The Poems of the Month for April 2026, selected by 2026 Anthology editors Elizabeth Salna and Erica Jolly, are flattop by Ben Adams and Modern Slant on an Old Story by Veronica Cookson. The commended poems are Swallowtail Butterfly by Kylie Dinning, Broken News by Billy-Jack Johnson, Evelyn, Little Evelyn by Geoff Johnson and Travelling North by Rob McKinnon.
flattop
Ben Adams
the instinct of fire is
conflagration
filling space like a man who won’t stop talking
about not getting caught in groupthink
how he doesn’t see empathy as a virtue
and that he formulated these ideas
after reading Orwell, Huxley, Peterson
and Plato
speaking to people
and dating a woman
whose worldview was based on emotions
he hates cops
for all the wrong reasons
considers multiculturalism impossible
from a logical standpoint
and says educated white people think BBQs and backyard cricket
are analogous with white supremacy
slight hyperbole, he admits
but not far from the mark
he is an exothermic process
becoming everything
replacing air with heat, the still surface
of a flattop grill or timber frame
a hanging tent flap, or skin
with crackling singe and melt
he’s forgotten to flip the snags again
the way embers smoulder
kindling catches love like a spark
follows algorithmic oxygen
to inhale it like hate, like something
his body wants
the world is a many-faced god
and he’s forgotten to check the steaks
as we stand away in the smokers’ corner
discussing the sociology of flame
as weapon of war, the worst way to die
he talks about diesel engines
speeding fines and the family court
religion as culture
and ritual, a warm hearth
he remembers
I mention the witches they burned
tell him that
combustion doesn’t care
what it consumes
and violence only becomes visible
at the ignition point
Modern Slant on an Old Story
Veronica Cookson
The original
Antonio, Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1
‘In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.… Click for more
