By Douglas Rawlings
NUMBER 7
I was a
Good Humor Man.
I lost my job
I got drafted.
I can never
go back again.
I lost my
Good Humor.
I lost $80.00 a week
I can never
have it again
You gain goodwill
being a Good Humor man.
You establish a route.
You make friends.
I lost them all:
my bike my cart
my bell
are all gone now.
My smile too.
All my friends
cried
on the Last Day. [Read more…]
By Douglas Rawlings
LEAVING THE INDUCTION CENTER
We were now
all riders
on those olive drab
government buses
trying to make some sense
out of this thing
they called military justice.
Still a bunch
of minors
digging about
in our own little ruins [Read more…]
Key words : Dawning, the beginning of a new day. Age : 2000 years. Aquarius : in astrology, the water bearer.
Carrying water has always been the women’s task. From the stream, the river, the well, to the house, for cooking , washing, cleaning. And still it is today in many countries around the world.
The point being, “the dawning” takes some time,and in the scope of 2000 years, a dawning may take many generations. And our planet , and our lives, is all about water. [Read more…]
This selection shot in Casamance, Senegal, features the fusion effort of the Malian group Trio Da Kali and the Kronos Quartet performing Eh Ya Ye as a canvas for a West African dance troupe’s street performance in the rain. [Read more…]
Our fathers
who left us,
abandoned us,
loved us,
wanted us,
hated us,
spanked us,
hugged us,
Our fathers
who loved our mothers,
beat our mothers
stayed out too late,
or came home too early, [Read more…]
By Cassandra Shafer
Wedded, divorced, widowed and single
Our households have fractured and blended to mingle
Half-siblings, step-siblings, foster kids small,
Bio-moms, step-moms, adoptive moms all.
Catholic, Jewish, Quaker, Unitarian,
Atheist, Mormon, Pagan, Presbyterian.
Gun toting, weed smoking, sober and clean.
Democrat, Trumpian, Communist, Green.
Bi-racial, bilingual, bi-sexual—a few—
Bi-continental and bi-polar, too. [Read more…]
Not unlike the maddened men of German infamy
Sending millions to death chambers of Zyclon B
Our own Mad King reaches out with fattened arms
And declares all the desperate invading swarms.
Here at our sun-washed and hurricaned shores
Stands Lady Liberty with mighty torch unflamed
Mother of Exiles until the Mad King came,
To extinguish the lightning of her eternal flame. [Read more…]
By Lauren Botuck
Within a minute I knew
he is really good
His enemies die
the way that they should
He is special and smart
just like me!
Will he tell me his secrets?
will he let me see? [Read more…]
From the Vimeo web site:
Photographer Ray Collins captures the magic that happens at the intersection of water and light. Each shot in this film was created from a single one of Ray’s original photos. The stills are transformed into cinemagraphs – a hybrid between photo and video – an infinite loop that makes a single moment last forever.
The original soundtrack was created by two very talented musicians, André Heuvelman on trumpet and Jeroen van Vliet on piano.
Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake. – Ronna McDaniel, Republican Chair, June 13, 2018
Beachtung ! BEACHTUNG ! BEACHTUNG JEDER !
Manner in der schlange hier druben …..!
(and be marched to the slave-laborer’s barracks)
Frauen und kinder schlange hier ….!
(and proceed directly to the crematoria) … [Read more…]
In a village
sheltered by mountains of family
a groom is dressed for his wedding
The stubbled face of youth
Is lathered and shaved
the suit of a new man
presented
the boy buttoned up forever
inside a white shirt [Read more…]
The world premiere of The Loneliest Girl in the World is a creative and moving work that looks at an early period of the gay rights movement by paralleling the lives of two figures, Anita Bryant and Thom Higgins (just Tommy in the musical).
The show opens with the press conference in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1977, where Tommy threw a pie in Anita’s face. The next two scenes take the audience back to the 1959 Miss America pageant, where Anita was the second runner-up. A young Tommy watches the pageant on TV while baking a pie with his mother. These scenes sets Tommy’s fixation on Anita, who, in his imagination, sings and dances with him.
The rest of the musical alternates between Anita and Tommy, capturing key events and experiences in their lives: Anita’s marriage to the former disc-jockey Robert Green, who becomes her manager; Anita’s appearances in commercials; her thriving career in the music industry. Tommy’s moving to a new city; his growing awareness of his sexuality; his first awkward encounter with Kyle, his future boyfriend, highlighted by a musical number “Twin Bed.” [Read more…]
