The War on Christmas? (J. Morningstar)
You mean like the war
that poorly-educated rednecks,
with arsenals in their coat closets,
think they can wage to overthrow
their star-spangled government
that has a defense department
gifted with nearly
a trillion dollars a year
by the same politicians that
they, themselves, were responsible
for electing to office?
Someone better tell these
wannabe HollyJollySantaJesus Destroyers
before they go up against
the strange bedfellows that are
AmazonWalmartCocaColaHallmarkEtc
and the mom-and-pop shops
illuminated like the Griswold House
in every downtown in America
that they don’t stand a chance.
It’ll be over before
it even gets started.
Which, of course, it hasn’t.
And it never will.
An Ember’s Lullaby (Amanda Morningstar)
Orange and yellow shimmer back
in the lake; it could be beautiful
from a different angle.
Every night, she had the dream;
every night, her world was burning.
And then she was at school again,
Confusion’s delusions.
And then she was in class again,
at her desk again,
was she in that dress again?
Remembering premonitions
as her world burns down around her.
It didn’t feel like she had been sleeping:
“I had the dream again.”
“But you’re wearing the dress.”
The hallway is full of echoes
as they all scream into the void.
She slams her locker shut
and the voices disappear.
She stares:
Alarm. Warning. Danger.
A call to action. A call to run away.
She waits in the office;
she waits for them to tell her it is all a dream.
“You can’t go home.”
They all refuse to say the words
as the world burns down around her.
Dumpster Fire Press 