David Kirby: Golden Gate by Clarence Major (Review)
A new world is rising, and for the most part these stories read like field reports about earthlings to an alien race.
Mike Vargo: The Holiday Rant
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve celebrate the three great indulgences of our culture: overeating, overspending, and getting overly intoxicated. The unifying theme is excess.
Liza Katz Duncan: The Uncles
I’m forgetting others, I know.
One had a scar near his eye in the shape of a bird.
One, a firefighter, had tattooed the word
mercy, and fed the feral cats.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: The Rat Trinity
I loved the rats
of Bruges I watched from the dorm window,
how they slunk out
the courtyard sewer grill, slid along walls,
slipped down the cellar steps like whispers,
and vanished into gray.
Donna Hilbert: Credo
I believe in the Tuesdays
and Wednesdays of life,
the tuna sandwich lunches
and TV after dinner.
Nicholas Kristof: What we get wrong about Israel and Gaza
I’m exasperated by people whose hearts bleed for only one side, or who say about the toll on the other: “It’s tragic, but ….” No “buts.” Unless you believe in human rights for Jews and for Palestinians, you don’t actually believe in human rights.
Michael Simms: Ishmael
I’m not prepared to measure grief
like grains of darkness
Margo Berdeshevsky: For Autumn, 2023
yet awake to the fallen
leaves—their many many
tiny burning
hands—
John Clare: Autumn
Burning hot is the ground, liquid gold is the air;
Whoever looks round sees Eternity there.
Olivia Rosane: 68% of US Public Wants Gaza Cease-Fire: Poll
The Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that support for Israel had dropped by nearly 10 percentage points since the last edition on October 12 and 13.
Tim Peeler: Two Poems
When you’re close enough,
Even chaos looks like order:
The falling star, the overturned
Cattle car, the psychotic mother’s
Meandering explanation.
Norman L. Eisen, et al: Calendar of the Most Important Trump Criminal & Civil Court Dates
Here are the top 20 legal and political dates as of now.
Keith Flynn: The Hyena Men
The spotted hyenas of Ethiopia
know nothing of man’s machinations,
only the sweet smell of their cast off
meat once the sun has slipped behind
the mountain
Video: Imelda May Sings “Johnny Got a Boom Boom”
Pulling me down
Like a rumble in the ground
Crawls up from the depths
With a deep down sound
