Artwork © Ira Joel Haber

 

Guts Personified

A little girl inside a deviant fantasy.
That rich, grown men acted upon on
some fantasy island where there is
no little person shouting “the plane,
the plane,”

Tragic hedonism acted upon a
twelve-year-old, & Pam Bondi
is restless, trying to save face for
you know who.

But loyalty to an asshat is not
the issue.

Woman, who had the courage
to show up at a hearing, wearing
white shirts, representing victims
of powerful, mentally ill individuals.

Guts personified.

Yes, let us pay homage to them.
Who, after agitated sleep, filled
with dreams of crusty, vile guys who
sit in powerful, comfortable situations
across the United States.

Look in the mirror
before they drink their first coffee.

Wondering, what did I do
to deserve this fate.

Names, spoken in whispers among
the dilated elite.

Tragic tears spill down
tragic cheeks.

But they refuse to play the victim card.
They stand proud & tall,
knowing that while the three
branches of government want
nothing more than for this
sickening event (s) to go away,
history will prove these women proud.

A nation, who is angry and tired
of being repressed.

We are all on your side.
The morally & legally right side.

 

Dan Provost’s poetry has been published both online and in print since 1993. He is the author of 17 books/ chapbooks, including Getting Your Bell Rung released by Luchador Press, in June 2025. Notes From the Other Side of the Bed was published by A Thin Slice of Anxiety Press also in 2025. His work has been nominated for The Best of the Net three times, and he has read his poetry throughout the United States. He lives in Keene, New Hampshire with his wife Laura, and dog Bella.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lived in Brooklyn. He was a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in the USA and Europe and he has had nine one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 e National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS) two Pollock-Krasner grants, two Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grants and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc. in 2017 & 2018 he received the Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA artist-in-residence grant.