John L. Holgerson – Writers Resist

Welcome to Writers Resist Spring 2026 Issue

Welcome to the vibrant words and images of spring, celebrating the memory of Marsha P. Johnson, beloved and befamed transgender LGBTQ rights activist and Stonewall Inn heroine.

If you’d like the link to the virtual reading for this issue, 18 April at 5:00 pm PACIFIC, please email us at writersresist@gmail.com.

Now, join us and our contributing resisters, while we flip the flaming bird at the antis and revere all that proclaims our identities.

Why does a tranny cross a yellow brick road? by Mx. Asher

To David Lehman by Waverly Vernon

Run by JL Smither

Ahead of the Storm by Laura Ann Reed

Absent Hills by Johanna Haas

This Is the Way Our Words End— by Dennis Humphrey

Doomscrolling isn’t solidarity by Maxochitl Cortez

Warning by John L. Holgerson

Two Poems by Robin Michel

Trashy by M.R. Mandell

Duality of Dogma by Nardien Sadik

No Vacation by Raymond A. Mazurek

On the Road to Samarra by Marissa Glover

planning the ballroom by Alexis Rhodes

Pledge by Dion O’Reilly

When Should We Senior Women Not? by Ann Grogan

Choices by Alice Benson

Warning

By John L. Holgerson

after the poem Warning by Leonard Cohen

If your neighbor disappears
Oh if your neighbor disappears

The Hispanic man from Venezuela
who helped you paint your house
or the young woman who babysat
your children while dressed proudly
in that rainbow-colored blouse

If your neighbor disappears
Oh if your neighbor disappears

Don’t ask what happened
to the multi-tatted Black man
who lived on your block
or the foreign college student
with whom you liked to talk

Beware of the men wearing balaclavas
who cruise our streets each day
They have plans you can’t ignore
or else there’ll come a tapping,
rapping, pounding on your door

When your neighbor disappears
Oh when your neighbor disappears.

John L. Holgerson is the author of three books of poetry, Convictions of the Heart (In Case of Emergency Press 2021), Unnecessary Tattoo and Other Stains on a Stainless Steel Heart (Finishing Line Press 2016) and Broken Borders (Wasteland Press 2012). He has published poems in small literary journals, both in print and online. He is listed in the Poets & Writers’ Directory of Poets and Writers; is one of three MassPoetry representatives for Bristol County, Massachusetts; and is co-host of For the Love of Words, airing on Easton Community Access Television in North Easton, Massachusetts. The monthly program showcases performances of local, regional, national and international poets and musicians. For more than three decades, he was a criminal defense attorney with The Massachusetts Defenders Committee. Visit his web s ite.

Photo credit: Prachatai via a Creative Commons license.

A Note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist on our Give a Sawbuck page.