Category Archives: Guest contributors

Union Dues: Freedom with a small f (Part Five)

By Jeffrey R. DeRego

THE STORY SO FAR

Part Five

The tenements are easy to scale, but I ring the apartment doorbell beneath the intercom instead. They don’t answer immediately. Someone thunders down the steps.

I smile … Continue reading

Murder by Remote Control: an Essex Man story (Part Four)

By Gary Phillips

THE STORY SO FAR

That evening Warfield and Critch Duling stood on the rooftop of the Zenith Vending Machine Company in the Antelope Valley. The temperature in the desert area was warm and both … Continue reading

Poem by Kristina England

War of the People
By Kristina England

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
but will become a heap of ruins.” ­– Isaiah 17

A woman and child wake to their own ghosts,
whole families leveled by barrel bombs,
their ruins scattered through the news.

Aleppo today, Damascus tomorrow.
Or was it Damascus yesterday?
It’s so hard to keep track
of the plights for redemption,
revenge, terrorism,
whatever we’re calling it these days.

Bodies are piling up on every continent,
the definition of justice
different from one mind to the next.

A woman writes to the Boston Globe,
says she found no relief in the execution
Continue reading