Second Coming No. 165 — July 3, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House and his regime
John Martino
Avatar Blues
Watch me swing in the tree
nice and free. Watch me eat ice
cream. Watch me fall to my knees
and pray for the losing team.
Whither is fled the American Dream?
“Dunno? Maybe never there from
the get-go.” Mother Nature comes
to me. I listen to Her scream,
“Dirty Water! Dirty Sky!”
The crying Indian waves bye-bye.
Cut to close-up of his tear-stained eye
dissolving in a shroud of myth.
I eat a peach and plead the fifth
of top-shelf bourbon, and which
you were probably saving for breakfast.
Forgive me, but I know what I do.
Same old polished well-heeled
shoe. King rooks pawn. Another
sweet, cold corporate con
to fortify the proud, the few.
John Martino’s poems have appeared in Synchronized Chaos, Packingtown Review, Another Chicago Magazine, North Dakota Quarterly, Connotation Press, and other journals. He is an executive editor at Home Planet News and lives in Marseille, France,
Second Coming is a publication of Indolent Books, a haven for poets over 50 without a first book and a welcoming space for women, people of color, queer and trans writers, and others who do not fit molds or conform to expectations.
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