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Peter F. Crowley is a prolific writer from the Boston area whose work spans short fiction, op-eds, poetry, and academic essays. His writing has appeared in publications such as Pif Magazine, New Verse News, Counterpunch, Common Dreams, The Galway Review, Digging Through the Fat, and The Opiate. He was a finalist in both the short story and poetry categories of Adelaide’s Award Anthologies. He is the author of two poetry collections, Those Who Hold Up the Earth and Empire’s End, as well as a short fiction collection, That Night and Other Stories.

When you need a beer

Peter F. Crowley

When all sides seem to be caving in
When the “resistance” celebrates its identity on
the dictator’s military parade birthday
When the normalized genocidal maniac
starts bombing another country
When more and more are cowering to the
dictatorship or keeping mum about it
When climate change-induced fires
perpetually burn, pollute the air
and truncate lifespans
When science, medicine and international aid
are no longer funded because America, Fuck Yeah

When the word military comes up, eternal love infects brain
When Democrats are hypocrites and the GOP is fascist
When work is the barrel of the gun that maintains health
insurance and the layoff-looming economy flails overhead

It is then,
my friend,
when you may need a beer

— Peter F. Crowley

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