Writing is an act of resistance
-
Basta!
A ghazal by Andrea Fry Is there a common measure of enough? And which increment morphs into “enough?” A subjective voice must name the limit— masochist signals when his pain’s enough, The politician who keeps on smiling— What’s his tipping point? When’s he heard enough? I’m so confounded by all the excess, yet the…
-
Why He Said It
By Don Krieger He knew what he was getting into — US President during a bereavement phone call Telling a dead soldier: You knew what you were getting into is simply saying: Don’t blame me. It’s cowardly, which is why our president said it. Telling the…
-
Costa
By Amirah Al Wassif Everyone has heard of Costa’s miracles in our grey village: the boy who had a wooden toy and a cheerful wren bird. His giant miracles were in his spoken wooden toy, which could create a lot of jokes in a loud tone. His second miracle was in his talented wren:…
-
Not Dear Mr
By Elisabeth Horan Let’s get something straight. This pussy is not for you. Pussy is for me and my sisters. Pussy is something I eat for breakfast lunch and dinner. You might eat vaginas. Poor those vaginas. Pussy is something that sits on my lap and purrs and is soft and sweet and hunts mice…
-
Six Bells
By Carron Little for Judie Anderson Life started with a brush, Caressing pigments over fibres Joined in hands, two became four, Horns grew life through walls. Sacred milk became six, Six pairs of hands became eight The light keeps pouring, Milk over water, water over stone Six shifts, Six pairs of golden horns…
-
The Cancer of Misogyny
By Pam Munter Longtime Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local.” But for me, all politics is personal, especially when discussing the circumscribed role and demonization of women in society. The current spate of misogyny, with its soaring rise in the public forum, has uncapped an ineptly sealed lid…
-
Where the dem things were
By Cheryl Caesar The day Don wore his Shutdown Mantle and made mischief of one kind and another the Washington Post called him “BOTTOMLESS PINOCCHIO!” and Don said, “I’LL SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT!” so he went off to bed with 2 Big Macs and Fox and Friends. That very night in a junk food…
-
My Illiterate Mother
By Fabiyas M V A software to read and write is not installed in my mom’s system. We download pages of ignorance. Sometimes, her monitor is blank. Our neighbors wake up hearing the divine songs from a rural temple, when I jump up listening to the metal words rattling in the kitchen. She pours…
-
Autoimmune
By Sadell Costello trigger happy t-cells mistake the good guys for the bad guys carrying myself like a weapon a product of too many enemies or an excess of victims Stephon Clark was, as they say, gunned down in his grandparents’ backyard Syria’s children asphyxiated with sarin gas when i open the news, Fox…