We’re hearing that contributors are receiving their copies of NDQ 85, and we’ll continue to make selections from this volume available here on the NDQ blog. Today we feature to poems by Evan Anders, “american idols” and  “last of the polka dots” which both offer searing perspectives on our contemporary condition.

american idols

“is there still more?” asked the tired mother to her tired daughter. as they empty out

the last of four
washing machines
the next american idol
sings a song
we cannot hear.
we do not feel.
we do not care
about their white teeth
about their tired melodies.

number thirty-four and thirty-five start to leak.
we lift up our feet when the man passes
with his tired mop.

our idols beg for votes.

 

last of the polka dots

we are hummingbirds
last of the polka dots.

people walk through waves
the same here as in Berlin.

if god exists
god is a woman
god is ashamed.

i think to myself
while fighting off
weeds in my garden.

they say herbicide
is linked to cancer.

we have this honor
to wear among our stripes.

~

Evan Anders brews coffee for mass consumption in Philadelphia. Evan released a chapbook of poems titled Smoke Rings in 2016. His poems have appeared in Five 2 One Magazine and California Quarterly. He changes diapers, thinks Bob Dylan was best in the eighties, and makes his own spaghetti sauce.

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