Writing is an act of resistance
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Crying in Texas
reproductive rights, abortion, reproductive justice, Poetry, SCOTUS Dobbs decision, M.R. Mandell, Texas abortion ban Senate Bill 8, Bans off our bodies, SCOTUS Whole Women’s Health v. Jackson rulingBy M.R. Mandell after “Kissing” by Dorianne Laux Crying as they hope for blood, crying as they flush the strips, crying as they hide their bumps. They are crying in bathroom stalls, behind Sugarland’s Kroger store. They are crying on Houston corners, outside the boarded-up laundromat. They are crying in each other’s arms,…
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Amendments
abortions rights, 6 week ban, 15 week ban, reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, Amy Cook, Florida Senate Bill 300By Amy Cook We hadn’t had a proper winter, but spring arrived anyway, confoundingly on time. Whatever you might have read about autumn in New York, the first morning the rows of tulips open on Park Avenue, or when the purple hyacinth spirals up through a neighborhood garden, or that cloudless April morning when…
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Montana
Poetry, Jeremy Nathan Marks, transgender rights, transphobia, Zooey Zephyr, Montano anti-trans legislationBy Jeremy Nathan Marks For Zooey Zephyr The big sky fifty-mile vistas where the Greasy Grass runs willowed valleys sweeping memory from the water to the sky an arrow long ago fired but whose arc is heard surely this land can contain one woman who says of our laws that while we pray to…
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The first day of cherry season,
climate justice, wild fires, Emily Hockaday, climate change and health, ecopoetry, Poetry, climate crisis, global warmingBy Emily Hockaday the sky becomes apocalyptic. The air is wool in my throat. I wear a mask to pick my daughter up from school. The fruit vendors sit next to their colorful carts like the world isn’t ending, and I suppose it isn’t for now or it is just very slowly. And what…
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The Lure of Socks on Warm Feet
extreme weather, FEMA failure, Hurricane Maria 2017, Poetry, climate change, climate justice, Amelia Díaz Ettinger, Puerto RicoBy Amelia Díaz Ettinger Never forget, September 20, 2017 and Maria In my La-Z-Boy I sit, a Puerto Rican queen, feet-up admiring my knitted socks. I made these socks by knit and purl. 5,746 miles away from you it is easy to say, I worship. —And oh! How I preach this veneration, the warmth…
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Skull Fries
By Janis Butler Holm Artist Statement: Fast food, a multi-billion-dollar industry, is slowly killing Americans and others. French fries and what they accompany are not harmless. Janis Butler Holm served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal, and currently works as a writer and editor in sunny Los Angeles. Her prose, poems,…
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A Sunday in October
NRA, school shootings, mass shootings, Tree of Life Synagogue, anti-Semitism, Ariel M. Goldenthal, gun lobby, Narrative nonfiction, gun controlBy Ariel M. Goldenthal The day after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, I lied to my second-grade students: You are safe at Hebrew school. You will love learning the Aleph-Bet this year. Yes, you can open the windows and feel the early fall air ripple through the gaps between your outstretched fingers. You…
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Ho’oponopono
By Kelsey D. Mahaffey “In the book of the earth, it is written: nothing can die.” – Mary Oliver The morning after it happens again—weary with all the thoughtless use of prayer, I return to the Native path— for solace, for remembrance, for release— But grief is a heavy hold. Last night, I lay…
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It’s Complicated
By Mark Williams I’m scrolling through my Facebook feed—sunsets, cats, lost dogs, cats—when I see a post from a friend I’ve known for thirty-plus years. Someone like someone you know, I bet. Your someone might roof Habitat homes, deliver meals to shut-in’s, conduct sing-a-longs at elder cares, teach kids to read. Without divulging my…