Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 30

Do you find your Twitter experience changed since Jan 20, 2021?

When the President’s Twitter is More
Robin’s Song and Less
Screech Owl or Mockingbird

Once,
there were battalions of superlatives 
& platoons of exclamation points,
lined up in their wars with words
on reality,
the Attack of the Alternative Facts
the Battle of the Bulging Lie
but these days
the animosity and hypocrisy
have melted away
like Witch’s Words
to the poetry of 
I see enormous pain
in this country.
A lot of folks are out of work.
A lot of folks are going hungry
staring at the ceiling at night,
wondering

No child should grow up in poverty

The risk isn’t that we do too much --
it’s that we don’t do enough.

We have to go big
for your family
for your neighbors
for your country.
Wear a mask.
No, really,
Mask up, America.

And yes, with the tasks ahead
My whole soul is in 
the work ahead of us.
If we do it together 
as one nation
we will not fail*.

*In the spirit of a cento, all italics in this poem are lines lifted from the official POTUS Twitter account.

©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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 28

A list poem, presented without commentary.

The Collective States of America

an aurora of gaslighting
a klan of cops
an array of blue states
a caravan of kids in cages
a route of step forward, two leaps back
a flink of fevers, fires, & fright-mongering
a cloud of undetermined direction
a grist of history
a bed of same-sect theocrats
a peep of hope
a murder of senators
a parliament of funky relics and rituals
a lounge of spineless pachyderms
a fever of racists
a waddle of ranch-addicted snackers
a sneak of rule- and norm-breaking
a sneak of dishonor
a parcel of postal delays
a bank of capitalists
a durante of taco Tuesdays
a flutter of better angels
a bazaar of guns
a muddle of historical revision
a loveliness of protests
a prickle of power-mad octogenarians
a consortium of big and bigger businesses
a barrel of youthful exuberance
a smack of five-fingered, opened-palm reality
a gaggle of journalists
a puddle of fear of the enfranchised and informed
a cackle of pundits, screeching and screaming
a shiver of voting booths
a romp of national parks and the Capitol
a skulk of red states
a cling of white racist power structures
a leap of progressive values
a pitying of those cleaving to the what-was
 and what-never-was
 or things that can never be

©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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 27

Dr. Faizan Syed offers another poignant reminder of the police problem we have.

Self-Arrest

 They say the world is burning. When
 they see us, don't run. Fly. They want us
 to turn a blind eye followed by our other 
 cheek. They tell us we don't deserve to be 
 saved. As if that explains everything.
 They spill the words easily, like blood:
 Raise your hands where we can see them.
 Where, allegedly, did the bloodstains fade?
 For every gunshot there's another excuse.
 For every crime, a suspect. For every sin
 another sin must be committed, or else
 how can we call it justice? Fair is fair. Lay
 your body on the ground face-down, kid.
 Who are you tonight? You're faceless
 under the knee of self-proclaimed angels
 whose mother tongue is violence. Your
 bruises just as blue as midnight, just as black.
  
 They say you have the right to remain silent. 
 Who exactly, then, holds the wrong?
 Nations glance askance, crowds divided
 like so many Red Seas. Yet no one passes
 through the line of fire. Because after
 all, anything you say can & will be used 
 against you in court. So when 
 your dream wakes up in Riker's 
 Island, you can thank yourself. 
 They said the prisons are hemorrhaging money
 & the spilled oil rises where tornadoes dance
 as droughts embrace our need. They said
 world hunger is sated by blood. Shoot those guns
 out of the terrorists' hands and hallelujah, we're 
 saved. But don't be a hero
 unless you're invincible, 
 or ready to give up all
 those years you couldn’t 
 see yourself inside
 anyways. File a plea
 of "lost." So many feathers
 lay scattered across the floor.
 You've been collecting them
 one by one. You're Icarus.
 You're Hawkgirl. You're
 as blind as Daredevil, your
 faith just as strong. Pray
 for the rest of us now.
 For when we prove 
 them all 
 dead wrong.

