August - 2020

Aug 30, 2020
1 min

Corona Summer: Safe at Home, a Poem by Jim Andrukonis

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID'. No crack of the bat or sluice of dirt As you fly feet-first into third. No dramatic clang of the last school bell No splash of chlorine Whose pungent punch Pulls you back to nostalgic joy. No, it’s summer, Sliding Barely noticed Into the ambiance of your life. Honeysuckle whispers a reminder, Fireflies wink a knowing glance. This summer has come Not on little cat feet But on the rumble of thunder And the threat of a strike Mor

How to Become Famous: A Guide for the [Extra] Ordinary

Faith Esene

Aug 28, 2020
3 min

How to Become Famous: A Guide for the [Extra] Ordinary

An essay written by Faith Esene. I google myself, and a link to different social media platforms appear on the screen, and maybe a list of people who share my name. I google any celebrity and find a Wikipedia page with a biography and a timeline of notable accomplishments. It is clear that you have reached a certain status in life when you are googleable and have an elaborate Wikipedia page attached to your name. Yet, no matter who we are or what we have accomplished, we are

Almond Syiem

Aug 26, 2020
1 min

Quarantine Prayer, a Poem by Almond Syiem

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID'. for them counting breaths in strange seclusion, in complex friendship with oxygenating machines for family denied intimacy in loss, the final goodbye through digital noise for the walking tragedies of national infrastructure they built, dragging, collapsing, dying to get home, dying on the way home to them who will share graves in the overcrowded cemeteries of Manaus to them drawing tears on the map from Bogotá t

Fatima Farhad

Aug 23, 2020
2 min

The Water-Tank, a Poem by Fatima Farhad

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID'. A poem in response to Youth Speaks' “Writing Prompts to Bridge Social Distance”. You stroll out to the balcony in pursuit of an overlooked item, take one glance at me and look away for some other homely object that may have a greater chance of giving you life observations, but allow me to convince you of the poetry of my existence; we're not so different after all, you and I. I sit here tucked between your balcony wall and win

Joan Potter

Aug 19, 2020
2 min

On Stephen’s Lawn, a Short Story by Joan Potter

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID'. My son Stephen pulls three chairs onto the grass and wipes them with disinfectant before we settle down. Then he sits on a low stone wall facing us. Since we’re outside in the sun, and more than six feet apart, we decide it’s alright to take off our masks and breathe the warm spring air. We each arrived separately, even though the four of us – I and my three grown children – live in the same village. I drove over and parked on

Stephen House

Aug 16, 2020
2 min

Riding This Out, a Poem by Stephen House

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID'. my mum is ninety and in a nursing home her main joy is the visits she gets but the place is in lock-down with the virus spread risk so we now chat most days on the phone and while i suppose it is contact and we still have a laugh the other morning hit hard when she said if this lock-down keeps going which it seems like it might i could be dead before i see you again as a writer performer i make a living from shows it’s been my

Silas Rallings

Aug 12, 2020
1 min

Another Lock-down Day During the Covid-19 Crisis, a Short Story by Silas Rallings

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID' This day was nice, no less than that, the smog calmed the sun into a tree of whispering leaves, the air smelled of silence, ants were building underground castles beneath the stones and paths, above a buzzard swung by followed by carrion bird calls now distinctive as halted was the bush and hedgerows twittering and cooing, under a bridge the trout had left the river and algae trailed in their wake, tufts of grass knotted on the

Des Mannay

Aug 9, 2020
3 min

Social Dissonance, a Poem by Des Mannay

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID'. Coronavirus has pushed the death toll in the United Kingdom to its highest level since official weekly statistics began 15 years ago (The Guardian, Tuesday April 14th). It's worth looking at how we got here, but also the impact of language and ideology of those in power. The government’s Chief Medical Officer's (CMO) and Chief Scientific Adviser's (CSA), advice on how the pandemic should be tackled was watered down with advice

Contributor

Aug 7, 2020
2 min

A Tibetan Story, a Poem by Almond Syiem

I Behind snow-clad ranges is an enormous plateau of unfulfilled dreams. Beyond margins that draw lines between nations, wild horses gallop the bewildering landscape of a rugged people to whom he belonged. Reluctantly he had abandoned a residence of nomadic summers, virgin grasslands, and buttermilk stories. He survived the forty-day walk, accepted a refugee here, promising he would go back home one day. We welcomed him but we did not love him. We allowed him to serve us his e

Credit to All the Front-line Healthcare Workers, a Poem by Ndaba Sibanda

Contributor

Aug 5, 2020
1 min

Credit to All the Front-line Healthcare Workers, a Poem by Ndaba Sibanda

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID' A planet caught up in anxiety, a myriad, a cloud of uncertainties a globe caught up in the vortex of a spiteful virus calls for clear heads that don't freak out but stay calm, cool enough to respond to all possible preventive measures and guidelines A world hard-pressed to find a person who is unaffected must restrict the spread of a virus whose trail is a hurt body, a loss or a hurt health system or a hurt economy and a hurt h

This Thoreauvian Moment, a Short Story by Bob Kunzinger

Contributor

Aug 2, 2020
4 min

This Thoreauvian Moment, a Short Story by Bob Kunzinger

For the collection: 'Life in the time of #COVID.' Henry David Thoreau chose to leave society and live at Walden Pond for a couple of years so as to take that time to evaluate his priorities and his ambitions. He wished to live simply, with just the essentials, so that he might return to society with a better understanding of his place there, always knowing first who he is in the bigger picture. Thoreau was not “running away from” or “hiding from” the real world as so many bel

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