Poem
Dorothy Parker Will Have Her Revenge on Manhattan
Joseph P. O'Brien
Dorothy Parker Will Have Her Revenge on Manhattan
Sipping gin & mercury at dawn's bloodthirsty
light, she hears the harlequins
throb inside their wombs,
and she whispers: "God have mercy."
Below the maddened crowd, ...
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Poem
Poet in a Shade of Jade
Sheila Maldonado
Poet in a Shade of Jade
I am so jealous of how poor you are
of how you are poor
your particular stilo pobre
The way you put no cash and
no money together is uncanny
This aesthetic
lack of change combined
with l...
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Poem
FREEDOM
Bob Holman
FREEDOM
Thanks to Darryl Alladice
FREEDOM to put lima beans and black-eyed peas together
FREEDOM to take off BB King's watch
FREEDOM to shout "Let's hit it" on every Other beat
FREEDOM to look at everybody whenever yo...
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Writing
Praise Song for Today
Jose Padua
Praise Song for Today
I am writing in praise of sloth, in praise
of doing nothing and by nothing I don’t
mean watching television or sleeping,
I mean doing nothing: no moving about
the house with your arms hanging l...
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Poem
Passion and Materialism
Jim Feast
Passion and Materialism
As I walk, pushing
through the flood of the crowd,
awash under the breakneck
pull of the Flushing stores; the racial
mixture, muddy colored, vibrant, mulatto,
trying to remember her face ...
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Poem
Dog Daze of Summer
Patricia Carragon
Dog Daze of Summer
These are the Dog Daze of Summer
it’s time to go to work!
Leave by half past eight
and the tin can snake is late again
doing its snail’s waltz on rails.
Play Solitaire in your head,
waste...
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Poem
The Fear
Thaddeus Rutkowski
THE FEAR
I have the fear,
But I’m not running around, yelling,
“I have the fear!”
It is a quiet fear
centered in the pit of my stomach.
Sometimes it bubbles up
when I remember who caused the fear
(it was no...
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Writing
The Logger’s Lament
Jay Frankston
Yesterday’s Hero
"I was 12 years old when I got my first axe. Fifteen when I got my first chain saw. I was young, and strong, and proud. My father took me into the woods with him and showed me how we could ...
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Essay
Some Reflections on Bertolt Brecht, on the Occasion of the 119th Anniversary of His Birth
Franklin Mount
Some Reflections on Bertolt Brecht, on the Occasion of the 119th Anniversary of His Birth
“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
“Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat.” - Leben des Galilei, scene 1...
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Poem
The Day After
Puma Perl
The Day After
My messages
all sound the same.
I’m sick
I can’t believe it
I’m crying
I don’t know what to do
All of us caught,
unprepared, unarmed.
Yesterday,
I deliberated for hours,
trying to cho...
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Poem
The Elephant’s Tale
Maggie Dubris
THE ELEPHANT’S TALE
An excerpt from BrokeDown Palace
But what was it like, really?
Those wild west, blow-your-head-out times that everyone wishes they were a part of.
Like a pot, like a plow
"There was hero...
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Poem
A Glance Like Flashing Lightning
Marc Olmsted
"Homage! Tara, swift, heroic!" - Chapter III, Tara Tantra
Facebook cyber-chat filled with bad
news and petitions
My answer to depression is
sleep and caffeine, whichever works first
Still. I shake off the blue...
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Classics
The Twilight of Freedom, a poem by Osip Mandelstam
Jenny Wade
Let us praise, brothers, freedom’s twilight,
The great diminishing year!
A heavy forest of nets is lowered
Into the turbulent waters of night.
You are ascending in desolate years,
Oh sun, judge, people.
Let us prai...
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Story
A Christmas Miracle, Sort Of…
Ron Kolm
It’s a cold morning, two weeks before Christmas, and I’m walking across 57th street on my way to work when I noticed him up ahead, shuffling along the curb -- silver hair, blue jacket and white sneakers – not dressed f...
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