©Faizan Syed – 2021

*****

Faizan Syed, MD is a writer, musician, and psychiatrist based in Queens, NY and is a member of the Queens Poetic Alchemy Collective. He was awarded the Folger Adams Jr. Prize for 1st place in Poetry and the Graduating Poet’s Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been featured on Humans of New York. Faizan’s work has appeared in Montage Literary Arts Journal, Newtown Literary, Cosmonauts Ave, & Empty Mirror. Poems he’s written in collaboration with Matthew DeMarco have been published in Jet Fuel Review, Dogbird Journal, and “They Said,” an anthology of collaborative writing from Black Lawrence Press. One can find him on Instagram @docfaizan or on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/docfaizan.

*****

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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 25

Are we really only one quarter of the way through? Let’s keep it going!

The Evolution of the Chant

Started so simple
yes we can
translating hope and 
change into action, 
sí se puede, 
translating American dreams
into DACA dreams
(or is it 
the other way 
around?) dreams 
a long night’s
journey into broad 
daylight with work
to be done, 
no choice but 
to be fired 
up, ready to 
go and the 
go go go
got up and 
went and soo
those shouts were
drowned out by
drain the swamp 
and lock her
up until Foggy 
Bottom got turned 
turvy topsy with 
the monkey running
the circus, monkey
whose spinning and
spinning failed to
build the wall
and lock her
up and meanwhile
in non-white ‘Murikkka
the bubbling brew
was reaching boiling
point, long heating
and percolating and
churning, steam murder
on the lungs
that still somehow
shout I can’t
breathe! and everywhere
in exasperation and
fear hands up!
and in exasperation
and fear don’t
shoot! and still
I can’t breathe
and between wheeze
and knees and
choked hopes, there
is a rumble
and roar of
Black Lives Matter
and when they
ask, they say
his name and
when they forget
they say her
name and black
lives matter gets
louder as they
counter all or
worse white which
worsens into four
more years and
we respond no
justice, no peace
and four more
years and no
racist police and
Black Lives Matter
so we Vote!
because yes we
can and they
try to stop
that with a
stop the steal
and there is 
no stoppin’
no stoppin’
no stoppin’
no stoppin’
because there is
no stealin’ no
rhymin’ and they
get to stealing,
looking to bring
out pence so
they can hang
mike pence after
they take the
building trying to 
fight for trump
and the chants 
seem to be
drowned out by
window smashing and
certification crashing and
above the din
and after the 
din we add
lock him up
and our inner
voice reminds us
I AM SOMEBODY
our outer voice
rouses We Can
Do More. We
Will Do More
and with our 
outer voice and
inner voice combined
it is the
boost we need
yes we can
sí se puede.

©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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 24

An erasure poem, presented without commentary.

©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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 22

It’s been called the United States of America for a good long while. But let’s be honest, we’ve always ALWAYS been this divided. From the moment the first colonizers arrived, with their killing, looting, stealing and genociding. How do we get to unity when it’s never been on our map?

This is (Not) My America

look at the whole of the map

mandered or rigged,
 it matters little what these jerrys did
   the carving clinical for all those turkeys
   in the red cages & blue cages
  occasionally threatened
 by purple rages

look at the whole of the map

the flyover states, the beer gut of America
  the bloated persuasion that
   it is the true America
   the (lock)landed heart of America
  tornado-torn & fond of porn
 harvested & re-planted fields of self-absorption

the coastal elites with their fancy pants & skinny jeans
   neither in my size
  with their net worths & networks
   their leagues ivy not intramural
   their societies secret only after fully paid admission
  (but completely free of admissions of guilt)

the Rust belt, with belts & boot straps
  so rusted, so stripped of value
   it’s impossible to pull up (except stakes)
  only able to pull out

the desert Southwest
  deserted of compassion
   borders patrolled by trolls cold as ICE
   unchanged, even the summer sun not quite hot enough
  even with climate change boost juice

the dark tundra of Alaska
   open & empty
   voting machines & voting machinations
    in plain sight
   for the Russians who can see their
  White House

in the NW corner, Pacific looming
  vineyard booming, rugged progressive grooming
   sleepless rainy Emerald City, Portland fame
    ancient golden city in a golden state
   gold showers over its
  gold mines & moving picture show gold mine

