Vox Populi

17/08/2024

Torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but only represent the tip of the iceberg....

Torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but only represent the tip of the iceberg.

17/08/2024

We’re broken buttons, we’re blown dust. There’s not one tear left in all of us. I know, for I am François Villon, murderer...

We’re broken buttons, we’re blown dust. There’s not one tear left in all of us. I know, for I am François Villon, murderer

16/08/2024

16/08/2024

As president, he would undoubtedly prove to be a first-class global heat machine and voting for him would be the slow-motion equivalent of putting an atomic weapon in the Oval Office....

As president, he would undoubtedly prove to be a first-class global heat machine and voting for him would be the slow-motion equivalent of putting an atomic weapon in the Oval Office.

16/08/2024

like the letter that doesn’t come, the one I would carefully slit open and slowly unfold...

like the letter that doesn’t come, the one I would carefully slit open and slowly unfold

15/08/2024

We had a wonderful time at the Hemingway reading at Hop Farm Brewing on Tuesday night. Thank you, Joan and Kris! The readers were from top left: Kris Collins, me, (bottom left) Joan Bauer, Mary Soon Lee, Nancy Krygowski, Bonita Lee Penn, Bob Pajich.

15/08/2024

"You supported sending more U.S.-made bombs being used to commit war crimes... How can you say you are for respecting international human rights laws?" Tlaib asked....

“You supported sending more U.S.-made bombs being used to commit war crimes… How can you say you are for respecting international human rights laws?” Tlaib asked.

15/08/2024

She leaned in, my mother, and felt the sleeve First, then the shoulders, but she left it on its hanger in its own dark Closed the door as if it were a sacred ark of rules the light might wither Something I knew she would look at and leave...

She leaned in, my mother, and felt the sleeve First, then the shoulders, but she left it on its hanger in its own dark Closed the door as if it were a sacred ark of rules the light might wither Som…

14/08/2024

The wind that morning was deliciously wild— one second the water rippled like black pleats, the next it was all gust-driven glitter blowing the ticket right out of my hand for the swans to trample like a shed feather...

The wind that morning was deliciously wild— one second the water rippled like black pleats, the next it was all gust-driven glitter blowing the ticket right out of my hand for the swans to trample …

14/08/2024

JD Vance has climbed to his current position as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, in part, by selling himself as a hillbilly, calling on his Appalachian background to bolster his credentials to speak for the American working class. “I grew up as a poor kid,” Vance said on Fox News in August 2024. “I think that’s a story that a lot of normal Americans can empathize with.” …...

JD Vance has climbed to his current position as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, in part, by selling himself as a hillbilly, calling on his Appalachian background to bolster his creden…

13/08/2024

No one ever said we’d be leaving
the ghosts of our bodies here, in Ace’s bar,
in the 60 hour work weeks, in the slow walks
through the mud to our trucks.

I’m stumbling out of the dark and back down again, winding out of the rutted valleys of the Mon, ass crack of the world and broken roads…

13/08/2024

When the junkies stole everything in Albuquerque, we turned north thinking maybe Taos would unfold its risky secrets....

When the junkies stole everything in Albuquerque, we turned north thinking maybe Taos would unfold its risky secrets.

13/08/2024

From one glad patriot, "The blue wave is coming, and it is covered in cat hair."...

From one glad patriot, “The blue wave is coming, and it is covered in cat hair.”

12/08/2024

I think of the way she knew
that eels slid from brook to brook
and then to the sea.

I think of the way she knew that eels slid from brook to brook and then to the sea.

12/08/2024

From Mosab Abu Toha:
Will you share this please? 💔
What about this true story?
The civil defense crew collected about 1050 kilograms of flesh and bones from this morning’s massacre, which left more than a hundred people dead and in pieces.
The estimate is that a grown-up weighs about 70kg. The civil defense crew divided the collected flesh and bones between 15 large plastic bags.
These would be 15 bodies to be buried today.

12/08/2024

The fire now climbs the mountain’s back. A red-gray haze swirls around the setting sun, & the skies rain acrid ashes — tiny moth wings flickering over everything....

The fire now climbs the mountain’s back. A red-gray haze swirls around the setting sun, & the skies rain acrid ashes — tiny moth wings flickering over everything.

12/08/2024

Steve Kress’s smile lit up the dusk as research assistants at least 50 years younger than him regaled him with tales of their vigilance to save tern chicks on Stratton Island, Maine....

Steve Kress’s smile lit up the dusk as research assistants at least 50 years younger than him regaled him with tales of their vigilance to save tern chicks on Stratton Island, Maine.

11/08/2024

It is the month of my one wedding, the month
of gaining a son who could have been thirty-one.
It is the month of our first walk along the salt
shore together, and of my beloved’s first illness

It is the month of our first walk along the salt shore together, and of my beloved’s first illness, harbinger of worse to come, month of our lost mortgage, of bankruptcy, August of learning

11/08/2024

When the beautiful confusion of dreams becomes a stranger to my waking hours I start to panic....

When the beautiful confusion of dreams becomes a stranger to my waking hours I start to panic.

11/08/2024

In each life, hovering behind the facade or maybe in plain sight, something important may await discovery, something that words can only approximate. ...

In each life, hovering behind the facade or maybe in plain sight, something important may await discovery, something that words can only approximate.

10/08/2024

Speaking with voters face-to-face is one of the best ways to educate, persuade, and mobilize them to vote for a candidate or cause, making door-to-door canvassing an essential part of any political campaign....

Speaking with voters face-to-face is one of the best ways to educate, persuade, and mobilize them to vote for a candidate or cause, making door-to-door canvassing an essential part of any political…

10/08/2024

In truth, only five foot three and a half, and attack, too, a bit of a stretch...

In truth, only five foot three and a half, and attack, too, a bit of a stretch

09/08/2024

She dealt her pretty words like Blades—
How glittering they shone—
And every One unbared a Nerve
Or wantoned with a Bone

She dealt her pretty words like Blades– How glittering they shone— And every One unbared a Nerve Or wantoned with a Bone—

09/08/2024

It's been clear for a number of years that FB is practicing stealth censorship.

09/08/2024

There was a thirty four year gap between my second book and my third. The books I'm writing and publishing now in my 70s are the ones I wanted to write during those dry years.

09/08/2024

Once again, FB has removed my post for violating community standards. The post is a link to an essay by RAMZY BAROUD titled "For the Love of Gaza." You can read the essay by clicking the link to the Vox Populi homepage in the comments section below.

09/08/2024

My father taught me: You have to break the bones To get to the heart...

My father taught me: You have to break the bones To get to the heart

08/08/2024

Mass deportations would tear millions of families apart, including mine. It would also be a moral, logistical, and economic disaster....

Mass deportations would tear millions of families apart, including mine. It would also be a moral, logistical, and economic disaster.

08/08/2024

One night, on Riis Beach, years ago, I suddenly proposed to your mother in the moonlight...

One night, on Riis Beach, years ago, I suddenly proposed to your mother in the moonlight