ED ZAHNISER

WHAT IS (PART OF) YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE?

I have been fortunate to keep working throughout the Great Recession but it is discouraging to see so many out of jobs. And the politicians politely ignore the fact that globalization means that the jobs won't be coming back, or created by the one percent or by small businesses. In reality, when you have the world's highest standard of living, and you globalize, there is nowhere to go but down until you meet Bangladesh on its way up. It has been hard on people released from prison too. They used to be able to get factory jobs, but those are now overseas.


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HOW HAS YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE AFFECTED YOUR POETRY?

The Great Recession has brought to the fore the satirical and ironic strains of my poetry.


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PLEASE SHARE A POEM(S) ADDRESSING YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE:

WORM FENCES IN THE COLONIES


Zig-zag fences of North America

    wormed their way through Europe’s mind

        forest-deprived as the Old Country was back then

any plank there fit to symbolize

    the one that holds fast keel to rudder

        despite these stacked up to proclaim instead

John Locke’s right, divine, to life but mostly property

    —for other than the so-called Indian—a right

        we might value akin to the helicopter’s Jesus nut

    in our mad pursuit of happiness on unsecured credit

circling like a rotor just above the bubble.

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ABOUT THE POET:


Ed Zahniser, San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico. Photo by Angie Faulkner


Ed Zahniser’s poems have appeared in over 100 literary magazines in the U.S. and U.K.; three books, most recently Mall-hopping with the Great I AM (Somondoco Press, 2006); and three chapbooks, most recently Slow Down and Live, a collaboration with artist and designer Heather Watson of Pernot&Tatlin (2011). He was a founding editor of Some Of Us Press in Washington, DC, and formerly poetry editor of Wilderness magazine and an associate poetry editor of Antietam Review. He lives in Shepherdstown, WV, where he is poetry editor of the all-volunteer community quarterly The Good News Paper.



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LINDA M. CRATE

WHAT IS (PART OF) YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE?

It's made me hopeful that things will one day change, however, it comes with the grim realization that my dreams and reality aren't working in co-existence. The debt seems to go up while opportunities are lost and the rich squander money that poor and middle class could only ever imagine in their finest dreams. Perhaps, it's time we take a leaf out of the book of those involved in the "Tea Party" scandal.


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HOW HAS THE GREAT RECESSION AFFECTED YOUR POETRY?

Since it's harder to find work, it's given me an opportunity to produce a lot more poetry and other outlets of writing and artistic ability than I'd be able to entertain otherwise.


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PLEASE SHARE A POEM(S) ADDRESSING YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE:

entropy

broken dreams litter the ground
obliterating the vision of my own —
I watch despair engulf the arms
of those too weak to beat it off,
debt increases and prices too while
wages lessen or remain the same —
my rose tinted glasses are broken
as entropy reigns, I wonder if this
monarch will ever be dethroned.



invisible

poet by day, janitor by night —
thoughts sometimes dance
across my mind for another
story or poem or novel idea;
they come unbidden when I’m
vacuuming the floor or dusting
the shelves or emptying trash,
I wonder if any of it matters —
will any of this be remembered
after I am buried beneath dust,
or will I be forgotten like the
rest only remembered by daisies.



lack of experience

they always want someone
with more experience, whether
it’s a receptionist or something
more; as if the only thing I’m
capable of is reminding them that
they were once young, like I can’t
be trusted to operate anything
that isn’t a cell phone or computer —
they give me that stuffy, insincere
smile and I know it’s over before
it’s even begun, and yet I cannot
melt into the floor like I’d wish
to — I wonder if I’ll ever get a job
if I can’t ascertain any knowledge.



trapped

phone call after phone call,
application after application —
interview after interview;
yet nothing ever changes only
the day, dreams are broken
and I feel even my hope can
dwindle from time to time;
I hope one day I can take these
broken wings and somehow
fly into a land of opportunity.



Apology

If I can’t afford you a proper
burial, please accept these
paper flowers; I don’t have
but a dollar in my pocket and
a mind full of dreams that
have yet to come to fruition.

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ABOUT THE POET:


Linda Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poems have been previously published in Magic Cat Press, Black-Listed Magazine, Bigger Stones, Vintage Poetry, The Stellar Showcase Journal, Ides of March, The Blinking Cursor, The Diversified Arts Project, The Railroad Poetry Project, Skive, The Scarlet Sound, Speech Therapy, Itasca Illinois & Willowtree Dreams, Dead Snakes, The Camel Saloon, Write From Wrong, Moon Washed Kisses, The Wilderness Interface Zone, Samizdat Literary Magazine, and Danse Macabre. Her short stories have been published in Carnage Conservatory, Daily Love, Circus of the Damned, and Linguistic Erosion.