Melissa Balmain
Doomsdaily
"85 Seconds To Midnight, Closest Ever—So Says The Doomsday Clock"
~Forbes
Freedom's shrinking,
so's free thinking.
Desperation spikes.
But also (damn!)
on Instagram,
my post has got no likes.
Armageddon's coming, and my post has zero likes.
Seas are higher,
storms more dire—
coastal living's rough.
And in the mirror,
one thing's clearer:
I'm not blond enough.
Armageddon's coming, and my roots aren't blond enough.
Armageddon's coming, so how is it I'm not spending
every waking moment energetically defending
life and liberty?
Now—no, now—I've started! I have given up pretending
small stuff is important when the world's at risk of ending:
I'm a better me!
Watch me sally
to each rally,
cheer each picket line.
Hear me phoning
Congress, groaning,
Time to grow a spine.
Holy moly,
change comes slowly.
(Mostly not at all.)
Meanwhile, flurries
of new worries
never seem to stall.
Higher ed
may be dead.
My abs are getting weaker.
Robot mobs
steal our jobs.
The cat just chewed my sneaker.
Prices climb.
It's laundry time.
Madmen reign.
Hair clogs my drain.
War. More war.
My neck is sore.
Armageddon's coming, and our terror's holding steady.
Armageddon's coming, and our hope is looking thready.
Armageddon's coming, and the nukes are armed and ready.
Armageddon's here.
Should I get a mani-pedi?
Flight Instructions
"In the seat pocket in front of you, you'll find information on connecting."
~Delta Airlines attendant
1: Remove your AirPods.
2: Put down your phone.
3: Say, "How's it going?"
4: Don't die alone.
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| AUTHOR BIO |
| Melissa Balmain edits Light, North America’s longest-running journal of comic verse, and teaches writing at the University of Rochester. Her poems and/or prose have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Ecotone, The Hopkins Review, Lighten Up Online, Literary Matters, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Nimrod, Poetry Daily, and Rattle. She's the author of three poetry collections, most recently Satan Talks to His Therapist (Paul Dry Books). |
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| POETRY CONTRIBUTORS |
 Melissa Balmain
Hilary Biehl
Marie Burdett
Lani Burshtein
Barbara Lydecker Crane
Barbara Crooker
Jehanne Dubrow
Stevie Edwards
Anne Graue
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas
Beth Houston
Lynn Levin
Susan McLean
Joanna Migdal
Zara Raab
Leslie Schultz
Joyce Wilson
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| Brittany Vogel is an award-winning, New Jersey-based painter known for her bold color and beautifully expressive line. Her Powerful Women series has struck a chord well beyond the gallery walls, earning inclusion in multiple exhibitions including a Monmouth Museum x Smithsonian Exhibition and coverage in numerous press outlets, including Yahoo! News and feature spreads in TapInto and 07030 Magazine.
Vogel's work lives in public spaces as much as private collections. She created a 12-foot interactive mural, Suffragists Marching, in the Columbus Circle subway station, and has delivered artist talks at the Bruce Museum and the Hoboken Historical Museum. Her achievements include the competitive Merit Scholarship from the Art Students League of New York and features in three consecutive Monmouth Museum Annual Juried Exhibitions. She has mounted solo shows of both her Powerful Women and Order vs. Chaos series in New York City and New Jersey.
Whether she's covering a subway wall or a canvas, Vogel's aim is the same: command attention from across the room, then reward a closer look with a rich, layered story worth lingering over.
Brittany continues to paint, exhibit, and expand the Powerful Women series from her studio in Hoboken, New Jersey, adding new women and new stories to the collection.
For additional information, please visit www.BrittanyVogelArt.com.
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