Guidelines



Submission Guidelines: Send unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

T***P'S MAGNIFICAT

by Jerry W. Ward, Jr.


Saint Putin by aegragru at DeviantArt


in praise of Putin the Red Dragon


My heart does magnify your wind
And my head rejoices in you my savior.
For you have annotated the low esteem
of your apostle; for, it is great,
from henceforth all hysteria
will call me blasted.
For you who are haughty
have done to me naughty things;
and ghostly is your name.
And your mendacity resides in them
who hear you from her story to history.
You have sown despair
with your hands; you have
scattered hubris
in the imagery of my soul.
You have desecrated the mighty
in their seats and rescued me from prevarication.
You have brained the rich
with good things; and the hungry,
you have sent to the garbage pails.
You have exalted me, your most obedient
serf, in remembrance of your mercy;
as you preached to my father,
Judas in the chariot, and to my spawn forever.


Jerry W. Ward, Jr. is the author of The Katrina Papers (2008), The China Lectures (2014), and Fractal Song: Poems (2016) and co-editor of The Cambridge History of African American Literature (2011). He lives in New Orleans, LA.