Elizabeth Romero: Morning
My friend Peter and I
Argued about love one time
Before he died.
Joslyn Brenton, et al: How food assistance programs can feed families and nourish their dignity
One study found that more than two-thirds of the Americans people who get food assistance have been the target of hostile comments and interactions from strangers at the grocery store.
Jordan Smith: Ducktail
if you want
A good story, he told me, I mean one
You can take to heart, don’t ask anyone
With one foot out the car door
Brad Reed: ‘Furious Backlash’ Inside Pentagon as Hegseth Seeks to Avoid Blame for Deadly War Crimes
“This is murder,” said one legal expert.
Alison Hurwitz: My Son Runs Out of Time
Inside his syncopated thinking, there is only now:
a sound, and he’s a fox kit caught in sudden shift, head cocked,
one paw lifted from the leaves.
Andrea Mazzarino: The Russification of America
On Being Female in an Increasingly Fascist Country
Tony Gloeggler: Minimum Wages
He’d talk about the summer
he worked behind a counter,
slicing meat, creating fully
loaded heroes like works of art.
Sydney Lea: Black Marks
On this Sunday morning at the end of November, I’ve been walking the Snake Road, its tar still dry; our winter is predicted to be warm this year.
Jane Kenyon: The Beaver Pool in December
The beavers thrive somewhere
else, eating the bark of hoarded
saplings. How they struggled
to pull the long branches
over the stiffening bank…
Marianne Dhenin: Educators Worry Palestine Censorship Could Reshape Public Education Entirely
New efforts to shut down honest discussion of Palestine could restrict everything from literature to science classes
George Witte: Laurels
Garland me with pestilence,
blown in, unbidden, rooted out or burnt
with toxin, only to revive.
Kate Price: ‘Jeffrey Epstein is not unique’: What his case reveals about the realities of child sex trafficking
These are seen as disposable children, not worthy of protections. And they have already been dehumanized within our culture prior to exploitation, whether it be through poverty, lack of educational or employment opportunities, or prior sexual violence.
Michael Simms: The Crows
We barely recognized ourselves
But the crows knew
Who we were and where we’d been
Why we returned
Diane di Prima: To My Father
In my dreams you stand among roses.
You are still the fine gardener you were.
You worry about mother.
You are still the fierce wind, the intolerable force
that almost broke me.
