Militia Lands Hunger
they’re out there—
they wait for the likes of you
liberal likes they so dislike
likes so unlike them
they meet train drill exercise
in quasi synchronized precision
as onslaught takeover practices fantasize
they dress in para uniform camouflage guises
bare tattooed ideology from under their skin
stand sentry cocked and locked as white rise political voices sound
they eat conspiracy theory rations for breakfast bullets
for lunch gulp down a full automatic magazine clip
for dinner guzzle slow burner supremacy stews
they sneer down invites to dine at donor gala banquets
while tongue thickened tastes to be in control salivate
their right to might thirsts go unquenched
they shred elite sinews with power grab teeth
these weekend warriors gnash on poached bounty
as their internet poisoned saliva sucks us dry
they do you in when you least expect it
as assault weapons season a new nation recipe
their means to an end chews on and savors—
we have their right to have no rights.
Mini-interview with Jonathan Memmert
HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)?
JM: Realizing many years ago: the tension of discovery found in encountering the unexpected in everyday moments and then to attempt to explore those in thoughts and meanings.
HFR: What are you reading?
JM: Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha,
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange,
The Ferguson Report: An Erasure by Nicole Sealey,
Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel by Yoko Tawada.
HFR: Can you tell us what prompted “Militia Lands Hunger”?
JM: Observing the cutting edge rise of fascism in present day America.
How close we are to the brink in our time.
HFR: What’s next? What are you working on?
JM: New poems and putting together a manuscript of poems.
HFR: Take the floor. Be political. Be fanatical. Be anything. What do you want to share?
JM: End the use of violence as our norm.
Re-examine entrenched societal systems. Create alternatives.
Engage in—humane—interactions with each other.
Become aware—that no human is any less human than any other human.
Ensure basic rights apply to all equally.
Build—peace—into our actions.
Jonathan Memmert is a poet who resides in Manhattan and has an MFA from The City College of New York. He has read his poetry at WordshedNYC literary events in New York City, and at the annual New York Poetry Festival in New York City. He still seeks and finds many encounters with wonder in the midst of adversity.
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Heavy Feather Review 