by L. Lois the chill in the air means the glacier ravines running down the peaks jutting above the treeline to the north are vertical cuts of white this bench sits low comfortably leaning back with the lake at my feet the surface broken by the gentle rippling of the wind   a lone eagle circles on early spring's thermal winds and the cherry blossoms I passed on my way are holding fast in the lingering crispness distant blue skies are lighter overhead coloring is calm painted solid for peacefulness rounded white clouds perch as if to tell the mountains where they should be ducks sca ..read more

by Sally Zakariya This floor tile imported from Turkey and installed during a home renovation contains what is believed to be a cross section of an ancient human jawbone. (Courtesy of Reddit user Kidipadeli75 via The Washington Post) Check the counters and floors check all the travertine tiles Look for signs of the old ones reaching up through time    slivers of bone       shards of teeth Imagine the beginning: a natural hot spring somewhere in Turkey Layer after layer of plants and animals trapped in the mud and fossilized Mammoths, rhinos, giraffes ..read more

a New Verse News erasure poem found  in a Raab Collection email document featuring signatures  of primary signers and leaders  in Arab-Israeli peace acquired  from one of the  participants on exhibit  and for sale at $35,000 ..read more

by Pamela Wax The ants  are marching  single  file, their annual  exodus across  faux-granite  counters, up  and down door jambs, through  the sea of scraps  in my stainless steel sink. I’ve  been told to kill  them, a stew  of sugar and boric  acid. A sweet,  merciful death. But I can’t.  Not this year. Especially not this year. May all who are hungry  come. Eat. Pamela Wax is the author of Walking the Labyrinth(Main Street Rag, 2022) and Starter Mothers (Finishing Line Press, 2023). Her poe ..read more

by Steven Kent "Conservatives condemn Kristi Noem for 'twisted' admission of killing dog" —The Guardian, April 27, 2024 Within the MAGA GOP It's possible, apparently, To cross a line. (Who knew? Not me.) Now Kristi Noem, VP-to-be, Is suddenly a falling star. They'll tolerate mere bigotry, Caucasian male supremacy, Repealing rights, dishonesty, Assaults on our democracy, But shoot your dog? A bridge too far! Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, Light, Lighten Up Online, The New Ve ..read more

by LynnWhite Never again the holocaust of Jews, of Slavs,  of dissenters, of the mixed  or mismatched ethnicity. Gassed starved  beaten enslaved dying. Never again the swarms of refugees  left behind fleeing dying pleading  to be let in anywhere dying unwanted. Never again. That’s what they said then. But then in Gaza it happened  again. And now in Gaza it’s happening  again. Again and again and again. Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. S ..read more

by Tricia Knoll I wore a peace symbol bandana on my arm when I received a professional degree  from the Yale graduate school in 1970.  I marched with candles in California, put my butt down in an administrator’s office at Stanford. I did not know then the extent of my privilege.    We walked. We assembled, chanted simple words to a drumbeat. We saw villages destroyed, lives ripped from ancestral homes. Some of our parents agreed with what we were doing, but not all. Not mine. Despite the deaths, the endlessness of destruction, hopelessness, despair.    I be ..read more

by William Aarnes Despite PhDs, administrators will fail the test of protest. William Aarnes lives in Manhattan ..read more

by Karen Warinsky I type “Is Bisan” in the search bar and the next two words appear automatically with their furtive question mark, “still alive?”   Bisan, a Palestinian journalist popped into my Facebook feed one morning during this latest Mideast roil, her fresh, round face full of promise  her troubled brown eyes alert as she posted cell phone videos of the wreckage of Palestine, the slaughter of the people. The videos are raw, wound the eyes, sear the soul. She posts each time she must flee, relocate, so many displacements now she’s lost count. One day she shows us her favo ..read more

by Kelley White Philadelphia toddler dies after shooting herself in the eye with father’s unsecured gun: police. —New York Post, April 8, 2024 But I don’t want to give her name or the specifics of her case. I don’t want to invade her family’s privacy. They have already suffered more than I can imagine. Worse, I’m a grandmother, I can imagine it. Have imagined it. Have seen other children  shot. So many. Too many. I will not list their names or ages only, imagine, this one shot by his brother over a video game, this one shot by his friend during a game of spin-the-bottle ..read more