Michael Simms: Names
Lea wants to change her name to Tina. Her mother says she must think very carefully because a name has to fit. The wrong name can bind like someone else’s … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Self-Portrait in the Form of a Chalk Outline on the Concrete Belly of America
Jose Padua is a dish best served cold with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes in a light broth and accompanied by a rich lager with subtle aftertones of lemon. Jose Padua … Continue reading
Ellen McGrath Smith: A Royal Wedding in the Trump Era, Or My Sixth Grade Civics Head Explodes
No I’m not watching royals get married this weekend. If I want shiny surfaces, I’ll find a river, lake, or pond, the bathroom mirror. Are we destined to worship descendants … Continue reading
Jon Queally: While Many US Outlets Equivocate on Israel’s Massacre of Unarmed Palestinians, The Onion’s Piercing Satire Destroys IDF Talking Points and War Crime Apologists
The searing satire of headline writers at The Onion over the last two days have perhaps done more than most mainstream journalists to expose just how wantonly cruel the actions … Continue reading
Stephen Dobyns: My Town
This happens occasionally in my town. Maybe it’s a sort of nervousness or hysteria, even displaced fervor, as if fervor were a kind of cloud or the fog that rolls … Continue reading
Stephen Dobyns: Tomatoes
A woman travels to Brazil for plastic surgery and a face-lift. She is sixty and has the usual desire to stay pretty. Once she is healed, she takes her new … Continue reading
Jose Padua: One for the Morning and the Uninterrupted Dancing in my Head
This morning I’m looking for my copy of Reinbert de Leeuw’s super slow performances of the compositions of Erik Satie to play while I do the work I get paid … Continue reading
Sherry Hamby: Resisting technology, Appalachian style
When people hear “Appalachia,” stereotypes and even slurs often immediately jump to mind, words like “backwards,” “ignorant,” “hillbilly” or “yokel.” But Appalachian attitudes about technology’s role in daily life are … Continue reading
Video: David Brooks — “Trump and Afterwards: The Next American Culture”
. In this hour-long lecture, New York Times columnist David Brooks talks about the major trends in American culture over the last 50 years and how they have led to … Continue reading
Video: Operatico Politico — NRA Protest Song
. Operatico Politico gives us a new protest song for the March For Our Lives on March 24th! Please like and share widely! Lyrics and guitar chords here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/traditi… Email … Continue reading
Abby Zimet: This is the Bunny I Love
The Stellar Trolling of Mike Pence This week’s Canny Resistance Award goes to John Oliver, who deftly stole Mike Pence’s family’s homophobic thunder by, hours before the release of their … Continue reading
Molly Fisk: An Apiary Has Nothing to Do with Apes
One of the things I’m good at is linking people together. Not match-making, although two couples have married who fell in love during my poetry class. Usually it’s more practical: … Continue reading
Mike James: The Monk’s Couch
. Frank The Balloon Man Honestly, he hated children. Hated their laughs and the miniature gaps of their smiles. Hated the clutching need of their fingers. He hated the parents. … Continue reading
Jose Padua: How Does It Feel to Be Loved and All the Other Questions I’ve Ever Wanted to Ask the Armed Cheerleaders of the Corporate State as an Act of Defiance
That night one year ago, after dinner, I was in the dining room talking to my wife Heather when our thirteen-year-old daughter Maggie came in to ask me for help … Continue reading
