Wendy Mnookin: The Public Garden
The sun is shining and I’m content
to be myself, walking across the Common
as families queue up by the Swan Boats,
real swans parting the water
in elegant wakes.
Video: Alua Arthur | Why thinking about death helps you live a better life
What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?
Steve Fraser: Caution | Children at Work
The Return of Child Labor Is the Latest Sign of American Decline
Sara R. Burnett: English II
my student, not yet a man, sits
in front of me in a country, not yet
his home, a country who doesn’t see him
or even me, sometimes, and I wonder
what can he learn that he doesn’t know from me.
Baron Wormser: Disconnected
[Tech companies] countenance evil—working children to death, creating environmental devastation, allowing labor practices to flourish not far removed from slavery, putting women in conditions that encourage sexual assault, paying people a pittance for dangerous work—while offering assurances…that no evil is being practiced.
Kathy Fish: Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
Humans in the wild, gathered and feeling good, previously an exhilaration, now: a target.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Climate Reality vs. Public Perception | Will Toxic Haze and the 2023 Danger Season Make a Difference?
Whether we wake up or not, a harsh climate is the new normal. To date in 2023, the United States has already suffered nine climate and weather disasters resulting in at least a billion dollars of damage.
Barbara Hamby: Ode to Barbecue
We are lost again in the middle of redneck nowhere,
which is a hundred times scarier
than any other nowhere because everyone has guns.
Dawn Potter: A Small Celebration of Baron Wormser and Teresa Carson
Lived-Time, Art-Time, and Friendship
Michael Simms: The northern forests are burning
Here, 500 miles away
Smoke hangs over our valley
Matthew J. Parker: A Junkie By Any Other Name
I was a junkie for 20-odd years, ten of which I spent locked up – one fed beef and four (Arizona) state, all drug-related. To feed my habit, I chose to shoplift. A lot.
Bernardine Watson: Freedom
the colored hotel was named for Crispus Attucks
a runaway slave, and the first man to die
for the America dream
Michael Simms: The Summer You Learned to Swim
The summer you learned to swim
was the summer I learned to be at peace with myself.
Derrick Z. Jackson: US Supreme Court Guts Wetlands Protections
Samuel Alito and his majority are further disconnecting our nation from the science that could help us heal the planet.
