Abby Zimet: Here We Go Again, War By Cartoon Sociopaths
Almost as grotesque as the witless carnage itself is the “slopaganda” issuing almost daily from a White House evidently run by 14-year-old gamers who splice real combat footage with Call of Duty-esque video games.
Thomas Lux: Ode to the Unbroken World, Which Is Coming
It must be coming, mustn’t it? Churches
and saloons are filled with decent humans.
A mother wants to feed her daughter,
fathers to buy their children things that break.
Mattea Kramer: After Loneliness
Left for Dead in Donald Trump’s America, Communal Life Stirs
James Crews: After Receiving Bad News from a Friend
To offer what we can,
even when a friend lives far away,
to say: I will hold you inside myself
as you pass through this new gate.
Ma Yongbo: On the Farm in the North
It is quiet all around, only the two of us—
no red flags, no father, no yellow military uniforms.
The army seems to have withdrawn,
leaving us there, forgotten.
Sean Howard: Envisioning a Post-Nuclear, Post-Digital Future
If we appear to seek the unattainable, as it has been said, then let it be known that we do so to avoid the unimaginable. — Students for a Democratic … Continue reading
Ma Yongbo: Responding to My Deceased Father’s Order at Night (English & Chinese)
At last, we arrive at the small town of Sifangtai,
only my father stands there,
at the crossroads shrouded in thin mist
Helen Pletts: In the Presence of Things Flying Slower in a Grey Dusk (4 Poems in English and Chinese)
Rain from the Tang dynasty has re-surged,
all feelings gather in a fine mist, and lighter still is the joy of rain as a witness
to the landscape of fear fleeing like mist up the mountainside
George Yancy: It’s Not Enough to Abolish ICE — We Have to Abolish the Police
“What’s happening now has happened before,” Robin D. G. Kelley says, underscoring the anti-Blackness foundational to US fascism.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Late Afternoon Stroll on the Cliffs
We’re fast friends by now. Death much older of course,
but there’s no hierarchy between us: we’re both taking
a break from it all, glad to watch waves collapse on rocks
Mike James: Notes Towards An Informal Elegy
a nurse at her desk said, as i walked past,
your friend is very profane
yes, i said, he cusses creatively
in two languages
Jack Wolford: The Resurrection of Jack Wolford
(Being an anonymous manuscript that arrived in the mail)
Steve Loney: How to fight back when the federal government tries to silence you online
The freedom to openly criticize the government without penalty or punishment is the keystone of our democracy.
Lisel Mueller: Place and Time
My life began
with Beethoven and Schubert
on my mother’s grand piano
