by Mitch Highfill

How right it feels
To see the white lace
Take the tree branches
To a crystalline palace
Where snowflakes
Redefine scape, the street
Softened, almost fluffy
And still.

by Mitch Highfill

(after Neil Young)

Big changes coming the light the laughter
the way explosions entertain the bright
shiny attracts attention, light rain
in the afternoon reverses polarity.
A quiet but clenched jaw.
Big changes knocking the door
down and people disappear.
The food rots in the fields.
Serious allergic reaction.
Every little thing will come
unglued. Leather fragments
found in the swamp tell big changes
came before. Vulture carved on
T-Pillar in Gobleki Tepes
said the same. Big.
Bigly.
Elephants loose in the break
room, leopards dining and
so on. Hapless marks line up
over and over again.
Big changes coming.
Angry id spraying ketchup
in Caesar’s Palace where
the water pressure is right.
Captains of industry line up
to curry favor not flavor sadly
missing first fingers then toes
clothes akimbo Tarantino
movie in the actual. Temps to rise
Thursday so rise. I rise.
You rise. We rise. They rise.
Grinding irrevocably against
one another we can only ooh
and ah the gap between where
we are and where we are going.
Close the window calm the light
(sang Boz). Try not to cry.
More time on telescopes.
The last ships have sailed
from China carrying our new
textiles and toys and gadgets
and there are no more sitting
In Seattle no more in Long Beach
no more in San Francisco so
stock up on doodads. Hang ten.
We learn that most of what keeps
the function functioning is custom
not law and now customs are
over. The phone rang endlessly
and there was no answer because
a fire sale is a fire sale. Because
we are selling off government
buildings, closing agencies.
Hackers replace accountants.
The real enacts a parody of itself.
Good luck
Learn to duck.
No space safe.
Space between.
Take this ministry over the moon
Get in the way of that which gets
in your way.
Ends and means.
Some bruises are gifts.
Big changes.
Big.

by Mitch Highfill

Wheat farm going under because USAID was eliminated?
Have the day you voted for.
Grandma’s nursing home is closing down
due to Medicaid cuts?
Have the day you voted for.
71 Corporations filed for bankruptcy in July?
Have the day you voted for.
Your learning-disabled child will receive no more
educational services at school?
Have the day you voted for.
Soybean farms collapsing under China’s response
to Trumps trade war?
Have the day you voted for.
Whiskey makers in trouble under Canada’s response
to Trumps trade war?
Have the day you voted for.
Your local hospital in your small town is closing
due to Medicaid cuts?
Have the day you voted for.
Evacuate warnings not issued before your
town was hit by a hurricane, your home destroyed,
your family injured due to DOGE cuts to the
National Weather Service?
Have the day you voted for.
No FEMA appearance after the hurricane has passed
due to DOGE cuts to FEMA?
Have the day you voted for.
Can’t afford that new car you need to get to work?
Have the day you voted for.
Immigrant spouse zip-tied and thrown in a van,
never to be seen again?

Have the day you voted for.
Healthcare costs quadruple and you have
a chronic health condition?
Have the day you voted for.
Masked well-armed thugs roam your city,
firing rubber bullets at priests knelt in prayer?
Have the day you voted for.
Just got laid off because the bottom fell out at work?
Have the day you voted for.
Suffered the effects of food poisoning because
food regulations have been lowered and FDA
staff have been fired?
Have the day you voted for.
Family planning all gone?
Have the day you voted for.
Child being forced to pray in school?
Have the day you voted for.
Have the day you have waited for all your life.
All day every day.

by Craig Cotter

You ever

get together

with a group
of fellow poets

and feel

we’re the biggest group of losers
in town?