Second Coming No. 470 — May 4, 2026
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime
Tom Driscoll
Dust, Your Only Offering
Dust, your only offering: dust risen
from the ground as if that would answer
the terrible noise from out of the sky, darting
shadows —you take your child’s hand, try
to speak, to answer, to explain the terrible noise
and silence comes instead, or an unsaying.
You take your child’s hand and ask
if he hears what you’ve tried to tell him
and still: silence, that voice saying one word
or unsaying everything you’ve ever said:
each truth, each sweet consoling lie you’ve tried
as your dry throat closes, your black heart
broken clay darkened by blood instead of rain.
This silence unsaying everything you’ve ever said
—he does not hear, you cannot hear yourself
even as your dry throat closes, your black heart
can no longer pretend wisdom, courage, prayer.
Again, from out of the sky, darting shadows,
another shudder in the deafened silence.
Your only offering: dust risen from the ground.
Tom Driscoll Is the author of the poetry collection The Champion of Doubt (Finishing Line Press, 2023). His poems have appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Oddball Magazine, The Letter Review, Riversays, Abraxas Review, and other journals, as well as in several journals produced by Moonstone Arts Center, including Yearning to Breathe Free: Poetry from the Immigrant Community (2017). He lives and works in Lowell, Massachusetts.
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