Writing is an act of resistance
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No Quarter
By Julie Gard My partner and I attended a memorial service in small-town Wisconsin, and there were grayscale American flags all around us, on the hats and t-shirts of serious young men. I am familiar with the thin blue line flag, and of course the Confederate flag. But most popular now, among a crowd that…
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Two Poems by Erin Vaughn
Birthday Yesterday at school,a boy touched himself in front of youhis eyes unfocusedas if he was there and not there.He looked right through youand then your body was not your own. Today you turned elevenand shrieked through a throng of friendswho threw their arms around youas you opened all your presents.I wanted to cry becauseI…
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Dear Colleague:
Fascism, Poetry, oppression, human rights, dystopia, civil rights, Shannon Frost Greenstein, Dear Colleague letterBy Shannon Frost Greenstein Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon “systemic and structural racism” and advanced discriminatory policies and practices. – U.S. Department of Education, Dear Colleague Letter: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in Light of Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard…
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To the League of Extraordinary Ladies
Jael, Boudica, Cleopatra, Joan, Poetry, Yael, Trump, Scheherazade, Sarah Gane Burton, Shahrazad, man-childBy Sarah Gane Burton What we need nowis a woman who can tell a good storyone of those to-be-continued talesthat stretches night after nightdistracting the megalomaniacfrom his modus operandiof chaos and destruction. Send us Shahrazada fabled beauty telling fablesavoiding fatalitytaming madnesswith imagination and poiseand a bedtime storyfor an overgrown man-child. If Shahrazad is unavailablewe will…
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They Forget
blackout poetry, Epstein files, toxic masculinity, Poetry, sexual assault, patriarchy, sexual harassment, Mandy PrellBy Mandy Prell Mandy Prell investigates the female body, sexuality, motherhood, marriage, and faith through a feminist lens. She holds a Master of Science in Education from Johns Hopkins and an IndieMFA in Advanced Poetry through Writing Workshops. Mandy lives with her daughters, spouse, and cats in a historic, haunted town in Kentucky where she…
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Something So Small
By Phebe Jewell You didn’t think twice after dropping me into the ballot box outside the library. You were busy, and I was one more item to check off your list. Return books, vote, and then on to the grocery store for a dozen eggs and a head of lettuce. Still, I hope you felt…
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The Janus of Freedom
By D. Edgar Cook We rallied for freedom:Freedom to speak, freedom to worship,Freedom to read, freedom to assemble.Let the bell ring! Let freedom ring!Clang the gong banging for freedom! We rallied for freedom:Freedom to print the truth to power.Freedom from unreasonable seizure.Let the bell ring! Let freedom ring!Clang the gong banging for freedom! A nation…
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To those out there with hope
By Catherine Zickgraf keep doing that.Take candles into the thicket.Take lighters, make sparks. Elder statesmen tell us to hopebut can’t promise we’ll survive to the other side of destruction. They see broadly,standing above the wild, staringdown through the tangled mess.I don’t see a way outbut want to trust they can. Here in the war of worlds, an…
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Winter in Certain American Cities
By Alina Zollfrank To reduce this season to snapshots, headshots, gunshotsdoes not do them—what was that word again?—justice. Did (just-) abandon (-ice)? What makes for cold truth?Folded donut cartons?Warm cups of something sweet?Snow mounts, decorative and defensive?Does a candle vigil, a prayer poem, an obitmean we combine(just-) again with (-ice)? “It’s just ice,” my kids…