Jennifer Franklin: As Antigone (2)
For as long as I can remember
my mother told me how
I should feel, what to eat,
who to date, what clothes
looked good (and bad)
on my shape
James Crews: Possibility Still Exists
The smell of smoke’s now in the air,
which means a fire is not far off.
Which means something will kindle in you
if you let it
Video: Lucille Clifton reads “won’t you celebrate with me”
won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life?
Marilyn Monroe: Fragments
my beaded rays have the colors I’ve
seen in a painting—ah life they
have cheated you
Edwin Arlington Robinson: The Sheaves
Where long the shadows of the wind had rolled,
Green wheat was yielding to the change assigned;
And as by some vast magic undivined
The world was turning slowly into gold.
Julia Conley: Ignoring ‘Mounting Threat to Clean Water,’ EPA Denies Factory Farm Pollution Petition
“We know that animal factories are a huge source of water pollution and that our freshwater is in crisis, and yet EPA has failed to uphold its duty to protect our environment from this industry,” said one advocate.
Chard deNiord: Turning 70
I know at last how to smile and not smile
at the same time in a way without trying that says,
“I’ve tasted ambrosia and mustard in the same bite
so many times my tongue’s lost its taste.
Jake Johnson: Conservative Legal Scholars Argue Trump Is Disqualified for Office Under 14th Amendment
“Trump is disqualified from holding any public office, including the office of the president, under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Sharon Fagan McDermott: Grateful
And now it’s summer and the word for that is ‘strawberry,”
its bright green cap and freckled fruit.
Matthew J. Parker: Tree Huggers’ Last Stand
Our backyard in Connecticut was bordered by a nature preserve, of sorts – 422 acres of wilderness camouflaging an ammunition dump.
Desne A. Crossley: Transfer of Courage | 1968 & 1950
He was about to bear down hard on my thighs to force me open. With a loaded exhale of breath, I growled in his face like a mad animal and gouged his eyes with my prized fingernails, lacquered blood red. I dug them in along the hollows of his eyes, my hands like two steel vices, and held on.
Michael Simms: Scarecrow
The scarecrow watched over
His congregation, even as wind
And storms tore at his clothes
And the crows grew to know
His indecisive guardianship
H.D: Sheltered Garden
Every way ends, every road,
every foot-path leads at last
to the hill-crest
Mojtaba Sadegh: Maui wildfires burn through Lahaina – it’s a reminder of the growing risk to communities that once seemed safe
Thousands of people were evacuated along Maui’s popular west coast as wildfires spread through buildings and hillsides starting Aug. 8, 2023, powered by strong winds from an offshore hurricane.
