Your agony is flowingin my veins,the accumulating residueof thousands of decades,of women entrappedwithin allotted spheres. In the name of protection,you were banished awayfrom the stimulus of Londonwhich had allayedthat innermost lonelinessof the emancipated. A new type of atticengulfed your fragile frame,so every woman is made to believethat madness is the outcomeof intellectual freedom. Continue reading Virginia Woolf by Susie Gharib
Long before Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and Paula (Brittany O’Grady) from The White Lotus were flaunting their book covers, we had Katarina Stratford (Julia Stiles), the “tempestuous” lead character in 10 Things I Hate About You. And, being that the movie was an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it’s only fitting that there should be plenty of literary nods throughout. Including the fact that Kat herself is … Continue reading The Literary Nods of 10 Things I Hate About You
She kisses my handand blows me anotherwhen we say goodbye for the day.We played bingo (she won)made paper flowers, said grace and had minestrone.I come twice a monthas a floor volunteer butI’m really this horrible person,getting worse with each birthday.But I wear soft spotsfor cats and opossum, all kinds of straysand old gals in nursing homes.I should probably just set up camp therein this alternative universe;It’s … Continue reading Hiding the wretch that I am by Emalisa Rose
Apologies to L. P. Hartley The past is a private country club.We knew someone who knew someoneand secured a family membership.The dues are pretty stiff, but we can choosewith whom to fraternize: the exclusiveand privileged and/or better born.Often, we’d rather hobnob there than here—to sit out on the greenside patioin the early evening summer lightand watch the last group’s approaching shots.To toast our handicaps with … Continue reading The Country Club Set by John Delaney
Charli XCX is finally having a moment. Or, at least, a moment that’s more in the mainstream than ever before. This being a result of her push to become a Right Proper Pop Star by fully utilizing all the major resources of her juggernaut label, Atlantic, to promote her last album of the contract, Crash (an erudite J. G. Ballard reference, in case you didn’t … Continue reading They Don’t Build Statues of Critics…Just Mansplainers: On White Men Feeling the Need to Chime in About Statues of Literary Critics When a Girl Just Wants to Have Fun
I don’t remember working for the Mafia, but it is possible. I keep finding things in the basement: wads of cash in small denominations; arguments for the existence of God too good to be true; boxes full of old, irrelevant premises without claims; young men and women working sixty hours a week and preferring to use their leftover time to text each other rather than … Continue reading In Rough Economic Times, the Community College Instructor Teaches Critical Reasoning by Paul Dickey
Like a full-service gas stationor postal service workersdisplaced, racing to Staples retailfor employment against the rules of labor,poets are out of business nowadays, you know.Who carries loose change in their pockets?Who tosses loose coins in their car ashtray anymore?iPhones, smartphones, life is a video cameraready to shoot, destroy and expose.No one reads poets anymore. No one thumbs through the yellow pages anymore.Who has sex in the … Continue reading Poets Out of Service by Michael Lee Johnson
The first time I became familiar with such a conceptI was teaching For Whom the Bell Tolls to undergrads.The idea appealed to my sense of decorum,so I decided to adopt such a challenging stance,yet it came to me naturallyas I was attuned to the stoical way of lifeand one manifestation was during the never-ending Syrian war. Four rockets fell not far where I stood,lecturing on … Continue reading Grace Under Pressure by Susie Gharib
In 1992 Jerry Brown,The liberal ex-governor of California,Ran against Bill ClintonIn the race to becomeThe Democratic nominee for PresidentOf the United States of America.He entered the New York primaryAnd came to New York City to campaign.While he was here he shoppedIn Coliseum Bookstore on 57th Street Surrounded by a phalanxOf Secret Service agents.When he approached the cash registerWith a pile of booksI leaned over from … Continue reading My Struggle by Ron Kolm
He used to draw me maps. He liked a black felt tip to make his mark a heavy line but flexible and when new satisfyingly saturated with ink. I became an expert at decoding topography finding the links between points where we rendezvoused— only later understandingthat that he gave me a mapbecause I was traveling alone. Continue reading The Spy Game by Ivana Mestrovic
