Writing through the emotions.

What Good The Love Poem

when the American pastime is a superspreader event
when three strikes gets life
when 18 strikes and taking a life gets outrage
	and the machine walks on
when the polyglot sorrows translate into every ear
when the embrace of poverty is capitalism’s only intimacy
when hopes are relegated to dream-sequences in the latest
	binge-necessary escape
when the wettest kisses are chef’s goodbyes
when mask-hidden smiles are never as loud as angered eyes
when hand-washing is the only hand-holding possible
when the absence-aches and the abscess-aches
	and the wheezing hollows and the hallowed whimsies
	and the old normal and the new normal are/were neither and neither
when the stretch of affection is too close to infection
	and justice is only a word in a dictionary
	and various platitudes
when the time daylight saves just prolongs the drowning

what good the love poem
when the only rhymes
are lamentation and wrath
and goodness and trouble and obduracy

©David Siller – 2021

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For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !