OCCUPY REVISITED by James C. Henderson It’s been over a year since we occupied the Hennepin County Government Center Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We called it, “The People’s Plaza” and then populated it with liberated people day and night. It’s empty now.

EMMA LAZARUS AND THE POLITICS OF POETRY by James C. Henderson ark Strand and Eavan Boland, in their book, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, say that the sonnet is a poetic form that features “one strong opening statement of eight lines” and then poses an “emotional or intellectual question” […]

THE ZOO by James C. Henderson After a drone strike kills five children in Afghanistan I go to the zoo. I’m not sure why except my granddaughters beg me to go. I haven’t been to the zoo in a while. Admission has gone up, the hours are shorter and the monorail is broken—again.

I DON’T WANT TO BE A PUPPET ON A STRING–WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUAL, CREATIVE NATURES! by Axel Pätzold Deep in my heart, I feel we are starting up into a time of “separating and rectifying spirits”– we are starting up into a time beyond manipulation, beyond misusing our power. Are the proclaimed values of the […]

LOOSE IN THE WORLD by James C. Henderson When you’re laid off, the economy pulls over to the side of the road and asks you to get out. Left behind, you dare not speak of what has happened. When neighbors talk of taking vacations you say you’ve just been. When friends talk of moving into […]

HALLUCINATION by Athena M. Henderson Six ballerinas dance on the wall of my cell dance into my solitary confinement. Each has black hair pulled back, glossy. Each has fierce, brown eyes. The sashes around their waists are pink. White tulle flows around them as they pirouette across splashes of crimson, cobalt, and jade. Sitting on […]

OCCUPATION by Athena M. Henderson The roar of trucks and motorcycles the dust and chaos of men in enemy uniforms. “Where are you going?” my mother asks. “To another town,” the Nazi Captain says. Where they kick in the doors of the church and order two young men into their truck. Offering of figs, quince, […]

SOLIDARITY by Scott Thompson The problems I face are simple: How to eat, By which I mean to feed my girls and I And where there’s a roof To keep off wind and rain And how to avoid the traps And legal snares They’ve set to catch my kind— Of course, that last Is getting […]

THE CELL by Athena M. Henderson I sit on a mattress crusted with dirt— a political prisoner in a cell two by three meters. The door opens and a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and vanilla pudding scrapes onto the floor.