His Marine uniform,
Glittered in the strobe-light,
Swirling conversations pausing,
To applaud.
He grins, swiftly, saluting.
To the drag queens, shirtless men,

And:
"As you were."

© James Schwartz

Gay military members come out and celebrate
--------------------------------------------------------
Poet and slam performer, James Schwartz strives for the simplicity of Cavafy mixed with modern gay wordplay. His book, The Literary Party: Growing Up Gay and Amish in America, was published by in Group Press in 2011.

Barack and bill
Went up the Hill
To try to save the dollar;
Talks broke down
Between the clowns
And markets tumbled after.

© Anthony Baverstock

US debt crisis: Republican budget proposal passed in House of Representatives
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony Baverstock is from Colchester, reputed home of Humpty-Dumpty.

Red, red, red—
government control, swords
upon babies’ heads, staining
mothers’ souls.

Infanticide, gendercide, suicide—
taken from the streets;
nowhere to hide
from the slaughter of daughters.

Red, red, red—
abortion, coercion, sterilization,
feminine damnation,
perpetration, denies God’s creation.

Rein, reign, rain—
drowning full term babies
females plucked
and crushed like weeds.

Rein, reign, rain—
taking living, breathing
human beings, throwing
them away.

© Wynne Huddleston

Congress Must Cut UNFPA Funds to Stop Forced Abortions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wynne Huddleston’s poetry can be read in nearly 40 publications. She is the winner of the 2010 Lifepress Grandmother Earth Environmental Poetry Contest. Learn more about Wynne, HERE.

The photograph depicts a man at war.
You will have seen him many times before,
the still, stunned face of shock and awe,
his gaunt and gallowed gaze, full of dread,
replaying the howling horrors in his head.

His boneless body rests against the rocks,
the while his mind makes memories to mock
the dazzled, dream-filled boy, the cost
of whose survival has climbed so high
he thinks, one day of this despair he’ll die.

The photograph depicts the hell of war.
You will have seen it many times before
and gazed with eyes of shock and awe;
and wondered at the man who caught his look
and used his grief, to bring us all to book.

© Rachel North
Memorial Day tributes as US suffers its 1,500th casualty in Afghanistan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rachel is a Nurse, who has a passion for writing creatively.

Syrians suffer,
the revolution defied,
Libyans protected,
by the jets in the sky,
the answers unsettling as to the reasons why,
Libyans valued more than Syrians.

© Douglas Polk

Syria: Eyewitness accounts
---------------------------------
Douglas is a poet from Nebraska. He has published three books of poetry; In My Defense, The Defense Rests, and On Appeal.

It won't take long to tour
Foreclosure Row. Cul-de-sac
of lost gambles, vanished
neighbors, untended lawns.
Paradise for profiteers
and vagabonds who may yet
prosper. See this
kitchen, stainless-steeled and
backsplashed, where
a bowl of pears still sits
atop the granite. All the
juice, ripeness, satisfaction
leached away. The rotting flesh
a feast for flies and worms.

© Erika Dreifus

Slumburbia

Erika Dreifus lives in New York City. Her poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Christian Science Monitor, Moment magazine, and others. She is also the author of Quiet Americans: Stories. Please visit her website at www.erikadreifus.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Erika Dreifus
Author of Quiet Americans: Stories
Website
Twitter

"You could say 'hi' and 'bye-bye,'
but all our friends' children,
even the ones younger than you,
were speaking in sentences.
We didn't worry (well, not much)
because we knew you could read.
You were about eighteen months.
We bundled you up, went for a walk.
There was a British Petroleum
gas station across the street—
that's what it was called back then,
British Petroleum—
and right there, in your stroller,
you let your thumb fall from your mouth,
you pointed to the sign and you yelled,
'B P!'
We didn't tell too many people.
We didn't want to brag."



© Erika Dreifus


28 Feb 2011: NIH launches largest oil spill health study
--------------------------------------
Erika Dreifus lives in New York City. Her poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Christian Science Monitor, Moment magazine, and others. She is also the author of Quiet Americans: Stories. www.erikadreifus.com

We overslept
the American Dream.
The Industrial Revolution
was a nightmare.

We can lie all day
in the bed we made
because our jobs have gone
South of the Border.
The American flag
is “made in China.”
Our “buy now pay later”
bill is due.

© Colleen Redman
Made in America: A Brief History of U.S. Manufacturing

Colleen Redman: In the same way a baby puts everything in his mouth to see what it is like, I put words on paper.

I also blog daily at Loose Leaf Notes. http://looseleafnotes.com

Senator Cunningham,
you yearn for the days
of chimney sweeps?
Stunning ma’am.

Allowing a company
to hire their kid
won't smoke out a job
for Mom or for Dad.

State Senator Jane Cunningham Wants to Put Missouri Kids to Work

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Newmark lives in St. Louis, Missouri, performing his poetry at
local cafes. He is slightly obsessed with genealogy research; his
militia ancestor later deserted, turning United Empire Loyalist.

Website: http://www.transylvaniandutch.com

They wait in line for their daily meal.
They wait with sporadic grumbling,
the occasional outburst,
the letter to whom it may concern,
the odd lawsuit.
When the roller coaster comes
sweeping through some try
crazily to jump on while others try
desperately to jump off.
Few are successful.
Carefully comparing scratches,
carefully ignoring the fallen,
they wait.

© Mark Kerstetter

“Job openings fall for second straight month” —AP news, February 8, 2011

Photo: Steve Harts

Mark Kerstetter steals time away from restoring an old house in Florida to write poetry and make art out of salvaged wood. He blogs at The Bricoleur.