Sydney Lea: To Sydney Lea, Whom I Found Online
You must get tired of requests from witless strange men to meet up.
Theo Marzials’ ‘A Tragedy’: The Worst Poem Ever Published
Death!
Plop.
The barges down in the river flop.
Flop, plop.
James Wright: Depressed by a Book of Bad Poetry, I Walk Toward an Unused Pasture and Invite the Insects to Join Me
The old grasshoppers
Are tired, they leap heavily now,
Their thighs are burdened.
I want to hear them, they have clear sounds to make.
Jason Baldinger: Employee of the Month
What a beautiful dream after thirteen straight days of work!
Employee of the Month!
Efficient, clear headed task manager!
This is how it feels to be brilliant!
This is how it feels to be perfect!
Video: The greatest glue commercial ever made
This classic 1992 television ad for Talens Rubber Cement swept the Cannes International Advertising Film Festival, winning its Grand Prix award.
John Lawson: O King
The president recently promoted himself as “like the King of Israel… the second coming of God.” Poet John Lawson gives the president his due.
Megan Volpert: The Sophomores
Sophomore is fangirling out. He loves these boys in their three piece suits…
Naomi Shihab Nye: To Netanyahu
My Palestinian father named his donkey after you…
Now I think he insulted the donkey.
Christine Skarbek: Oh, Poland!
My buddy Yolanta invited me over to Park Café to listen to this wizard on the piano, a 17-yr old skinny fellow. I cannot tell you how thin this character was or, for that matter, how long and tapered his fingers and what a master he was at the ivories.
Video: La Madre Buena (The Good Mother)
A Mexican mother torn between her politics and pleasing her only son’s request – to have a Donald Trump piñata for his birthday party.
Miriam Levine: On the Steps of the Miami Beach Cinematheque
Soon I’d be eighty. My hip ached,
the thumb he kissed bent with arthritis.
His scent was lime, and the nape
of his neck smooth as summer jade.
Jose Padua: It Was the Summer After the Summer of Love
it’s the first time in my life
that I’ve ever had an image
or maybe it just an idea
(which was still bad enough)
of my parents doing it,
having sex, grabbing each other
Abby Zimet: Never Again. Still. Really.
“When Jews say never again,” said one marcher, “We fucking mean it.”
David Huddle: The Watermelon Sutras
In the act of eating watermelon no one
ever pulled a trigger, spoke harshly
to a child, swatted a butterfly out
of the sky, or told a lie for money.
