Author Archives: istsfor manity

No Room for Nostalgia A new month brings the promise of more longanimity and asceticism. Nothing is as safe she expects in the age of vulnerability and shame. She liked it more when every emotional situation didn’t need a name … Continue reading →

Primary Day in MA! Vote, baby, vote! “The Trump administration and corrupt and authoritarian regimes generally are enemies of fact and truth and history and witness, and people who can’t tell the difference or don’t care about what’s true and … Continue reading →

Thanksgiving on Zoom The headline read: It took about 7 months for the US to top 6 million cases… And she couldn’t think about this anymore — the selfishness, the pigishness passing for unfettered freedom, the sickness, the unnecessary death, … Continue reading →

Bade an Aubade to Bad You must remember an aubade is a poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning. You must remember your rituals — your morning ablutions. You must remember the wine colored stains … Continue reading →

jwhorwl I’m stuck on the word you used. Why should one word “jwhorwl” be a key — the only key — to understanding the passage, and by extension the story you wrote. I wax semi-affirmative on the style, the composition, … Continue reading →

Summer’s Cooked Time to estivate is past. The nights have a coolish edge now. Dreams are especially vivid and more often remembered. The dragonflies flit away from your outstretched hands. The crows are louder. Their murders more numerous. They blacken … Continue reading →

Eye Past eyE You pack a wallop, my man. In these days of monster hurricanes and unexplained pandemics what you bring to life is… well, death. You bring a rain of misfortune, disease, and death. Why am I so tired … Continue reading →

the year meaning died did you know? the year meaning died the last alliterative commentator complained kin is redundant avoid relatives “I write poems to untie myself, to do penance and disappear Through the upper right-hand corner of things, to say … Continue reading →

I Once Was Lost He first sang a song called “Brave New Defalcation Rocket.” I had no idea what he was on about — a caterwaul that passed for singing, I suppose. He desultorily strummed on an electric ukulele, placing … Continue reading →

as easy as… a deep slice sit for 10 minutes chill shrink drip stay “Hubris is the besetting sin of despotisms everywhere.” — Philip Short / Pol Pot