Second Coming No. 504 — June 7, 2026
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime
Ann Grogan
In the First Place
Based on documentary sources
Forced into the military in Iran,
even pacifist conscripts bleed,
as they stand guard to die
in a way that makes it feel
“as though you were never here
in the first place.”
That soldier, Behzad,
awarded a master’s degree
in the “humanities”—
as if humanity still exists in the world
much less in the United States
under Number 47.
Fahimeh worries about Iran’s dignity,
its safety, and the way it
will be remembered. The Ayatollah
had a “delicate spirit” and read poetry.
She says “I do not feel happy
about anyone’s death.”
Nika has lost what steadied her: privacy
and solitude. She watched funeral videos,
heard the dying children scream,
passed through a period of fury and despair.
We think we know, but “war is completely
different when it actually arrives.”
There are more. Always more.
Death. Panic. Tears. Cycles of killings.
Children gone. Young and old and nevermore.
Shot while helping. Shot when not.
“What security?” one asks at last.
At least he’s still here to ask.
Ann Grogan‘s poems have appeared in Querencia, Amethyst Review, Whims of the Wilderness, The Prairie Review, New Verse News, and other journals. A joyful octogenarian, pianophile, and retired lawyer, she lives in San Francisco.
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