“What is Stranger Than Strange?” © Edward Michael Supranowicz

 

Going Backwards

Our lives are going backwards.
Where do we go from here?
Will it be the moon, Mars,
or anywhere else
where the ideas of these barbarians
have not destroyed others?

Our world is going back in time.
All of this
shows that we care not
for easy living.

Wars, lies, lack of equality.
These barbarians care not
about our rights,
our reproductive systems,
our freedom of speech.
They care only about
their fake, putrid image.

The messed-up ideologies
of those pigs in power
make me feel as though
we live in The Handmaid’s Tale.

This no longer feels like the 21st century,
but rather, an odd mix
of a dystopia
and our “modern” world.

No Roe V. Wade,
no transgender soldiers
to fight for us.
Only stupid name changes
of a body of water
that never once
wanted to be renamed.

All of our rights
will slowly be revoked

until we have nothing left.

 

Breanna Beltran is a junior at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. She is majoring in Writing with a concentration in Creative Writing. She loves reading, writing, road trips, and live music. In her free time, she spends time in her hometown, Aiken, South Carolina.

Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, The Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet who has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times.