Politics
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Fifth of July
Yesterday I posted here a poem titled Moloch which was basically me riffing on part two of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl out of my own and more contemporary experiences. Shortly after I took it down and replaced it with Quiet Fireworks. I then posted a video on the socials of a small upside down American flag… Continue reading
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The Misappropriated Mermaid
The misappropriated mermaid lords itover poorly paid women told to smile while taking orders. We all are thoroughlytrickled on again. I no longer own a house to leave to my children to bicker overor perhaps to share because who can afford one on their own anymore? It’s toast, hold the avocadoes, from now onin this… Continue reading
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THAT BRIGHT MOMENT
YOU ARE TRAPPED IN THAT BRIGHT MOMENTWHERE YOU LEARNED YOUR DOOM— Samuel R. Delaney in City of a Thousand Suns Whether it is Doom in the archaic sense from the Anglo-Saxon and Norse of the totality of your deeds and reputation and the consquences thereof, the story of the Hero; or, the Doom imposed from… Continue reading
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The Middle East
Middle of what? The eurocentric “West?” West of what? The East in the Middle of the West is how you get confused boundaries and their inevitable wars. At least the Romans arranged their subject people rationally. Example: Palestine. When Rome merged with the Germanic world things got weird. They took the Levantine game of chess… Continue reading
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Understanding P@l€st1ne
As Trump and Netenyahu plot the harvest of their fruits from the Palestinian genocide, I want you to help you understand the Palestinian point of view. Forget what any God said; the gods of indigenous Americans promised them the North American continent. This was a purely geo-political transaction to plant the West’s flag in the… Continue reading
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Morning is Broken
is the No. 1 hymn in this hellwhere the news scrolls bylike sandpaper on the soul.Wars and rumors of warearthquakes, snakes andprivate aeroplanes.You should be afraidof the one-sided (so far)civil war against dissent.The only way out is througha cordon of soulless thugsbent on ending the non-compliant, to paint a newAmerican Dream in bloodfor the White… Continue reading
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A Limited Number of Miracles
This poem is inspired by Jonathan Penton’s excellent book A Limited Number of Miracles from Lavender Ink (2025), in which each poem is inspired by a piece in the Bestoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It’s not just that fhey took Hercules down in front and moved him to the sculpture… Continue reading
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2025
On The Centennial of Benito Mussolini’s Assumption of Dictatorial Powers in 1925 let us string piano wire like holiday tinsel and hang memorial ornaments to resistance, dangle the masked fatigue green monsters by their ankles while singing the carol of the partisan, crack poppers heard round the world and wear paper tricorn hats of Lexington… Continue reading
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We are here to laugh at the odds
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stonewritten. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own… Continue reading
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Enemy of the Wrong People
I’ve never requested my FBI file but I’m pretty sure it goes back over 50 years to my freshman year in high school. Our service class was a comparison between the US and Soviet system. And there was a model UN. I was assigned Taiwan, and decided instead in 1971 to represent the People’s Republic… Continue reading
About Me
Mark Folse is a provincial diarist and aspiring minor poet from New Orleans. His past blogging adventures included the Katina/Federal Flood blog wetbankguide on blogspot.com which David Simon told NY Magazine was one of three blogs that helped inform Treme, and Toulouse Street–Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans, which once outranked the Doobie Brothers on Google Search. His work has appeared in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Trampoline, Unlikely Stories, Peauxdunque Review, LMNL Anthology, The New Delta Review, Metazen, New Laurel Review, Ellipsis, What We Know: New Orleans as Home, Please Forward, The Maple Leaf Rag IV, and A Howling in the Wires (which he co-edited).
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Well Bottom Blues 