Two big numbers are in the news lately: we are hitting about 1.5 million vaccinations per day, and we passed 500K deaths early this past week. Poet Mark Fishbein honors both in this, our 39th poem.

Shot In The Arm

In the antiuniverse 
Help is on the way: immunoglobulin.   
Today they have injected some into my arm.
Now microscopically, and unknown to me,
An army of antibodies sharpen their teeth,
Angry barracudas hungry for a COVID snack
Y shaped savages in the electron microscope.

I feel that I have been marooned for a year;
A year lost when you are “elderly” is a year lost.
At last a rescue ship is seen, but with torn sails.

The daily numbers flow like a lottery, 
The graphs of the dying and the infected,
Corpses filling ice trucks in the parking lots,
The photographs of the family members 
Warning the world the COVID is real,
Eyes of the nurses, tears on their masks,
Names posted on the hospital walls   
Of loved ones who died alone. 

After a war, the wounded return home
And stay up nights to remember some carnage.
But we are still at war, despite I have a cure:
The state of alert and death surrounds us all.

Yet let us sanctify with silence.
My 98 year old mother among a half million gone. 
So many unwelcome deaths. Let us remember them,  
Not by hopes, not by prayers, but with a silence      
That the heart wears like a coat of wordless lament. 

Let us have a requiem in silence
For the dead and the dead to come. 

©Mark Fishbein – 2021

*****

Mark Fishbein has been writing poetry for over 50 years, and he is also a classical and brazil style guitarist. He hosts two weekly Zoom writers workshops, POTF (Poets on the Fringe) and DC Poetry Workshops, which publish anthologies and give readings. He also hosts poetry readings on Eventbrite, the next being Feb 28, which include 20 poets using the share file on Zoom to display their poems while reading them, a unique way to engage in virtual poetry events. He has five books available on Amazon. For info- www.poetwithguitar.com (workshops or events) or email  mark@poetwithguitar.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 !

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 !

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 !