Second Coming No. 154 — June 22, 2025

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

Janna Schledorn
One Tuesday

What if these pink clouds
flung low across the rooftops
filled everyone with wonder?
Or just the neighbors,
all of us jumping off our couches,
rolling away from TVs and computers,
working moms sliding off home office chairs,
untucking children from early bedtimes,
all in the street heralding the end of the day.

A great day.
A day where everyone had a picnic
with chocolate and tangerines,
went on a morning or afternoon walk
and saw a wild rabbit, a respite of daisies,
or heard the crisp mockingbird song.
And here we all are now
running out of our houses
saying goodbye, day,
thank you! thank you!

And the clouds in the west
turn oranger
and we’re out here still
as the day gets stiller
and one person holds another person’s hand.
Hold on, we say, hold on.

And then the purple twilight carries us,
maybe a few neighbors have gone inside.
Maybe just two or three of us are left
as the stillness lifts
and the nightbirds call
still filling us with wonder,
query, and grace.

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Janna Schledorn is the author of the chapbook Those Nine Days (Barnes & Noble Press, 2021). Her poems have appeared in The Marbled Sigh, SWWIM, Presence, Adanna, Amethyst Review, and other journals, as well as in the anthologies Phenomenal Women (Laura Riding Jackson Foundation Press, 2023) and Mother Mary Comes to Me: A Pop Culture Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2020). Schledorn teaches composition and creative writing at Eastern Florida State College.

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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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