Plenty
Opportunity
fruits (dates) and nuts (almonds, pistachios)
~8100 dams
the red, white, and blue
hip-hop, jazz, and blues
black and brown
Black lives
blue uniforms
Indigenous blood
rainbow flags and the alphabet mafia
the mafia
original gangstas
barrios
barriers
bros
identity
cultural appropriation
anxiety medication
health insurance
Big Pharma
data farming
factory farms
grain, Bibles, and tech
Milk and Honey
colony collapse
colonization
genocide
exploitation
false identity
identity politics
whitewashing
greenwashing
washers and driers
forced displacement
immigrants
migrants
bipartisanism
binaries
primaries
unpaid leave for new mothers
unpaid leave for new fathers
unpaid leave for new parents
substandard housing
historically underserved communities
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Hispanic-Serving Institutions
plantations
systemic racism
wokeness
dreams
Dreamers
border walls
coyotes
eagles
roast turkeys
factory farms
equality
freedom
incarceration
demonstrations
marches
protests
flag burnings
book burnings
book bannings
drag shows
drag races
race riots
class warfare
welfare
privilege
venture capitalists
oligarchists
patriarchy
God (viz. the one true)
male control of female bodies
the mancave
the glass ceiling
forty acres and a mule
land back
gated communities
gentrification
personal space
skeptics
conspiracy theorists
atheists
cancel culture
post-truth politics
Antifa
neo-fascism
executive orders
disorders
disorderly conduct
mass deportation
tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free
the free and the home of the brave
Liberty

Kevin Richard Kaiser

slave plantations
refract urban guv’ment projects
a domestic policy
of confinement
& control
refracts a mirage
of democracy
reflecting
foreign policy
the flag-waving propaganda
& exploitation
refracts a globalization of
free trade zones
reflecting death
& third-world bodies
bent beaten & bartered
refracts the torture
& extraordinary rendition
reflects separate & unequal
reflects refracts reflects
the Devil’s left hand
of Amerikkka

henry 7. reneau, jr.

Southern Belles and Mr. Beasts
Disneyland queues and Google reviews
Broadway fans and Florida Man

Tess Ezzy

all my memories and all my forgetting
histories we talk about and histories we deny
mothers taking photos of their babies on beds of bluebonnets
straight bright teeth and crooked dark corners

Anne Whitney

grey nomads existing on scraps from Amazon
nukes
Area 51
Maralinga and Pine Gap downunder
blue jeans
the Disney dream
Trump-eteers
marching bands
cheerleaders
GI Joe
Marvel, and the other one
Hollywood fantasy
privileged healthcare
freedom, if you can afford it
The Almighty Dollar
God
the Amish
Quakers
Scientology
the Latter Day Saints
ka-ching!
Coca Cola and Mountain Dew
obesity
eating disorders
Fashion
Reds under the beds
Cold War
cultural imperialism
elitism
everything having a price
The Mexico Wall
52 states + Australia
entrenched poverty, hideous wealth
let’s pretend
hyper-reality
Silicon Valley
$$$$
the new elite
stolen lands, marginalised peoples
Big Pharma: a drug for everything
keeping sick
homesteading
Broadway!
frightened trans peepl
business-sponsored government
modern slavery
assumed moral superiority
megachurches
megamalls
fastfood
trucks instead of cars
status
corn and hotdogs
Wars on Everything
image being everything
military sponsorship
exploitation
sex selling
big thinking, bigger cars
taking up s p a c e
individuality and free speech
GUNS
school shootings
hunting
police brutality
entrenched racism
Lymes disease
bears, racoons, bobcats and beavers
eagles, wolves and squirrels
majestic mountains
MILLIONS of dead and dying trees
peyote
coyote
ancient First Nations wisdom
puppet allies
The Muppets
opposite seasons to here
funny accents
howdys
the centre of the known universe
diaspora
Big Apple bageltown
fame and fortune
climate change denial
the biggest footprint

Catherine J Pascal Dunk (Australian)

A bite too big of a pill too small to choke on
Buildings of bodies crimson-stained landlord-white-painted
Tarmac swallowing daily tears laughing Sun evaporating
Lynchburg Lynchville Lynchtown happy happy white picket white development
No shoes no English strides past fresh Nike
Driving hellcat driving cop-car
One million million
Eyes hands mouths
Buckets of oil
Ears of corn stalks of wheat
McMansions colonial homes
Shotgun shacks adobe
Clay bricks grains of sand
Cactus needles pine needles
Rose petals leaves of grass
Dead Buffalo Dead Indians Dead Slaves
Theft O thief of thieves
Nothing ever to be given back
She is what she takes and taking is all she is
The pot would melt everything it could have
For railroad steel or bombs and planes
And leave all of them stamped with stars and stripes

