The Anti-Authoritarian Call and Response: "For What is Left" by Frank Thomas Rosen

For What is Left

I saw my daughter last
As a blue dot
Globally spread

As she disappeared
In a drive-by van
Without windows

As everyone was watching
The same show on YouTube
Always breaking and
Leading

Larger-than-life producers
Up to their knees
In Mimosas and
Chicken wings

To salute the next
Trafficking Zar

Wake up, says my wife
Talking again
In my sleep

You need to stop
Watching that shit

I walk into the kitchen
To make some lunch
For what is left
Of my family

- - -

10/6/2025

Frank Thomas Rosen grew up in East Germany and moved to the United States in 1997. He taught English at colleges in Ohio for ten years before becoming a nurse practitioner (FNP) in Cleveland, Ohio. Rosen has published two books of poetry: scratches (Dresden: Satzverlag, 2003) and auschwitz of the digital age (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2019). His poems have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Ambit, Dongola Limited Editions, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Belt Magazine, and numerous German and American anthologies. In his writing, Rosen explores social injustice, cross-cultural struggle, and environmental challenges.