Two Poems by Dan Provost

 

Dystopian Nothing

 

Any small town.

 

Where the locals

see the white light

 

slowly diminish.

 

Their trump/pence

signs blowing in

the breeze…

 

Give you the stare

as you drive by…

 

Hardened, threatening

glare… gathered in

a group of calloused faces

and torched temper…

 

Ready to pounce on

the outsiders…

 

stained America,

prepared to fight, shoot,

fire-- when the order

is given…

 

by a cheap walrus,

in an oversized

suit.

 

we bleed little

sanity when the verdict is

given…

 

death and isolation will

come quickly…

 

menacing men

will then pat other menacing

men on the back…

 

putting their rifles away

 

drinking a Budweiser

and giving the Hitler salute…

 

proud Caucasian…

 

will win the stage,

carrying the bodies

 

to the next

holocaust

 

flames seen and celebrated

all along the

countryside…

 

Sad Newscast

Rows of sleet barbed their face bloody.

Looking for sympathy from fallen angels.

 

Bad choice kids.

 

Clothes weathered into pools of sludge…

Drained walking, water-logged whelps…

 

No choice, no chance.

 

No hope.

 

There will be no prayers from babes today…

 

We will sit silent…surfeit suffering silences

the television children…

 

Their plight is real, pain processed

footnoted…

 

Then forgotten.

 

Jim Conrad,

Channel 8 News.

 

Dan Provost’s poetry has been published both online and in print for a number of years.  He is the author of thirteen books.  His latest, December 22, 2020 Playing Croquet in Short Pants During a Snowstorm, was recently published by Alien Buddha Press. He has been nominated for the Best of the Net and has read his work throughout the United States.  He lives in Berlin, New Hampshire with his wife Laura, and dog Bella.