For What It’s Worth
Woolworths at Cedarbrook Mall, just outside my home town of Philadelphia, didn’t look like much, but that was beside the point. Back in the Sixties, it was a great place for teenagers like me to visit during trips to the mall, especially the variety store’s record cut-out bin. Filled with carelessly tossed-in crap, near-crap, and the occasional gem, at 33 cents for a 45-rpm single, a buck for an LP, it invited those long on musical thirst and short on cash to find keys to their universe. One afternoon in 1968, I found one of mine, a rare version of Buffalo Springfield’s self-titled...
Read MoreThe Bridge at Restitution
True definition is impossible – at least that’s what I’ve heard. Each pair of eyes defines the world their own way. To my eyes, it was about Jip and The MC (The Motley Crew). To others, it was more about “the times.” Some people are tailor-made for the times. All I knew was Jip came to our school. and it seemed he was instantly an important piece of our puzzle; and we were a puzzle. Jip fit us perfectly: the funniest kid anyone had ever seen and a natural-born leader for natural-born followers. Our times? It was the end of June and the end of a road for...
Read MoreWildflowering
Pock-marked—yet her face is perfection, (or close enough for the reach of praise) each enlarged pore, pit a star in the banner weaving across sleek cheeks below the hunter eyes that pay no serious attention to past struggles with oil, hormones, and stress, but stake the opposing orbs that must notice the pinprick fields, blooms, before caught above, beyond the necessary...
Read MoreWho I Wanted to Be
Memory arises from a puckered, bent photo of that day. My cousin with her rich, sophisticated family enter our shack, the abomination of my stifled life. We do not have enough chairs. Children are left to stand or crouch near the screen door. I peek through a flimsy curtain hanging as a door to my tiny room, large enough for only a bunk and a box for my folded clothes. My cousin is eighteen. She wears a light blue linen dress with a peter pan collar, ankle socks and saddle shoes. She twists the ringlets at her shoulder. Her lavender scent reaches me as if from another world where I...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of Nov. 9 (Nature)
Spending time in nature clears the mind, helps us cope with stress, and is healing for both the body and spirit. If you can’t get outside, though, the next best thing is to check out this week’s offerings, all related to nature. “Clouds” by Michael Brownstein evokes the luminescent colors often glimpsed in the sky. “These cool green hills” Ayaz Daryl Nielsen subtly depicts morning moments of sunlight and mountains. “Whether or Not” by James B. Nicola takes a big-picture perspective on our relationship with nature. “Entropy 3” and “Entropy 4,” two...
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