Daniel Hunter: We’re seeing the beginnings of mass noncompliance
Over a million federal workers refused to comply with Musk’s email ultimatum last week, offering a glimpse of what mass noncooperation can look like.
Jean d’Amérique: Blood in my Gullet
Each kid receives a page ripped from a dirty life;
no minimum age here for taking up the gun.
Don’t be appalled that a boy pays his hood tribute in bullets.
Abby Zimet: These Little Men | An Everlasting Shame For America
The attempted ritual humiliation of Zelensky came as Ukraine, a small struggling democracy of 38 million people, is ravaged by a nation of 144 million led by a gangster.
Robert Walicki: Asleep
Another knuckle white morning,
in a neighborhood of slammed doors,
the salt covered cars and trucks in a haze,
saying prayers to the God of paychecks and Friday afternoons.
Michael T. Young: The Need to Believe | The Poetry of Lisel Mueller
This is the power we need in a post-truth world, where political forces claim the right to manipulate our perceptions through distortions of language.
Andy Young: Ash Wednesday 2020
Sitges, Catalunya We slept to the clatter of the sea and rose to search for the weeping drag queens displaying their mourningbehind the king’s erect effigy paraded to the sea … Continue reading
Angele Ellis: The life and legacy of Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer (1979-2023)
Refaat Alareer stands in a field in Gaza, holding a container of freshly picked strawberries. What evokes the earth’s sweetness more fully than a ripe berry? The expression on his face—scholarly, bespectacled—is gentle and tender.
Fred Shaw: The Pass
In the pass, a testy chef chews his lip
while zesting an orchard of green apple
over a peppery dish of risotto,
squinting his way to soigne by slicing
a plump of roast duck into a shingle
Matthew J. Parker: Pardon Me
The reason for the assault was absurd – an imagined slight over a game of cutthroat pinochle we had played earlier that day.
Sandy Solomon: Making Soup
Who would have guessed before this year
how cheerful this simple chore would feel
now that the sick room’s silence starts
beyond the swinging kitchen door.
Baron Wormser: Bernie
Only one politician has come forward with a coherent response that he has taken to the people concerning what is occurring in the second administration of Donald Trump.
Dawn Potter: To the Republic
Those last moments, before the sun drops behind the hills,
you linger, not yet yourself—no darkness, no stars—
still waiting, waiting for the curtain to sigh shut
Mary Wollstonecraft: It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world!
I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.
James Crews: Hello, Little Sun
On the rusty tin roof of a red barn
in rural Quebec, someone has carved
the words, Bonjour, petit-soleil—
Hello, little sun