Sam Peel

tailpipe guns blasting
bleached politicians
cardboard homes nestled in public parks
fear of native tongue
fear of critical speech
fear of random violence
fear of tolerance
fear of poverty
of expression
where hopes are shadows
where liberty woman welcomes a few from certain countries
hoarding fast food
poison secretions
water wasted by lead
free reign on the environment
and yet in the woods and on the beach
we can unearth the stones from our past
where a religion is centered on prosperity
ignoring the helpless
we are led by desperation
the mad rush to reduce the words
slaughtering intellect
condemning curiosity
feeding us what we need to hear
leading us to waste

Roberto Picado

Land of
land of lands—
stolen, destroyed, razed and grazed,
intestines poisoned against our will, against our waters,
all drugged against our judgement—
made to be less
animal
less
female
less
blooming,
an ocean fallen through our fingers—
The knife that makes men strong
is plastic like the life outside now—
The night like the day sliced off and deposited
in the archives of science as of religion:
biohazards,
gasoline guzzling
the ghosts of leaves—
borders sealed but all the cracks brim pus
in the land of
swollen wounds, every weed yet
offering:
land back
nameless, or named as before,
by birds and worms,
without America—

Lake Angela

The cage
Of plague
And wage

Gauging,
Staging,
And engaging

In upstaging
And rampaging

Kelsey Malley

wawa shell forgotten tribes kum and go mudslides
apple pies pessimist sighs internet slang slippery thighs
romance lost money found homeless people underground
disconnection cults and fame profit motive profit gain
guns and drugs and old man thugs women beaten women blamed
legacy of nothing much capitalist grumpy cucks
golden showers ivory towers acid rain grey terrain
pornographic imagery business-centric synergy
America, land I love, caught and cooked the holy dove

Sophia Schechner

Black hawk above the pines
blue space
Yaqui men stealing bases on an improvised diamond
adobe church
roses and lace and suffering
a leopard frog’s eyes
a fist inside a glove with no fingers
coyote on the foothills road
a harrier tilts its wings
weather has turned to granite
fries cooked in country music
love lost in three quarter time
bones like buried lightning
a nest inside a raindrop
core of a dark saguaro
spiders with an hourglass shining
a fox beneath the frosty stars
nowhere to hide
a shy moon
all smoke and no mirrors
the white patch on a flicker’s back
talons sharpened by the cold
a mine cut from a mountainside
a pickup truck moves faster than history
oak and juniper light
a Bronzed cowbird’s red eye
a mountain embedded in a rain-dark sky
thundering grass
the current of mud and stars
forests tighten their grip against winter
the smell of greasewood after rain
a desert prison
a jaguar reclaims his place
more coffee? Hell, yes

David Chorlton

Open discourse
Closed forums
Freaks
Geeks
Right wingers
Left leaners
Uber wealthy
Detestably poor
Pie, pieces, peace, piety, Pietri dishes, piecaken, piezoelectric horns
Sealed doors
Open borders
The beguiled, bewildered, bestial
Elk, bear, Kildare
Wannabe Oligarchies, wannabe kings, wannabe Martians, wannabe philanderers….
Wannabes
Wabanaki
Abenaki
Mi’kmaq
Chickasaw
Hopi
Dead natives
Dead Presidents
Dead ends
Dead homies
Dead languages
Dead zones
Tip jars
Tip disparages
Tipping scales, tip of the hat, tiptoeing through the gardens
Tip of the iceberg
Tipping point
Dog days
Heat waves
History, hysterectomies, hysteria, hysteresis
Xenophobia
Yes men, women, children, AI bots, droids, demigods, demisexuals, demiromantics, demihumans, demise
Zen exercise
Armistice
Bandoleros
Cock of the walk, Cock and bull, cocks
Dog piles
Europeans
Fenway
Governor’s island
Hospitality
Ice cream
Jesus
Kiss and tell, kewpies, Kansas, Keybank, killing fields, killing sprees, killer bees, killers
Hotdogs, hamburgers, hair pin curves, horned owls, and a whole lot of hooey

David Grubb

Excess
Malnourishment
Broken promises
Big dreams
Lakes and loss
Country music
Brown and beige
Lives that matter
Hoods and high-rises
Borders and boundaries
Claims and denied care
Big everything
Big tech, big ag, big pharma
Substitutes
Migrations
Pro-this, pro-that
Generational wealth
Generational trauma
Deportation
Taxes
Conspiracies
Patriarchy
Divided
Becoming

Lindsay Lauren

those who remove
go into
and move in

chiara crisafulli

the Diverse
the City on the Hill
the Creative
the Dynamic
the Reflective
the Empowered
the Collaborative
the Individualistic
the Artistic
the Technologically astute
the Diligent
the Humble
Freedom
Expansive Joy

Carys E. Rees

Ruby red lipstick, emerald lawns, sapphire water, white picket fences, and black dust
A man in a newspaper hat and a three-piece suit waltzing to a tune he made up in his head
An unpaid intern burnt out from his summer fellowship guffawing at a street performer mashing
keys on a digital piano
Bottled water companies and their eco-friendly, carbon-neutral factories
Hollywood studios turning profits for ten consecutive years on prescription drug advertisements
Raccoons scampering up trees at the sounds of oncoming footsteps
A stranger waiting outside an apartment complex at two in the morning
Apartheid
An immigrant getting catharsis by screaming into a city council hearing’s microphone
A doctoral student playing no-limit Texas hold ’em tournaments to pay off their student loans
Two men holding hands in a park just down the street from their house
A trans woman finally finding the perfect dress
Fannie Lou Hamer testifying at the 1964 Democratic National Convention
An indie rock band beseeching their fans to bow their heads for a moment of silence
The Statue of Liberty, her back to Manhattan

Samuel Fishman

was
house
held
despite
hold
now
un-
-ish
Addison Rae
Gertrude Stein
or
dead presidents
trans
form
‘d
x
*

Jack DeBoyace

Kennedy-Frost and a windy inauguration
Lucifer and his bow-tied dealers

Saba Khaliq (Pakistan)

Living paycheck to paycheck
Static wages
Corrupt institutions
Poverty
Bottled water
Contaminated tap water
Mourning doves
Carpenter bees
Living and dying hope
Fraud
Rich kings
Consumerism
The willfully ignorant and uneducated
Homeowner Associations
“This is my land!”
National parks
Unsustainable economy
Black on black crime
Racist cops
Prevailing truths and lies
Civil rights
Mass shootings
Mass gun ownership
War mongers
The mentally “ill”
Generational trauma
Gay rights
The feminist movement
Unique music
Mockingbirds
MLM and pyramid schemes
Time as money
Toxic Western ideologies
The ungrateful

Autumn Shears

America
matriarchy memento crushed as meticulous as reliquary Mary
eroticism uses large lord lorded lode
rich and righteous righteous and rich
if if if if I if
cured cancer deny deny cut carcinogen deny deny deny deny
America
,

land of America land of grandmerica goodbye grandma
associate often assemble assemblyman orange
never next never us never again
done

only done only fans on fly flip fleek otherwise geek grand America
forever America foreboding America fornicate fabulous freedom

Senia Hardwick

Capitalism
Consumerism
Hollywood marinated nepotism
Migrants
Tyrants
Red, white, and blue sirens
Smoke grenades
Naval blockades
Political prisoners charged guilty of the masquerades
Propagandized memes
Shattered American Dreams
Laborers of color bursting at the seams
Visas are denied
Mothers and fathers cried
Praying for a miracle, knowing in their hearts they tried
Steep price
Games of cats and mice
Real eyes realize
Angel Island is not the gateway to heaven
and the Statue of Liberty is not free
The greatest tax of all must be payed for arriving to the Land of the Free—
the tax of being American and chasing the shadows of golden dreams

Raaghavi Kalluri

Opportunities!
Red, white & blue!
Gluttony,
the silent epidemic of instant gratification
human trafficking
division disguised as choice
distractions masquerading as freedom

Indentured servitude with better branding
North Fox Island
(memory holes)
Epstein Island
golden brick roads that loop in circles and circles and circles

Ethical faux pas renamed ambition
Vanity
Pride
Values misplaced, shelved, and resold

The disintegrating family structure
Machismo over mercy
Machines over meaning

Indoctrination in the language of patriotism
Orphans with living parents

Missed opportunities

Dylan Harrington