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It’s all in my head, the morning news,
mourning cities and synagogues.
I sit here muttering until
my mouth goes dry,
fingers cramp around the pen.
Sorrow is below,...
I’ve been called names,
unhinged, wacko names,
un-American and treasonous.
The angry mob. Evil.
I’ve been called evil.
I incite Hondurans to walk
a thousand miles for refuge.
I’m hunger, nights on...
Brilliant trees
drop
their gold.
Today’s Supreme Court
nominee
Yesterday’s boozy rapist
Humphrey’s voice
for civil rights against
his Southern colleagues
only to take
the progressive teeter
to Johnson’s Texas totter
At a too perfect fall...
A reporter stands knee deep
in swirling prairie
while wind bullies the mic.
Pushing hair from her face,
she tells viewers about plans
to develop this vastness.
The camera scans...
Three Bars of Summer 2018
Karen Betstadt
I.
Hard brown coating constrains
the running of cold white cream.
I study the brown rectangle.
choose a corner; bite.
Like a skater falling
through...
Everyone’s cranky. The bees
are cross though they don’t know the president,
though they take a dim view
of outsiders to their hives, though they guard
sweet wealth...