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| "Tracings" by Sandy Beach "The Seer on the Wooden Pillar" by Paul Belz "The World Made from Cacophany" by Paul Belz "Unrequited" by John Birkbeck "Silence" by Curtis Church "In Paradise" by Rosemarie Crisafi "Just a Walk in the Park" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Columbus Circle Crooner" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Lobster Duck" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Sloppy Hair in Sunset Years" by F. Anthony D'Alessandro "Logarithms" by Tony D'Arpino "Lila" by Adriana DiGennaro "A Year of Mourning" by Ruth Dombrow "Conversations with a Naked Ascetic" by Alison Eastley "The Book of Scorpio" by Alison Eastley "Cloud Formations" by Rich Ives "Infancy" by Edith Kur "Hunt, 1831" by Joanne Lowery "Cold Turkey" by Joanne Lowery "Clark Gable as Muse" by Joanne Lowery "Accident in 16 Parts" by Joanne Lowery "Little Pears" by Joanne Lowery "After We Bought a Computer in 1996" by Shawn McLain "Seven Blind Men and the Elephant" by Ram Mehta "What I Want" by Corey Mesler "Stagnation" by Samia Ouederni "On The Walls:" by Marissa Ranello "Urban Cycle" by Marissa Ranello "Midnight Shift" by Cortny Riblett "Thief" by Cortny Riblett "When the Beach is Mine Alone" by Harding Stedler "Enter Stage Left" by Harding Stedler "Superman and Darlene Smith" by Deborah Stinson "Per-millennial Skyline" by Elizabeth Kate Switaj "Under the Umbrella" by Sara Toruno |
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| Stagnation |
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| He gets on the subway,
Steinway station, Queens, Opened his newspaper while looking around, fearing anger or fear. He is reading in Arabic, or maybe glancing at the headlines, I am not sure, he can’t turn the page, his eyes freeze, his hands shiver, hesitating between hiding the paper or succumbing to the scare in the people’s eyes, or ignoring the looks, he is used to not deciding… Now, the eyes join the headlines, join the passengers’ eyes: Eager, fearful, curious, frightened, frail, whishing to dissect his brain, maybe that will help in understanding foreign policy, maybe that will stop hatred; or maybe not, can you tell me? He folds his newspaper, gets ready to step out in the next station Time Square He’s used to squares, not times, though, he’s been learning to scratch the limits of his squared life. Times have not changed anything about the shape of squares. Now and then he remembers his life in his native Mauritania, Tangier, Wejda, Tripoli, Alexandria, Khartoum, Ramallah, Saida… And he feels at home in Times Square. Nothing has changed in his life, he does not even have wrinkles, history or movements. |
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