by Julia Griffin

“The World Can’t Believe Americans Are Only Just Discovering Kettles,
As They Mock NY Times Article”
—Network 10

A saucepan serving as a kettle
Is just a mad misuse of metal.
What makes me really rant and rave?
A teacup in a microwave.
This week it somehow hit the Press
How things are done in the US:
World can’t believe! the newsroom cries;
To me, it came as no surprise.
Round here,* where taste’s in deep eclipse,
A kettle’s used for roasting chips,
And even when not wrecked with ice,
Earl Grey’s luke warm, which is not nice.
Americans! It’s not your bag?
You think it violates the flag?
Don’t drink it! Throw it in the sea!
But with no kettle, tea’s not tea.

*In the author’s adopted home in the state of Georgia

by Dan Campion

“Ketanji Brown Jackson Becomes First Black Female Supreme Court Justice . . .
Justice Jackson encountered deep resistance among Republicans on Capitol Hill . . .”
—The New York Times

After two hundred thirty-two years
A Black Female Justice appears.
With grace and persistence
She met “deep resistance”
After two hundred thirty-two years.

by Nora Jay

“With the June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturns the landmark
1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, the doctrine of stare decisis has fueled debate over the extent
to which the U.S. Supreme Court is bound by legal precedent. Former Associate Justice Lewis Powell once remarked:
‘The elimination of constitutional stare decisis would represent an explicit endorsement of the idea that the Constitution
is nothing more than what five justices say it is.’”
—American Bar Association

Stare, stare night:
Paint your palette full of blues:
Makes no difference what you choose—
It only shows the darkness in your soul;

Brightness on the Hill;
Sketch Pelosi feeling ill;
You’re not cheering? Carlson will,
In chorus with his Foxy-holy band.

Now I understand
What a justice ought to be:
How they regulate society,
Pushing guns to set us free;
They only listen to themselves: that’s how
The law’s decided now.

Stare, stare night:
Party picks who walk the line,
Shameless heads, no more than nine,
With eyes that watch the world they’re turning back

Like those strangers who just yak
On the glories of those days, thought dead,
When men were men and women bred,
And kids could buy a gun but not a drink;

Now I know, I think,
What began with Bush v. Gore;
What McConnell’s long been waiting for,
And what else may be in store.
We cannot stop them, we are helpless still;
Perhaps our children will.

by Steven Kent

“Bowers backs Trump despite denouncing ‘big lie’”
—The Guardian

He’s dangerous and can’t be trusted—
Planned a coup but that was busted,
Then tried to sic his mob on Vice,
Who could have died (which wasn’t nice).

Just find me votes, he kept on pleading
Back before the cops were bleeding,
The handiwork of “patriots”
Who I consider cultish nuts.

I’m glad to speak to this committee.
What we witnessed wasn’t pretty;
I pray we never face again
This kind of threat from evil men.

But though I think the Constitution
Really is our best solution,
I’ll back my party even more—
I’m voting Trump in ‘24!

by Max Gutmann

Candory-slandery,
Cassidy Hutchinson,
Trump now assures us, is
Really “bad news.”

Surely his claim’s rather
Uncontroversial.
Bad news! We see it. (We
Also see whose.)

by Steve Bremner

“Airships could offer a much cleaner and quieter alternative for some aspects
of the aviation market. … Sergey Brin turned internet search into one of the world’s
most valuable businesses more than two decades ago. Now he intends to improve
a technology which had its heyday long before he was born.”
—BBC Future

Googly schmoogly
Sergey the searchmaster
Soon may be easing our
Word-finding chore.

If he should start using
“Dirigibility,”
Hey, Hecht and Hollander,
We’ll have one more!

by Alex Steelsmith

“Ukrainian man casually shaves his beard while
a Russian missile sits in the kitchen.”
—India Times

Merrily, merrily
one brave Ukrainian
lathers, and raises his
razor, unfazed—

even while faced with the
semi-miraculous
fact that his residence
hasn’t been razed.

by Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

“Panicking Putin ‘calls up OBESE 280lbs retired general, 67, to lead forces in Ukraine’
after ‘most of his best and battle-hardened senior commanders are killed’ in war”
—Daily Mail

Plump Russian soldiers who are long retired
And drink a quart of vodka every day
Now may, by Putin’s order, be required—
In huge fatigues—to head back to the fray.
Commanders of the Russians in Ukraine
Keep getting killed, or proving that they are
Inept, and getting fired from Vlad’s campaign—
Neurotic panic seems to grip this tsar.
Girth once considered far too large to fight
Protrudes from General Pavel to afford
Ukrainians an easy target site
That Putin surely couldn’t have ignored
In drafting him. What gives? … This guy will show
No stomach for the fight when told to go!

by Alex Steelsmith

“A flight attendant has claimed staff often have no clue whatsoever
when passengers ask them whereabouts they are when up in the air
and says they will usually just make stuff up.”
—Mirror

Whereabouts, thereabouts,
curious passengers
wondering, “Where are we
now?” should beware,

even if answered with
geo-coordinates:
really the answer is
up in the air.

by Steven Urquhart Bell

“The science of sleep: Why so many of us get it all wrong”
—The Observer

The secret of a really good night’s sleep
Is learning how to clear your mind of clutter.
Try meditation, reading, counting sheep,
Hypnosis, self-massage or getting guttered.

Or sex. So good, it’s almost a specific
For purging you of mental flot- and jetsam.
Though sex for me is not a soporific—
I lie awake and wonder how to get some.

by Stephen Gold

“Trials halted by barrister walkout over low pay for criminal defence”
—The Times

Justice delayed is justice denied.
Though you know we would love to be right by your side,
Be you murderer, fraudster, molester or thief,
It’s courting starvation to take on your brief.

We’re pissed at perennial poorly-paid gigs,
So what’s to be done? We’re all scratching our wigs.
But here’s one career that will keep us well fed:
We’re going to retrain as baristas instead.

by Steve Bremner

“A ‘Tidal Wave’ In Psychology:… Studies suggest psilocybin [the psychedelic drug in “magic mushrooms”]
may be able to treat depression, PTSD, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and substance use disorder,
among others.”
—Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Abstinence, schmabstinence?
Persons Anonymous
Schlepping the Twelve-Step are
Plunged into doubt.

Maybe recovery’s
Pharmacological?
Better to turn on, tune
In, and drop out?

by Steven Kent

“The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world”
—The Guardian

For this warning we thank you; it’s nice.
Rest assured, you won’t have to warn twice.
Oh, act now? Nah, the clime
Gives us plenty of time.
Down the road, though, we’ll take your advice.

by Clyde Always

“Hong Kong’s iconic giant floating restaurant capsizes in South China Sea”
—USA Today

A nautical eatery
sank to its grave
when rescuers found it too
flooded to save.

I bet it was cursed by a
slip of the lip
(some waitress had prayed for a
newsworthy tip).

by Dan Campion

“Republicans lash out against Senate gun bill and each other”
—The Hill

Rejoice this gang is “lashing out,”
Not meeting at high noon
And snarling, “Draw, you dirty lout!”
In front of some saloon;

We must, I think, point up the best
In every situation.
No need to wear a Kevlar vest!
Just salve for irritation.