Episode 327

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Published on:

23rd Mar 2026

Plutocracy by Alicia Swain | One Poem Only

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise.

Plutocracy

Alicia Swain

In kitchens drops will drip, each brown in hue,
a mother will keep her son from the truth,
the senate will swear there’s nothing to do,
though they tout their care for the nation’s youth.
A man will cast his vote at ten to noon,
his ballot broken down in only two,
he lives inside a fading honeymoon
with good intentions, having not a clue:
disease inside him ticks just like a bomb,
one year from now the hospital will close,
he’ll find a plot to rest beside his mom,
if only congress told him how it goes.
Though women’s bodies know not rights of men,
thank God the rich can clutch their wealth again.

More from Alicia Swain ↓

  1. @aliciamswain on Instagram
  2. @aliciamswain on Substack
  3. Her book, Steel Slides and Yellow Walls, is available now

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About the Podcast

One Poem Only
I'm Maggie Devers, and each day I'll read you a poem-nothing more, nothing less. No analysis, no noise-just a little space to listen.
A daily reading. A quiet moment. One poem, center stage: just for now, just for you. A one-night-only show, in verse.

Come back tomorrow. The curtain rises again.
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Maggie Devers