John Balaban: Anna Akhmatova Spends the Night on Miami Beach
What killed her was the talk, the empty eyes,
which made her long for the one person in ten thousand
who could say her name, who could take her home,
giving her a place between Auden and Apollinaire
Robert Lipsyte: Being Anything But a Good Sport in Saudi Arabia
Here’s the big question in Jock Culture these days: Is the Kingdom of Golf being used to sportswash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
Kimberly Parish Davis: Forever and Ever
…they watched television or surfed around the Internet for news about what was going on in Palestine. There had been a lot of fighting—a lot of bombed out buildings. One website told about the attack at the School where Hanna’s little brother was killed, and she was probably dealing with that while Emma was news surfing.
Barbara Hamby: Ode on Dictionaries
A-bomb is how it begins with a big bang on page
one, a calculator of sorts whose centrifuge
begets bedouin, bamboozle, breakdance, and berserk,
one of my mother’s favorite words, hard knock
clerk of clichés that she is
Tom Engelhardt: The Decline and Fall of Everything (Including Me)
I find myself experiencing three versions of that ultimate story: that of my own fall; that of my country; and that of an increasingly overheating planet as a habitable place for us all.
Video: Though There are Torturers | Michael Coady
Though, at this moment,
Men are screaming in prisons,
There are jazzmen raising storms
Of sensuous celebration
Tamara Nassar: Israel’s Savagery in Gaza Claims the Lives of More Children
Israel is able to perpetrate this violence against them thanks to the international impunity and support it continues to enjoy, especially from the United States, Canada, and the European Union.
Fiore Longo: The Maasai Are Under Attack in the Name of Conservation | ‘This Is Our Land, and We Won’t Leave’
We can no longer turn a blind eye to human rights abuses committed in the name of conservation.
Abayomi Animashaun: History Lesson
On the wall is a map of places, the so-called explorers
— Mungo Park and the rest of them —
Discovered. But did they know
Of my longing to kiss you tonight?
Simon Anton Niño Diego Baena: Two Poems
In a country nobody can locate
on the map, the birds
migrate to the north
with the ashes of trees on their wings
Arlene Weiner: Dead Russian Soldier
My father lived in the land
where your son lies unburied,
now wasted by fire once again,
my kin were slaughtered there,
interred unhonored.
Stephen R. Shalom and Dan La Botz: Ukraine and the Peace Movement
It is urgent to end the war in Ukraine. But to achieve this goal, “Russia Out Now” is a better slogan than “Diplomacy Now.”
John Lawson: Two Dreams
She is one of that generation the heroes fought
And died for, inheritors of prim suburban homes
Purchased by the drowned
Video: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Red Right Hand
Past the square, past the bridge
Past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm
Comes a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with
A red right hand
