Philip Terman: Such Abundance
When he called for help,
they put him on hold
longer than he could stand
and he broke
the phone in half.
Doug Anderson: That Quotation from the Talmud
I understand the world will be what it is
when I’m dead. I sometimes look at my hands
and know they are not mine. This body on loan.
Riad Saleh Hussein: The Bad Guy
And the woman said to me:
You hallucinate too much
The names of fish and seaweeds
You open the kingdom of your brain day and night for the lost caravans of gypsies
Philip Terman: A Minyan Plus One
was taken from us on the Shabbat, the most joyous of the holidays, the only holy day even God Himself . celebrates, the emulation of Eden, the day of completion. … Continue reading
Riad Saleh Hussein: Smoke
Depressed and open like the sea, I stand, angry, coherent and continuous, to tell you about the sea, when the window has two eyes to see my despair, the walls … Continue reading
Riad Saleh Hussein: A Serene Evening
This evening is serene, This evening is not calm. I am a man or a pack of dynamite— Under my trench a red goose or a black unicorn. The woman … Continue reading
Riad Saleh Hussein: Tango Under a Narrow Ceiling
My heart is delicious to take a bite from. It is an alcove for blue rabbits, A shark with fins of stubborn cactus. My heart is delicious to take a … Continue reading
Jonathan Cook: Israel Repurposes Nakba Myths to Justify Today’s Massacre in Gaza
The only legitimate struggle for Palestinians, it seems, is keeping quiet, allowing their lands to be plundered and their children to be starved. Palestinians rush to the border fence with … Continue reading
Iman Chahin Sharba: Prior to the Departure
Before I was killed by a matter of minutes I was combing the hair of my daughter And braiding her plaits With a pair of tweezers in the shape of … Continue reading
Philip Terman: All Her Life
Philip Terman?—you don’t know me. I’m Patricia Lamb, Palliative care nurse. Do you know what that means? I work with patients who are dying. And I received an odd … Continue reading
Philip Terman: My Russian-Jewish Grandparents and The Birth Parents of Our Chinese Child Meet at a Café and Discuss My Child’s Future
Schmu-el and Malka and our child’s Chinese birth parents are sipping tea at a café somewhere between the Pale Settlement of Russia and central-rural China. They speak in signs and … Continue reading
Philip Terman: The Day After The Inauguration, I Read Some Japanese Poetry
I turn away from the news To the open book of Musō Soseki Where he writes that inside his heart He keeps three thousand prancing horses. The heater comes on … Continue reading
Philip Terman: Holocaust Memorial Lecture, 2016
When the Syrian human rights worker Spoke of his prison experience, A girl sitting beside me Was consulting her cell phone, when He began his story about … Continue reading
Philip Terman: The Frackin’ Poem
Scarlet tanagers, thrushes, warblers, hawks, spotted salamanders, skunk and possum, all the invisible insects— . the native shrubs, the wild flowers, all the trees cut down, the altered light patterns, … Continue reading