over snowy Rock-capped mountains, past geyser gusting
  more hot gas & hot water than guys will be guys politicians
   over lands reserved for the only ones that didn’t 
  immigrate or assassinate or dominate

the big red state with its big pink rock
 capital; campaigns against science & history
   front line in the war on women.
 it’s almost as if the other 49 were forgotten
or the outshined sun hurricane state, the tail or the prick of America
 ass wagging between gulf and sea

let’s look up

the south, with its blown-up churches & blown up
 cinemas & blown up night clubs
   bright white terrors glowing
  in these dark days America
 winter trees not hanging leaves

up up up the coast from outer banks to 
 Wall St banks
past the swamp capital of America
  stench stretching from sea to shining sea
bounce through the original colonies
  the witches burn better on wood stakes
   bonfire lines
  the genocide starting line
 the white supremacy dancing country western line

and then finally to the harbor
 where you must imagine the shadow of two towers
 it is Lady Liberty, her torch now a flashlight
 barely enlightening the world from the great
 Porte of the World
 behind her the contiguous states of America
 doused in darkness, covered in a patchwork quilt
 
and no e pluribus unum to kick off the covers

©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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 21

Careful, poet Faizan Syed is coming in hot with this take on immigration and xenophobia and racism and…

©Faizan Syed – 2021

*****

Faizan Syed, MD is a writer, musician, and psychiatrist based in Queens, NY and is a member of the Queens Poetic Alchemy Collective. He was awarded the Folger Adams Jr. Prize for 1st place in Poetry and the Graduating Poet’s Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been featured on Humans of New York. Faizan’s work has appeared in Montage Literary Arts Journal, Newtown Literary, Cosmonauts Ave, & Empty Mirror. Poems he’s written in collaboration with Matthew DeMarco have been published in Jet Fuel Review, Dogbird Journal, and “They Said,” an anthology of collaborative writing from Black Lawrence Press. One can find him on Instagram @docfaizan or on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/docfaizan.

*****

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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 20

Among the many issues that need to be tackled in this country, domestic violence and sexual assault have to be considered two of the most pressing. This powerful poem by Terri Muuss, in a video directed and edited by Rainer Pasca, is the clarion call to the 46th President to the continue the leadership role and action he undertook during the Obama administration.
CW;TW: sexual assault.

©Terri Muuss – 2020; 2021

*****

Poem originally published in “Godspine” by 3:A Taos Press. (Available from publisher or directly from Terri Muuss at terrimuuss@icloud.com.
Film directed and edited by Rainer Pasca on IG @rainer.raps.

Ms. Muuss is also on IG as @terri.talks and can be found at www.terrimuuss.com

*****

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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 19

If yesterday’s poem zoomed in on current events, and traced a through line in history, today’s piece by Daniel Olsson shows how that history, forgotten or ignored, seeps into today.

Blinded by Bitterness

 Shallow in the sands of shame,
 Meaner with memory of might,
 My nation danced with the songs of sin,
 My people were blinded by bitter sight…
 We killed the inclusive innocent,
 We froze children in the cold,
 We witnessed death by paralyzing police,
 We had no children left to hold…
 What does old master have to say?
 No award for fate of finishing the song,
 To worship a flag while crying at an anthem,
 Our conservative half could do no wrong….
 I cried for the people living in the past,
 Artificial muscles with disposable spines,
 This country was a true coloring book,
 They were too scared to draw within the lines…

©Daniel Olsson – 2021

*****

Daniel Olsson is a poet from Bloomington, Indiana who has been writing poetry for the past eight years. Daniel’s writing revolves around contemporary society, including the topics of economic inequality, environmental justice, social issues and international relations. He can be found on Instagram and Tumblr as @apoeticcookie

*****

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 !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 18

Poet Faizan Syed returns with a call to action. This powerful prose poem, full of protest and proclamation, is a rallying cry.

