Lisel Mueller: In November
Outside the house the wind is howling
and the trees are creaking horribly.
This is an old story
with its old beginning
H.C. Palmer: Sunset At Lower Fox Creek School
He kicks at debris from an old stone wall and startles a Texas horned lizard, then captures it under his ball cap. He turns it belly up, front legs paddling air, back legs absent.
Matthew Ussia: The Stonecutters
this work, its mechanisms
like medieval stonecutters carving gargoyles
on cathedrals they never saw completed
Meg Pokrass: Vampires with Your Sister
You like the feeling of fear bubbling
to the surface when you’re near her.
The steady heat of her soul on fire.
Betsy Sholl: Pilgrim
buildings that take you in and pass you
through naves, aisles, side rooms, niches,
through shadow and light, the endless
rasp and slur of whispering lips
Kurt Brown: Pan del Muerto
The dead
are always there, in their evening gowns
and tuxedoes, expecting to be served—
asking for more crackers or champagne.
Patricia Nugent: Poor Judgment
Rape is not about lust; it’s about control and power.
Eileen Hunt: Lessons for the 21st century from a 200‑year‑old book by ‘Frankenstein’ author Mary Shelley
In Mary Shelley’s novel “The Last Man” and the countless books and movies on its themes that followed, a human-made epidemic becomes the mega-monster that threatens the extinction of humanity itself.
Dean Young: Lucifer
Mostly the world is lava’s rhythm,
the impurities of darkness
sometimes called stars. Mostly
the world is assignations, divorces
conducted between rooftops.
José A. Alcántara: Divorce
He has flown headfirst against the glass
and now lies stunned on the stone patio,
nothing moving but his quick beating heart.
Matthew J. Parker and Stanley J. Thompson: Half-Ass Justice Reform | The Mandatory Minimum Two-Step
I first came across the Substack Justice Deferred/Cell Therapy in March of 2026, when the essay “The Law That Normalized Life Sentences” popped up on my feed. Written by federal … Continue reading
Mary Jane White: Three Poems
I remember when I spent like you, far
Ahead of knowing or having you, far-
Sightedly, a bit carefully, and then with
Reckless confidence, holding my breath,
Jean Tesoriero: A Crisis of Humanity—the U.S. as Victim and Perpetrator
VOTE—and vote early; make your voice heard. We have agency. We are resilient. At this precipice of history’s unfolding, we have the power…
Judith R. Robinson: Eli, Eli
orchestral bells
as Elgar tries
with eloquence
to grieve like a Jew
