Author Archives: JMN

Unknown's avatar

About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

A-B-C-D-D-C-B-A

every need fights to makeits voice heard, to befulfilled with a gentle touch (from K. LINES THAT AIM TO BE) K’s lines, encountered after I had spewed the below caustic grump at the demons of my own distractedness, furnished an … Continue reading

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Mid-May on the Littoral

It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates.(Philip Roth on American life in the 1960s) I fear I’ve morphed into a carping nag.Crafting invective merely fêtes the boor,vomitous bilge the thing that feeds his root.It’s to priss froufrou-like at the galaof distress, … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Messy Antic Bomb Bard

I compel you in the name of my HIMARS!I compel you in the name of my ATACMS!I compel you in the name of my GENERALS,By the lashings of my terrible swift tongue! You want a red sea? I will give … Continue reading

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Let Fly, Let Sing

As a grammar nerd I have to comment: The hortatory “let” allows you and me to influence the behavior of a third person (Let him go fly a kite!), or a third person that of a fourth (Mary Ann said, … Continue reading

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Trigger Mortis

… Not long after the end of the Vietnam War [1975], Army Col. Harry Summers, who’d won Bronze and Silver stars in that war as an operations officer, flew to Hanoi as chief of the U.S. delegation to resolve the … Continue reading

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 2 Comments

Wampeters Are Catnip for Goon Balloons

Wampeters are catnip for goon balloons,Slippery as deer guts on a doorknob,Dark Davos in an amniotic greatcoat,Wampum coined from oligarchs’ spittoons.Treacly curls, puffed labia, eyeball moons —A lecherous lapsarian’s heartthrob!Wampeters are catnip for goon balloons,Triggery as the fingers of an … Continue reading

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Photo Worth Several Words

Who’s being “honored” in this picture? (Hint: They’re female.) Peekaboo! The University of Georgia women’s tennis team posing with Donald Trump and administration officials. Photograph: Margo Martin on X/Margo Martin on X (@MargoMartin47). [Guardian caption and illustration] (c) 2026 JMN … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 6 Comments

The Madman Helming the Solo Voyage

When at sea / directionless / approach the / Unexpected(Cheyenne McMasters) The madman helming the solo voyagesteers by the seat of his cargo shorts.His jury-rigged bark breasts the swellsand he clutches the tiller with white knuckles. The madman waves to … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Come Sweetly

No more the air- / borne omens; no more the incensed prayers; no more the carcass / butchered at the altar.(From “Elegy for the Deathless Gods” by Sherod Santos, Poetry, March 2026) To this or that paradise of misruleIs not … Continue reading

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Art of the Smirk

Did your social circles “overlap” with this person’s? (c) 2026 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | 1 Comment