Summer On Fire!

Our world is on fire. Demands are being made, but will they be met? The journey for social justice is a long ongoing struggle through time, always urgent for those in need.

People came together to mourn Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado, they played violins in a vigil and were attacked by police in riot geer. That authoritarian action enacting violence on peaceful people grieving was an insult and unnecessary. This is the world playing out its violent stratification. The powers in control must control. Must be dominant. Must surpress. So when there is a call to reform the police and it is met with tokens, another committee of citizens, we know that this is to wear us down. Exaust us. Keep us engaged but it is a pandering that keeps the system in place.

We have a long journey on a collapsing planet. This is a fight for our lives, there must be change and there is no better time than now. But look at how we are being met. The misunderstanding. The anger being played out. The sales of guns. The labeling of the peace seekers as ANTIFAC, an organization that does not exist, while KKK white supremist groups have free reign with guns to fight, incite, and ignite our cities.

The children who grew up the eight years Obama was president will no longer tolerate oppression; or the trail from education to prison that has replaced slavery and Jim Crow. We are at a time when things must bust open. With flames if necessary and it seems they are necessary.

Julene’s News

“Bad Mouth Tang,” published in Anti-Heroin Chic, June 8, 2020.

“Junkies Outside the Window,” published in Caustic Frolic, June 15, 2020.

“1995, a second chance,” published in The Muse at McMaster University in Ontario Canada, June 24, 2020.

“I’ve Lived Through One War,” “What They Mean When They Say Worried Well,” and “Daily Precaution During a Pandemic,” three of my pandemic poems published by Journal of the Plague Year, June 29, 2020.

“Meat Trade,” published in Versification, July 5, 2020. Photo above was published with poem! See poem posted above!

“Crossing the Tracks” and “Radical Places“ were published in Ethel Volume 5, in a handmade book, this issue went online on July 9, 2020.