Second Coming No. 325 — December 10, 2025

A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime

Tony Medina
Edvard Munch in Gaza

Where are all the fig leaves
Which way is the wind blowing
Sea salt blackens
My eyes, once acquainted
With the sun

O do I long for a breeze
Unaccompanied by gunshot
Residue

This black air once
Whistled
With the flits and chirps
Of sunbirds

Now I can only hear
The faint tinny ringing
In my head trying to
Reconcile with what
I see with my stinging eyes

Mouths wrenched open
In agony

Screaming
But not screaming, lips
Wavering like wind-
Battered flags

In the suffocating
Silence

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Tony Medina is the author of the poetry collection Death, With Occasional Smiling (Indolent Books, 2021) as well as numerous other books across multiple genres for adults and young readers. His Serious Trouble: Poems Selected, Poems New is forthcoming from Third World Press. Winner of the 2025 Letras Boricuas Fellowship through The Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyán Arts Fund, Medina's other honors include the National Black Writers Conference Nikki Giovanni Award. Born in the South Bronx, he holds a PhD from Binghamton University and is Associate Chair and Director of Creative Writing at Howard University.

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