and straighten?
Does being the president
of the richest nation,
with the biggest army
on the planet
make him less afraid
that he’s a worthless shit?
And that every new day
reinforces it?

--Bruce Hodder

Monday, June 25, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY TWO

Politics 102

What's lower than a politician's morals?
You don't know?
Neither do I.

As for our unPresident
I don't think Little Donnie Chump's cables
are connected correctly.

There's utopia, dystopia, and dat topia.
Mistakes from the past
float through the glass
and bad dance.

--Steven B. Smith

Sunday, June 24, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY ONE


red meat

america separates kids from parents
america puts kids in cages
america eats too much red meat
it watches too much television
america eats red meat for dinner
while it watches kids in cages on television
then it gets on its knees
and praises freedom and the love of god
before america wraps itself in the american flag
and puts its bullshit hypocritical self to bed.

--John Grochalski

                                                           

Saturday, June 23, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and TWENTY

new leader guy

with fifty countries
we should have someone
who can represent us

to the world
who cares about
our needs

limited in power
subject to
the people

we started
the union thing
before Europe

we should
have a person
who cares

maybe one
of our
governors

can represent
our fifty
countries

and maybe we
could call the
countries states

but still each state
is an independent
country

this new
leader guy
or woman

should care
about us
and not himself

should be a
positive force
in the world

should strive
for peace
and not

attack
our
friends

not be
obsequious
to our enemies

he should at least
care about more
than how he looks


--Thomas R. Thomas

Friday, June 22, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and NINETEEN


DONALD TRUMP IS A RAPIST RACIST


                                Photography by John Grochalski

Thursday, June 21, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and EIGHTEEN


Politics 101

Yes we have no problems
we have no problems today
since that slush fund stuff
is more than enough
to buy our final say
sooooooooo
we'll continue to gamble
and amble in ample gambols
because we know a man
who'll pay a man
to sway our yea or nay
though we stink of the sin
of shrink wrap within
and run from our women's dismay
but hey
that's okay
as long as pay continues the play
and belief in relief
enslaves what's beneath
we'll have no problems today

--Steven B. Smith

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and SEVENTEEN

OUCH!



                                            Photography by John Grochalski

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and SIXTEEN


Three Views of High Street

walking down High Street
after dinner, holding
hands and there’s a homeless
man and a passerby
he’s holding the homeless
man’s hand, eyes closed
saying a prayer
I want to say
god doesn’t exist
and I’m tired
of people thinking
thoughts and prayers
instead of direct action
is enough

we talk on the way
to a bar about
what a wreck
West Virginia has become
or always was
 it’s the coal operators
who’ve fucked this state
they’ve taken
huge fortunes on the backs
of broken workers, at the expense
of these states citizens
at the expense of this states
natural beauty.  you know
this is only state where
bombs we’re dropped
by the military on striking
miners, that was barely
one hundred years ago

later, in bed on the sixth
floor of what used to be a
fancy, now tawdry, hotel
we lie in bed, quiet talk
sirens flow constant
she says half serious
we should get married
so you have health insurance
I laugh almost a full minute
finally say if you throw in
your dental plan
I may consider it
she says, what is marriage
good for if not insurance
I say, I guess, but it’s fucked
we have to think that way

--Jason Baldinger

Monday, June 18, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and FIFTEEN


AWKWARD

world villain seems a poor fit
a history of tolerance

always a work in progress
landgrabs from the original inhabitants
centuries of slavery, decades of prejudice

still, the promise of liberty
liberal values, justice for all
free appropriate public education
a pretend lamp our acknowledgment

our beloved democracy
proving anyone can be president
even a tabloid tv star (you know who you are)
never one thought toward public service
in fact, against it!

nobody’s perfect
bombast only goes so far
our children at risk

I was a child
our country a hero
US, world villain
gonna take some getting used to

--Chuck Joy

Sunday, June 17, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and FOURTEEN

election 2016 (revisited)

you hated her?

....you should've hated him more.

--John Grochalski

Saturday, June 16, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and THIRTEEN

dangerous Myan woman
small as a child
illegal for entering

my country
fleeing thugs from
her country

crying in court
in her orange
jumpsuit

missing her baby
stolen from her
pleading forgiveness

for loving her child
for fearing death
for believing

my country
is better
than hers

--Thomas R. Thomas