Robert Donohue

BUT WAS IT...MURDER?

He came to change his beneficiary
And filling out a new insurance card
He put his girlfriend down, and not his wife.
There were no feminists back then, but when
Fran saw the card she was to notarize,
She didn’t like it, and when he was gone,
She had me keep the old insurance card.
I kept it in his file with the new.

Three weeks go by, we get a visit from
The girlfriend, and she told us he was dead.
She wanted the insurance, but both Fran
And I would tell her men say anything
And showed her the old card; it named his wife.
As for the other card, I tore it up.


Robert's YouTube reading of "But Was It...Murder?"


Robert confesses: I was inspired to write this poem when I heard my mother tell this story from when she worked in personnel. All of a sudden I was reminded of the tagline from Dateline, But Was It... Murder? The scenario certainly was suspicious, but was a crime committed, no one will ever know.

Robert Donohue's poetry has appeared in Aprosexia Lit, Theopneustos Magazine, and Ionosphere, among others. He lives on Long Island, NY and is a content reader for Still Here Magazine.

J.H. Johns

THE PEOPLE - THE UNNAMED EX-CON

He said
all the right things
which,
however,
would be hard to verify;

schools attended;
languages spoken;
degrees earned—

all "impressive"
but
hard to substantiate;

a gifted life;
a life of things achieved,
all of which happened
in places far away;

names of countries;
towns;
cities;
schools—

everything that meshed
so flawlessly—

actually,
it was so perfect
that it was imperfect—

too perfect
to be real...


Paul Churchill Mann's YouTube reading of "The People - The Unnamed Ex-Con"


J.H. confesses: This piece is one of dozens that chronicle "The People-" that I have encountered at the Cleveland Clinic Holiday Inn. Almost all of the encounters- at their core -are- content-wise- episodic. This one was not. It was out-of-synch with why this person should be at the hotel."

J.H. Johns “grew up and came of age” while living in East Tennessee and Middle Georgia. Specifically, the two places “responsible” for the writer that he has become are Knoxville, TN and Milledgeville, GA. Since then, he has moved on to Chicago for a brief stint and New York City for a significantly longer stay. Currently, he is “holed up” in a small town where, when he is not writing, he tends to his “nature preserve” and his “back forty.” His goal is to surround his house with all sorts of vegetation so as to obscure it from the gaze of the “locals.”  He is assisted in this task by his coonhound buddy and companion, Roma. J. H. Johns was a Pushcart nominee in 2018.

New Collection by Kate LaDew

Recent contributor Kate LaDew sends word Westbrae Literary Group has published her collection what it feels like to be run over.

Congratulations, Kate.

F.I. Goldhaber

A MATTER OF PRIVILEGE

A few hundred activists --
kidnaped, tormented, abused,
humiliated -- arouse
international outrage,
prosecution threats, sanctions,
investigations, banning
a handful of officials.

But for tens of thousands of
displaced, beaten, raped, tortured,
murdered Palestinians
the world stays silent: turning
deaf ears, blind eyes away from
the countless crimes committed
against natives for decades.

"Western" powers take offense
when Israeli soldiers treat
their citizens as poorly
as Indigenous owners
of the land they occupy
in violation of so-
called international law.

But, every single one of
them ignores, and most support,
ongoing ethnic cleansing
and genocide of peoples
who lived on the land, nurtured
it, built homes, raised families,
grew crops for millennia.

The most egregious offense
which the now-prohibited
politicians are guilty
of is forcing those who are
complicit to confront the
truly repugnant face of
all settlers, occupiers.


F.I.'s YouTube reading of "A Matter of Privilege"


F.I. confesses: As an anti-Zionist Jew, the hypocritical outrage shown by countries who arm Israeli slaughter of Palestinians because IOF soldiers treated their citizens poorly -- but not nearly as despicably as they treat the Indigenous people of the land they illegally occupy -- has been a disgusting display of empire and privilege.

F.I. Goldhaber's words capture people, places, and politics with a photographer's eye and a poet's soul. As a reporter, editor, and business writer, they produced news stories, feature articles, editorial columns, and reviews for newspapers, corporations, governments, and non-profits in five states. Now paper, plastic, electronic, and audio magazines, books, newspapers, calendars, broadsides, and street signs display their poetry, fiction, and essays. Almost 260 of their poems appear in more than 90 publications including What Color is Your Privilege?, their political poetry collection published by Left Fork press. http://www.goldhaber.net/