Waxy & Poetic

We must be vigilant as so many states seek to suppress the vote in an attempt to create new, seemingly more subtle voter suppression tactics. Let’s call it the James Crow period. Today’s poem incorporates text from a real Jim Crow-era Literacy Test from Louisiana. We’re sure you’ll be able to tell which is which.

Literacy Test

The State of Poesia 

Literacy Test (This test is to be given to anyone who cannot prove a fifth grade education.)

Do what you are told to do in each statement, nothing more, nothing less. Be careful as one wrong answer denotes failure of the test. You have 10 minutes to complete the test.

Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.

Draw a line under the last word in this line.

Vote.

Cross out the longest word in this line.

Draw a line around the shortest word in this line.

Write a rhyme to rhyme with the end of this orange.

Circle the first, first letter of the alphabet in this line.

Cross out the first letter in this line that is the same as the first letter
of the name of the first lover you kissed, quizzed, bedizened, jinxed,
bejeweled, graffitied, or sculpted.

In the space below, write the word “noise” backwards and place a dot over what would be its second letter should it have been written forward.

In the space above, scribble the word “doodle” and to the right, doodle the word “scribble”; write captions that capture the irony.

Vote.

Spell backwards, forwards.

Write a spell that would put back the words you regret, and put forward the words caught in your throat.

Write “down” on the line provided. ___________ Look up when you do.

Write “right” and draw what’s left of your hope. Center your feelings and use only your dirty inktears.

Print the word vote upside down, but in the correct order.

Elect the correct order, given the downside of the other one up for election.

Write a short equation with variable Y showing how people are more important than profits.

Print a word that looks the same whether it is printed frontwards or backwards.

Print a word that looks different when printed frontwards and backwards. Make the front words positive and the back words negative. Or their opposite. Or synonymy. Or cinnamony. Or punny.

Write every other word in this first line and print every third word in same line, (original type smaller and first line ended at comma) but capitalize the fifth word that you write.

Write your own line. Re-write your line where every third word is longer than the combined total of the number of letters of the preceding two words. One-letter words do not count. No I statements. No eye statements. No aye statements. 

Cast your ballot, then take to the streets. Write anger slogans and scolding dictums on posterboard and large sections of butcher paper. Be not afraid of lighting fires under their asses and under their assets.

Write a rousing, rallying cry. Use exclamation points! Make it shock and sharp. 
Underline the important bits. Circle the yelling parts. Repeat as necessary.

Vote.

©David Siller – 2021

*****

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 !

A first draft, presented without commentary.

Seeking the Neologism in the Language

Emus, fish, cockroaches, and crows*
already use some good ones
so what do we call a collective of mass shootings?
Perhaps
a calendar of mass shootings?
a clip of mass shootings?
Maybe 
a reload of mass shootings.
an automatic of mass shootings.
a casing of mass shootings.
A mass of mass shootings might be
too on the bull’s-eye
um, on target,
er, on the nose,
so what about
a panoply of mass shootings
a plethora of mass shootings
a veritable cornucopia of mass shootings?
No, I got it,
a United States of Mass Shootings…

no wait, this could work…

I pledge allegiance
to the Gun 
of the Mass(ed) Shootings of America...

*mob, school, intrusion, murder, respectively

©David Siller – 2021

*****

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 !

A 22 year old father in Wisconsin. A 13 year old child (A CHILD!) in Chicago. A mass shooting in Tennessee that didn’t even have time to get traction. A trial for a murderous cop, and an arrest for another. Elected officials voting against (AGAINST!) anti-racist legislation. And even now, Indianapolis. Stay strong, reader, for we must prevail.

Which Witch, America?

They tell me you are wicked, America
and I believe them
with their stories, 1001 frights, like
that of the gunned up movie cinema
and the gummed up postal service
and the poster child, swiss-cheesed 
with bullets, who was taught not to shout
during shooting drills so they wouldn’t get shot
and the police bullhorns that announce
rapid-fire “Hands up!” to which the unarmed 
respond “Don’t shoot!” before the shots get fired
and when the guns are holstered
knees are down on necks and backs
and huffing and puffing the asthmatics wheeze
“I can’t breathe”
and somehow the knee on the neck is A-OK
but the knee on the field
on the pitch on the yard line
the knee that brings the theme song
back to reality
is the one knee that thrusts into America’s groin
and these stories, 1001 slights
bleed into one another as 
the raped and the hunted and the shunted
come to the border to their new frontier
their final frontier for a chance to bake
their own apple America pie
and without a wall you throw up cages
the way piñatas throw up candy
and goodies and you make the lines long
longer than endless campaign ads
and the stories of 1001 plights
and you say “Votes up! Don’t drink!”
and the woman with the water bottle
and the man brawning the ice chest
are met with the resistance that
should be reserved for the 
school-going gunman and the 
movie-going gangster
and the concert-loving marksman

they tell me you are wicked
America
and I believe them
and then brace
and muster the courage 
to fight

©David Siller – 2021

*****

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 !

Every day the news is the same, isn’t it?

American Metronome

We mark our days with the same ticks
as in
today we had a mass shooting
today a white man spreads supremacist violence
today a cop shoots a black man
today a white man spreads another lie
today a virus variant spreads to another corner of America
today a cop shoots a black woman
today the wealthy corner their markets & line their pockets
today the hate bursts into neighborhoods like bottlerockets
today a cop shoots a black child
today food pantry lines stretch beyond their hunger
today the hunger for change makes us rise
today a trial starts
today a trial carries on
today a trial ends
today an acquittal
today justice hides in the corner
and so it goes
day in
day out
week in
week out
month in
month out
year in 
year out
in its infinite refrain
repeated infinitely

©David Siller – 2021

*****

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 !