Second Coming No. 252 — September 28, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime — Autumn Equinox Edition
Second Coming has modified its editorial guidelines to allow for more direct reference to the regime and its deeds, without sacrificing the resources of poetry.
What kind of times are these
when to talk about trees is almost a crime
Because it leaves so much atrocity unspoken
—Bertolt Brecht
Two poems by Merrill Cole
Merrill Cole
Doll Camera
The doll’s picture is still empty.
The doll’s picture is not your mirror.
The doll’s suicide wasn’t framed.
It was better when I was a doll.
Dolls are always on vacation.
But the astonishment of the doll is a con.
The doll cannot give herself.
You are mistaken: The doll is not involved.
The doll is as if sealed behind glass.
If the doll talked, she’d say, “Please Don’t Touch.”
The doll camera works, but the pictures can never be developed.
You thought the doll didn’t catch you doing it.
You hoped the doll didn’t mind.
Did the doll get dirty.
The little doll is a stopped clock. Tick. Tock.
Merrill Cole
Evidence
Just point to where
he touched you, mute boy,
the little bruises
spread out like bluebells
in a field that thrilled
you alone. Fading, those Polaroids
wadded into your pants
pocket, hot evidence
against you—but that night
you knew the stars wouldn’t
tell what had developed. The field
went dark, just some
bleeding along the edges.
Merrill Cole’s poems have appeared in Cutbank, The Good Men Project, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Pine Cone Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and other journals. He is the author of the academic book The Other Orpheus: A Poetics of Modern Homosexuality (Routledge 2003) as well as of numerous critical articles. With Gary Schmidt, Cole co-edited Quertext: An Anthology of Queer Voices from German-Speaking Europe (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021). An English professor at Western Illinois University, he holds and MFA from Cornell University and a PhD in English and critical theory from the University of Washington.
Second Coming is a project 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.
Consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a one-time tax-deductible donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) boutique literary press.
