JOHN DEMING
HEADLINE NEWS
1.
WITH SADNESS COMES ACCURACY;
WITH HAPPINESS, FALSE MEMORY
so all my digital passwords
are based on personal tragedy
I remember your saddest expressions
I love how little rebels rebel
you put red streaks in your hair
after trying to kill yourself
all over America they’re sadder
than their circumstances would suggest
2.
CLAIRE DANES DEBUTS RED HAIR,
TALKS MEETING OBAMA ON ‘LATE SHOW’
I’m never not going to be
Angela Chase sitting on her bed
listening to the Cranberries’
“Dreams” then her mom comes in
and turns it down
Angela says just turn it off
Patty replies no
I like it
3.
what is my relationship with your god
what is my relationship with your media
the man with the black ski mask
the flashy blade in his hand
the man with the orange hat
INSIDE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY’S
DESPERATE MISSION TO STOP MR. TRUMP
compromising one’s fears like putting
on an orange
hat
4.
why must I be a teenager
I have ISIS on my face
it’s time for a teenage rebellion
time for the iPhone 8
J.D. SALINGER’S HOLDEN CAULFIELD AGING GRACELESSLY
I tried to perform in one style at one clip
started taking pills and now I’m counting every breath
five-way Dyckman intersection
her face is everywhere
it’s happening again
5.
okay so the worst has happened
someone build a fire
TRUMP TRIUMPHS
I still have my Duane Reade
Rewards card I’m fine
after all it’s still just the rest of the world and you
some hundred million others wondering
how to overcome extreme
sadness
what to do
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HEADLINE NEWS
1.
WEBSITE TRACKS
BLACK FRIDAY DEATHS
these look like solid deals to me
silk flatscreen
how it feels to me
a determined unfolding
of all my intentions
into blossom
and practically
healing me
2.
blissful and beat
the whole car ride
ADDICTION TREATMENT
WITH A DARK SIDE
it’s all dark side
that’s what the song said
it’ll prove to itself
it can still have you
and walk off again
I’m out of ideas and I hate conflict
3.
what would Frasier Crane do
he’d put this shit away
KELSEY GRAMMER OPENS UP
ABOUT HIS LOVE AFFAIR WITH COCAINE
he wanted to live a new life
new lives are not that great
I’m in the mood for love
I’m in the mood for things
what would Sideshow Bob do
I love it when he sings
4.
4 ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH HOFFMAN DRUGS
get me more
or let real
loose I get to
guarding my
own floors
every time I am
alone I get to
pardon my
old form
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*** ** ***
HEADLINE NEWS
1.
ZOMBIE FACES: WHY ARE WE
AFRAID OF THEM?
it’s nothing at all if you don’t pray to them
stories fold away
mulch
digital dirt
someone might have found them
if they proved somehow to be worth
more than the litany of stories
that replaces them
2.
she’ll always be dead in the ground like that
earth will be a pellet of hail
the status quo discreetly saves your life at that point
I mean indirectly like it always did
oh please keep me alive one more day
o who am I saying that to whom
has more power over that than me
THERE’S NO GOD BUT ALLAH, NO LANGUAGE BUT URDU
if I just believe in context
what’s the first thing I should do
3.
I purchased all my groceries
my student loans aren’t paid
a mendicant is a beggar
opprobrium means public shame
a sepulcher is a burial chamber
to supplicate is to beg
hirsute means furry or hairy
a mendicant supplicates
LETTER: WAKE UP AMERICA,
BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
4.
WORLD’S FIRST BIRTH FROM TRANSPLANTED WOMB
I read someone wants the doctor imprisoned
me I was born
by Caesarean Section
I’m still frightened by the sound of an incision
the rational ethics of listening well
and defending only researched opinions
should be obvious at this point
it’s all the dead have left us with
that and their pretty disappearance
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*** ** ***
HEADLINE NEWS
1.
a comically ambitious criticism
of style over substance
what luck to get to witness
make lists of what’s
always left dangling and repugnant
YOUNG MIDTERM-ELECTION VOTERS
go on
WILL LIKELY BE
VOTING FOR
REPUBLICANS
2.
McNulty has dinner with Terry
says he voted neither Bush nor Kerry
what else
can you do
leave it alone
like that forsythia
it’s like it never
connects
I.S. EXPANDS
IN LIBYA
3.
DON’T BLAME METEOROLOGISTS
FOR THE SOUTH’S TERRIBLE
RESPONSE TO SNOW
don’t blame them at all
I mean keeping them
out of all of it
I mean it obsequiously
there’s life past the shorelines
speckled life
breathing halibut
4.
now watch me establish my caliphate
your maps are officially useless
grown indefensibly old
but still arming bridges for Halliburton
all sneering and strategy
all toothless
DICK CHENEY WAS LYING ABOUT TORTURE
scatter you aphids
it’s late and I’m
doing this
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JOHN DEMING
John Deming is author of Headline News (Indolent Books, Fall 2017) and Editor in Chief of Coldfront. His poems and articles have appeared in Boston Review, Fence, Salon, New Orleans Review and elsewhere. He lives in New York City, where he directs the Writing Center at LIM College and co-curates KGB Monday Night Poetry.
To download a printable PDF version of this page, click here.
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A Dozen Nothing 