Farrah Hassen: American Muslims don’t need to defend our existence
It’s bigoted politicians, not Muslims like me, who threaten our way of life in this country.
David Lauterstein: Puzzle Box
Then a side piece slides and reveals a drawer that has
tiny pieces of black licorice
as if death could be sweet
but now you are crying
George Yancy: Trump Relies on Centuries-Old Notions of Whiteness to Activate His MAGA Base
Whiteness is baked into the US’s DNA. Can it be structurally dismantled?
Rita Dove: Parsley
It is fall, when thoughts turn
to love and death; the general thinks
of his mother, how she died in the fall
and he planted her walking cane at the grave
and it flowered
Tony Gloeggler: Sunday
Back in 1968 I always felt good
on a baseball field or basketball
court, listening to summer songs
on a transistor radio, head bowed
Video: J.S. Bach | Prelude in C Minor “pour le luth” | BWV 999 | David Tayler
The prelude features a dialogue of two textures.
Ellen Austin-Li: Blushing & Rising
The kaleidoscope spins shards of shifting glass,
and I emerge wearing this hot pink sweat-
shirt with zippers. Come inside where it’s wet
and I’m alive, fire eyes.
Video: Anti-Inflammatory Foods | The Benefits of Berries
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study found that blueberry smoothies could turn off inflammation genes.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Here’s why Pete Hegseth’s war on the Endangered Species Act is so misguided
The administration argues that it needs exemptions to the Endangered Species Act to extract more oil from the Gulf of Mexico when it’s already extracting record amounts.
Robinson Jeffers: Ocean
The gray whales are going south: I see their fountains
Rise from black sea: great dark bulks of hot blood
Plowing the deep cold sea to their trysting-place
Helen Benedict: Two Different Wars, Two Different Presidents, But the Same Lies
Weapons that don’t exist. Threats that aren’t real. Freedom for women. Total victory in only a few weeks. All this we heard in 2003 and are hearing again now.
James Crews: It’s Good to Be Here,
I say out loud, to give the words
the physical presence they deserve
in the warm bakery with us, this place
we’ve been coming for years now.
Will Glovinsky: Basic income’s appeal today is similar to its roots in 18th‑century England – it’s a way to compensate people for a common good taken for private gain
The rich who control AI are getting richer. Other people’s fortunes are in decline. To prevent mass hunger and political chaos, we will need a new system: a basic guaranteed income.
Penelope Moffet: Simple As / Inexplicable / Moondust
I want rescue
but also wonder
what I’ll see
if I stay out to dawn.
