Writing is an act of resistance
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Monster’s Lament 3.o
By M.A. Banash It’s 11:55 a.m. I’m crouching on the toilet at work. Pants buckled. Jabbing my phone to download an app. I want to get pizza for dinner but I’m too—what’s the word?—nervous, uptight, about ordering on the phone. The acoustics are daunting. Figure I should finally get in step with the world…
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Remodeling the kitchen won’t expand your mind
By Ying Choon Wu My fellow law-abiding citizens – as we steer our carts through Costco and Walmart and Target and Best Buy, let us remember this: We are somewhere. Inside our shoes. Between the cans of soup and bags of noodles. Between crossing off sanitizer and searching for arugula. Between the chill of dawn…
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Elegy
By Bänoo Zan For Jamal Khashoggi I am Allah— Al-Rahman[1]— Al-Rahim[2]— banished from faith and love mourning— beauty— my Word— censored— I am mourning my death— The robe of my Kaaba stained with blood of free speech I have witnessed Terror— my sons beheaded my daughters deprived of light I am Allah— Beloved of bards…
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Citizens United to Make Oz Great Again
By Nancy Austin When the Supreme Rulers lifted limits on campaign contributions, The wind began to switch, the House, to pitch, and the Senate, fat on fundraising festivities. Wizards and witches from east to west, north to south could now hide behind curtains, throw balls of fire, send flying monkeys, flaunt crystal balls. Oz…
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Dave
By David H. Reinarz Dave stepped out of his air-conditioned house and sat down on the front porch. Not on a chair. On the concrete step. The concrete step on the porch of Dave’s house was very hot. Dave could feel the heat through the seat of his stone-washed denim blue jeans and Fruit…
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Goddammit, you gotta vote because
By Tara Campbell when hate comes marching into town it bashes streetlights left and right incited by a raving clown. They’ll yank the phone- and power lines down to shock and choke us in the night when hate comes marching into town. We’ll stand together—black, white, brown queer, Muslim, Jew—against the blight incited by…
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Takes the Cake
By Karen Greenbaum-Maya “I was sitting at the table, we had finished dinner,” T***p told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. “We’re now having dessert—and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen—and President Xi was enjoying it.” So many problems are being solved by chocolate cake. Beautiful cakes, perfect 10s,…
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Tayaran
By Christa Miller The first time Haitham flies he is trying to flee the gang of teenagers in the camp who think he has something worth stealing. He is running, running, and then there is a building before him, the kitchen where his mother works during the day. Before he knows what he is…
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24-Hour Relevance
By Larry D. Thacker You’ve got twenty-four hours to wring out the story. Maybe not that even. Something shinier could surface out of that early morning Twitter abyss, from so deep and lightless the thing might be unrecognizable but for its stench of current interest, eyeless, translucent hide capable of handling the depth pressures that…