Photo credit: Yuma
ANGERED BY CANADA, PRESIDENT
RENAMES LAKE ONTARIO
“LAKE AMERICA”
Canadian geese
crossing the border
will now be known
as Donald Ducks.
THE PRESIDENT’S “BIG, BEAUTIFUL” SPENDING BILL
IS ALREADY MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN AMERICANS’ LIVES
A Silicon Valley billionaire
trades in his Learjet
for this year’s model.
A preschool teacher
trades her used car
for a bicycle.
NEW NAVY RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN UNVEILED
Video gamers wanted.
Have fun.
Sink Ships!
PRESIDENT CALLS THE “FURY” UNLEASHED ON IRAN
NOT WAR BUT A “SHORT-TERM EXCURSION”
On ships of the American armada
sailors are reassured:
this is not combat—
just a weekend getaway.
Pilots in endless sorties
take comfort knowing
the bursts of anti-aircraft
are fireworks
arranged to celebrate their arrival.
When American soldiers enter Tehran
they can expect a hero’s welcome—
just like their older brothers in Baghdad,
thanked by grateful Iraqis
for delivering
Enduring Freedom.
PRESIDENT CALLS REPORTS OF MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
ABOARD USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEDIA DISTORTIONS
Midshipmen who jumped overboard
weren’t suicidal—
they were just
enjoying a swim
in the Arabian Sea.
ONE WEEK AFTER START OF IRAN WAR
PRESIDENT CLAIMED, “WE’VE ALREADY WON.”
Months later
the winners
keep arriving
at Dover Air Force Base—
draped with flags.
Artist’s Statement
Newsbriefs are a poetic form I invented in the 1980s and have returned each decade since, modeled on the lean, punchy editorial-page cartoons of wits like the Boston Globe’s Dan Wasserman. Like a cartoon, a newsbrief avoids lengthy editorializing. Instead, it frames actual newspaper reportage—often using a genuine headline as its title—and lets a few ironic, sarcastic lines perform the critical heavy lifting. The goal of these poems is to sharpen critical awareness of political discourse as the news media packages it, grounding every piece in the urgent "of the moment."
In their structure and spirit, newsbriefs are direct heirs to Nicanor Parra’s artefactos (Artifacts) and his broader project of anti-poetry. Parra famously sought to strip poetry of its solemn, high-lyric pomposity, declaring war on institutional rhetoric by fusing everyday speech with visual immediacy and biting, dark humor. His artefactos—originally issued as loose postcards in a cardboard box—paired simple illustrations or found objects with brief, provocative text. The newsbrief performs an identical anti-poetic maneuver. Where Parra used line drawings or postcards, the newsbrief uses the media's own headlines and journalistic posture as a found framing device, hijacking the authoritative voice of "the news" only to puncture it with mundane reality.
Mark Pawlak is the author of eleven poetry collections, most recently Special Operation (Bestway Editions, 2026). Previous books include Away Away (Arrowsmith Press, 2024), and the memoir My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov (MadHat Press, 2021). His poems have been translated into Chinese, German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, and have been performed at Teatr Polski in Warsaw. In English, his poems and prose have appeared widely in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, For the Time Being: The Bootstrap Anthology of Poetic Journals and in the literary magazines New American Writing, Mother Jones, Poetry South, The Saint Ann’s Review, and The World, among many others. He taught mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Boston (1979-2016), where he was Director of Academic Support Programs and received the Chancellors Achievement Award. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. is the author of eleven poetry collections, most recently Special Operation (Bestway Editions, 2026). Previous books include Away Away (Arrowsmith Press, 2024), and the memoir My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov (MadHat Press, 2021). His poems have been translated into Chinese, German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, and have been performed at Teatr Polski in Warsaw. In English, his poems and prose have appeared widely in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, For the Time Being: The Bootstrap Anthology of Poetic Journals and in the literary magazines New American Writing, Mother Jones, Poetry South, The Saint Ann’s Review, and The World, among many others. He taught mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Boston (1979-2016), where he was Director of Academic Support Programs and received the Chancellors Achievement Award. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.