 
   Arrest the police. Arrest the police and arrest the white men who think they are invincible and arrest anyone who makes them invincible. Fuck Trump. To blame him alone, however, is to ignore the scope of this harsh, dystopian wasteland we find ourselves in. These crimes against humanity were forewarned. In Charlottesville. In the racist rallies. In the conspiratorial hatred. In the debates. This is the new Red Scare. This is blood. In a rotunda full of dicks, the police managed only to shoot & kill a woman? As if she was the most threatening? Sounds about right. Bros before hos, right? Fuck the bro-lice. Fuck their complacency. Fuck their blatant injustice. Fuck their ignorance. Fuck their guns.  Fuck their racist mercy. Fuck their Trump-loving asslicking leaders. Fuck their selective extremism. Fuck their fear.

   They should have to answer for their organized crime. These violent rioters have been vindicated. How dare the police protect them? How dare Trump validate their frustration? How dare Trump celebrate violence in his name? How dare he refuse to acknowledge the trauma that the legislators endured - lawmakers who blindly followed and protected him, only to be betrayed yet again? How dare he traumatize us all? The white man must be buoyed by a force field of narcissistic invulnerability. The white man who storms the Capitol and claims it for himself is declaring his own impotence. The white man wouldn’t dare to pull this shit if he knew what the black man knew. It’s clear now that lives are on the line. It’s clear now that Trump’s power has broken something in us, has released our own personal hellhounds & demons. It’s clear now that Trump would rather watch people die and cower in fear for his name, because in his delusional reality of pure denial and paranoid projection of unprecedented scale, he is fighting a war and he knows only one way to win. The way of the coward. The way of the white man. Threaten. Deny. Stoke hatred. Incite violence. Colonize. Praise God, or at least praise the Dark Lord, and justify everything with a barrage of lawsuits and finger-pointing. Justify the unjustifiable by claiming ownership of justice. 
 
   Silly white man. Everything you have was taken from someone else. Everything you claim is silly. You can’t own the people of a nation. You can’t own liberty, or citizenship, or the law. You can’t own reality, no matter how many idiots you rally. You can’t even claim responsibility for yourself. You put the baby in baby boomer. You are helpless. Yet your tantrums are dangerous. Your words carry the weight of guillotines. Your beliefs literally endanger lives. America, you have been threatened, you have been brought to your knees. Now you can’t claim that you were ever great. You can only claim that the white man would rather destroy the democracy he once held dear because he’s convinced he is the only one who owned it in the first place. You can only claim that the white man considers you his bitch. His slave. America, we are not the land of the free, we are not home to the brave. America you are homeless. America you are loved almost as much as you are hated.  

   We are the minorities and we are the oppressed. We are the truth-seekers and the truth-keepers. You need us now more than ever, America. You can’t survive without us. So let us in and let us be heard. Let us rebuild the tatters of your broken mind. Let us grieve the loss of your sanity, America. We can be the antidote, we can be the medicine you need, but you have to protect us too America. Protect us from yourself. Because the white man hasn’t gone anywhere. He got to go home. While our brothers and sisters still lay rotting in your prisons. We are crying out for justice, America. We are here and we know how to protest peacefully, even though we are still more likely to get killed in the process. We are here and we are your lifeblood. We will change you for the better, America. And some of us will literally die trying. Just like Malcolm X. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. Just like JFK. Just like George Floyd. We are not giving up in our fight against white supremacy. Your mask is slipping, America. You’re teetering on the borderline and you are staring down the brink of psychosis. Listen to the sound of our voice, America. Trust us. Come back to us, America. We got you.
  

©Faizan Syed – 2021

*****

Faizan Syed, MD is a writer, musician, and psychiatrist based in Queens, NY and is a member of the Queens Poetic Alchemy Collective. He was awarded the Folger Adams Jr. Prize for 1st place in Poetry and the Graduating Poet’s Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been featured on Humans of New York. Faizan’s work has appeared in Montage Literary Arts Journal, Newtown Literary, Cosmonauts Ave, & Empty Mirror. Poems he’s written in collaboration with Matthew DeMarco have been published in Jet Fuel Review, Dogbird Journal, and “They Said,” an anthology of collaborative writing from Black Lawrence Press. One can find him on Instagram @docfaizan or on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/docfaizan.

*****

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 !