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Maggs Vibo

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the poet

Maggs Vibo – pen name of veteran, military spouse and visual poet Margaret Viboolsittiseri – is the author of ash poetry booklet Ashes to Ashes. She’s contributed to anthologies from Poem Atlas, Penteract Press, Steel Incisors, IceFloe Press, Coven Poetry, Fevers of the Mind, AngelHousePress and Oxford Brookes University Poetry Centre. Published widely in the US, UK, Canada, Europe and South Asia, Maggs showed pieces in 2022 with L'Air Arts in Atelier 11 of Cité Falguière in Paris, and at The Library of Congress in Washington DC.

the poems

The Year of the Ox

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                 Try not to box                  or blow                  up                  Chuck                  Dem-ah     CRAZEEEEE                  SAW                  Free                  DUMB                  Oh Fragil-egos and the Gods …                  k-NO-w science                  criminal enterprises drilling-in-digenous                  wears a Cape Fear                  full of shit                  bags of waste                  lands of carn   age                  everything harnesses                  the power of the sun, winds, dust,                  rainmaker of all                  powerful                  Holy                  rolling                  phony                  and traitorous                  bologna                  sand                  Which way did they go?                  Storm In red and                  CAP-IT-ALL                  Off                  fences didn’t stop and neither could a                  WALL                  STREET of protestors                  (zip) ties                  mouth                  Shut the F. up                  You’re dis – loyal                  and royally F.U.C.KKKed                  up! Up! UP and A-way                  Through this maze of trickery

The Year of the Rat

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                  I don't find inspiration                   In a rat. Not that

                  Creature

                  scurrying along the floorboards

                  looking forward to theft

                  I'm bereft

                  when looking at that tail,

                  that long gruesome nose sniffing

                  whiffing for the smell of death. Of plague.                   of Misfortune

                  The Year of the Rat. Fat

                  politicians told us that we’d be free of this virus                   when in fact or fiction (no contradiction)

                  In our rat. He is the disease

                  we wheeze and cough in his direction

                  wherever he might go just know

                  we wish he'd fall into the trap

                  he laid for himself when he called all this a hoax

                  just smoke and mirrors                   reflecting back a rat

                  we loathe

                  The rat serves no purpose and has no                   Make it Great claim to life                   Except through death,                   trenches                   and holes,                   Sewerbellies

                  Of our globe. (Hold)

                  The rat in a maze. It phases us

                  How intelligent and how much they’re like us

                  We hate the rat because:                   We Are the Rat

                  And this is the year (we must endear)                   This creature who will represent

                  All our selfish desires

                  With ire we must take back (our rat) and

                  Pet

                  This debt … we make for generations

                  In the future

                  A suture to hold this geyser of blood

                  We must mop to the corner and all over our                   Persistence and petulance

                  Henceforth,

                  This, POOOOR creature

                  Is the Year of the Rat

The Year of the Tiger

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                  Lady                   Liberty

                  Lingering threats

                  January

                  6th                   Sense of

                  Skipping rope

                  With the reins of a

                  Trojan horse

                  Riding into the eye

                  Yet do not see

                  Your stripes

                  A billion dollar

                  Arsenal of logos,

                  T-shirts, and                   Assaults

                  A cache                   Of cash

                  Yet, still you play the fiddle

                  Down in Georgia

                  Peaches

                  Bragging and breaking skin

                  Smash-n-grab’em                   By their special props

                  In a Lone Star

                  States                   Of oppression

                  Against a mouse                   You taunt

                  A community of trained

                  Cops and Thieves who                   Claim supremacy

                  You'll see                   We The People

                  I am

                  AMERICAN

                  My hand raised to defend

                  The Constitution

                  You burned

                  We The People

                  We Are Cursed

                  We Are Broken

                  Our kindergardens

                  Soaked in

                  Coffins draped

                  No playground

                  Fallen grace

                  Untenable and broken

                  Lulla-byes

                  Purring kittens

                  Eyes too young to see

                  Such tragedies

                  Hiding

                  Cowering

                  Yet calling

                  Out-stretched tails

                  Sharpening nails

                  Scratching                   A Cross

                  And clawing

                  Back

                  We are Tigers

                  Angry feoh-lions

                  Roaring

                  No longer silent

                  Soaring

                  Manticores

Publishing credits

The Year of the Ox: Visual Poetry (Fevers of the Mind)

The Year of the Rat: Distanced 3.0 (ang(st)) / The Book of Penteract

  (Penteract Press)
The Year of the Tiger: exclusive first publication by iamb

© original authors 2025

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