By Jamie Davenport Something entirely disturbing happened last night on my commute to rehearsal. Bear with me. It is a long tale. But one that is necessary to read and digest. I was sitting in the corner of the Red Line T, closest to the conductor, when a group of about eight black kids from [...]
By Jon Wesick There’s a poetry reading in Victorville so I drive to the land of football and gang tattoos. The hotel room TV is wall to wall commercials. I realize my life has been one long scream into a firehose, a protest against terabytes of televangelists fad diets, get-rich-quick schemes, and kitchen gadgets in a [...]
By Nancy Dunlop And may one be happy in the face of bad things? And may one make art or knit or bake a bundt cake in the face of bad things? And may one have a hopeful meditative life, a restful prayer life, an active inner life in the face of bad things? And may [...]
By Chinyere Onyekwere Kpotuba sweated profusely as she climbed the ten dilapidated steps to Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission notice board. She looked for her name on the sample ballot, and its absence shocked her, rendered her huge undulating body immobile. She fought back tears of humiliation when a group of certified male contenders snickered [...]
By Harry Youtt Then there I was, cold again, flipping tossed blankets and a moist sheet back over, and wishing for another, knowing this time it must be the fever leaving; this time it might be finally over, hearing at last the caw of the morning crow that’s made the night worth listening through in spite [...]
Writers Resist is delighted—again—to introduce a new poetry editor: Laura Orem is joining Ruth Nolan in our pursuit of resistance poetry. Laura is a poet, essayist and visual artist. She's the author of Resurrection Biology (Finishing Line Press 2017) and the chapbook Castrata: a Conversation (Finishing Line Press 2014). Laura received an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College [...]
By Luke A. Powers High above Courthouse square Atop an impossibly Tall pillar He has stood Sentinel now A hundred years Summers, winters, Facing a South Always farther away Waiting for word Signal, reinforcement Until he's gone Blind in alabaster In cap and gloves His buttons smooth Leaning on a rifle That like his face Is [...]
By Robbie Gamble That history was cast, it had its time to patina publically, those grandiose bits: goatees, greatcoats and spurs all sober and saddle-erect, hauled down amid conflicted outcries of righteous mobs, or unbolted and forklifted away into the night. Let the sullen air settle. In municipal plazas, the plinths remain stolid, their bare cornices [...]
By Emmett Forrest Was told I was a trooper from the time I was a little girl Shoulders square chin raised high I said goodbye my father stepped onto a plane and I couldn't bear to watch my eyes downcast from the window frame it takes a strength to become a purple heart to hide [...]
By Sara Marchant My hands were full in the post office parking lot. I held out-going bills, my car and postal box keys, my purse, and a heavy manila envelope containing a manuscript destined for greatness (one can always hope, right?). When I heard a loud car horn and a male voice yelling “Votes for [...]
By Suzanne O’Connell Your arms waved for help. The policeman bent down, hand on gun. “No!” you shouted. He fired. The sound, an exploding beehive. I looked at your fragile skull, resting on the sharp leaves of fall. Your eyelids blinked. Helicopters circled, sirens came. Your blood kept pooling. It was the color of mine. I [...]
By I.E. Sommsin God, will you forgive the sins of our times, this sad era, its soft habits of thought and the glib assumptions easily taught that breed the lying slogans worse than crimes? We cannot help how the words work to cloud and clog and flood the forums of the mind. They build the thick high [...]
By Alexander Schuhr My grandfather farted a lot. Sometimes it took as little as rising from a chair or a slight adjustment of his position and he’d let one fly. In my preadolescent years, I used to burst into laughter. And why not? Among my classmates, a thunderous salute called for proper acknowledgement. Embarrassment was [...]
By D. R. James —1/22/17 Outside, still January, but 40 not 15, gauzy, black-and-white woods from The Wolf Man. Inside, a gauzy-gray (un?)consciousness from This White Man, half-reclined in buttery, dove-gray leather. It’s envisioning millions of protesting women, now back perhaps in their individual towns, their power proclaimed not awakened, or still making their way back [...]
By Caralyn Davis “You crave power,” they said. “Everyone who runs for president craves power. You need power to get things done,” the woman candidate said. “The question is: What will each of us do with that power?” “Women shouldn’t want that much power. You’re corrupt,” they said. “Look, here’s an article from a website our [...]
