Michael Simms: The Ruins
the air full
of transparent wings,
the fox crossing
the innocent road
full of weeds
Rachel Hadas: Ancient Greece had extreme polarization and civil strife too – how Thucydides can help us understand Jan. 6 and its aftermath
The insights and objectivity of a historian who lived nearly 2,500 years ago can bolster our understanding of the country’s current plight.
Allen Stein: Contact Trace
they’d determined that he’d picked up the Covid
while getting fitted for tortoiseshell bifocals
to replace the pair his puppy had chewed
Pratik Pawar: It Took 35 years to Get a Malaria Vaccine. Why?
The parasite’s complex biology played a role in the delay, but experts say there was also a lack of urgency and funding.
Rachel Hadas: ‘Laugh right in its face’ – a poet reflects on her craft’s defiant role in the middle of a war
Poets write poetry to help them come to terms with the terror of their times. The process of writing those poems, and the process of reading them, both offer respite.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Nearly One Million US Deaths from COVID-19 | The Grim Consequences of Sidelining Science
One million US deaths from COVID-19. Catatonic politics on climate change. Communities suffocating from environmental injustice. All these issues are tragically linked by the hardening divisions in the United States … Continue reading
Rachel Hadas: February 29, 2020
That extra day, that ordinary day,
I got where I was going on the train
and taught the lyric leap, as per the plan;
then, tired, happy, bathed in poetry,
caught a train and travelled back again
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: News
our people who do the hard work
of America,
dying as caregivers
Stephanie L. Harper: A Crown Most Unroyal
Some humans really don’t object to dying
as much as they hold dear an asshat’s right
to choose to spread disease over complying
Michelle D. Holmes, MD, DRPH: The Folly of School Openings as a Zero-Sum Game
We need to address the needs of students—and parents, and teachers. One size does not fit all, and race complicates the challenge.
Edison Jennings: Flocks of Crowned Spirits
the rich escape to seaside estates
sheltering in place a few sanitized days
behind elaborate wrought iron gates
Paul Christensen: Stormy Seas
Well, let’s see what we are confronting these days. Inflation is affecting half of America’s families. The Supreme Court is about to end Roe v. Wade for good and … Continue reading
George Monbiot: Domino Theory
Now it’s a straight fight for survival. The Glasgow Climate Pact, for all its restrained and diplomatic language, looks like a suicide pact. After so many squandered years of denial, … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: What Isolation Teaches Us
The magpies have all packed up and left with the last straggling tourists. I don’t hear their falsetto cries anymore, and I miss them. I love to see two such … Continue reading
Vox Populi 