When I pile up cut tomatoes, red onion, and radishes on top of romaine lettuce, I think of the hands that picked, cleaned, packed, and loaded them on trucks, carried them to cold rooms arranged them on shelves. As I remember stories of my father, a new comer a child-laborer in another era in another country, I say a […]
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Remembering (for Eduardo Galeano) – By Mankh “I’m a writer obsessed with remembering…” – Eduardo Galeano Having heard them before, sometimes when they are nowhere to be seen i hear geese calling. Is this, Eduardo, how you were obsessed with remembering? Once touched by something that commands eyes skyward, heart shifting its pumping, the feet stopping in their tracks […]
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EMBRACING CHAOS – By Ray Gallucci The eye of a hurricane never can know How forcefully all its surrounding winds blow. For there in the center all’s peacefully calm While swirling around are explosions of bombs. But center is where all the chaos begins — In vertical columns air rises then spins. While most relish lull, others seek out the […]
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WHERE NONE HAS GONE BEFORE Though we arrived just yesterday In geologic time, Appears we’ve had too much to say, And none of it sublime. Repeated cometary blasts, The forces needed to Turn species into fossils past When time was overdue. Like plague of locusts, we can scourge Wherever we alight. Primeval ecosystems purge. We’re quite […]
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Why Won’t You Smile For Me I took a snapshot at a place I hardly knew of someone I almost grew close too. Though it was night, the stars gave me plenty of light. I saw two women dressed in white, with angelic wings, holding up his cross. He was placed in a setting where a broken fountain […]
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The uncommon is common in America today. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Seinfeld might have said to George had they seen the latest Glamour Magazine naming Caitlyn Jenner Woman of the Year. The public seems to agree. No placards hit the air. but Caitlyn has to stand and spray what other women sit to tinkle. Author […]
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‘Misery Of Living’ On a first name basis at my hometown pharmacy Solace is an orange bottle that says I still have five refills remaining The same faceless people accompany me on the trolley I’ve witnessed the benefits of Christianity at the light of life but God is still a stranger All alone amongst the crowd people carry on like […]
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Gasping on air and salt and though you can hear the soup cool an ocean deep inside the Earth is bubbling under your skull exhausted –it’s natural you wait for the soup to grieve louder and louder as if your arms were coming too close –wave after wave you scatter more salt and across the bowl […]
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MY COUNTRY SIDE {Where old misty mountains adorn the sphere competing with the sky in height and glory and boisterous antelope’s race and hide behind the shrubs from *ogún’s intrusion} ~Akeredolu Tope My country side Where unruly old vultures scavenge on hot excrement Threatening even the carriers Of the meal, the happy children Pouring out yesterday’s fill My country […]
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sKiN by, Melissa R. Mendelson Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you cold? Are you warm? Are you awake? Are you aware? These questions ran on a loop. It seemed like with every hour, they greeted me as an old friend would, but no face accompanied these words. I remained alone, locked in solitude. My black arm rested across […]
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