HISTORY WILL JUDGE

by Jana Schäfer

The state will judge them,

By their actions in the public space.

Or so they say,

Or so I’ve heard.

 

The media, the fourth estate, will judge them,

By their character, even in their private moments.

Or so they say,

Or so I’ve heard.

 

God will judge them,

By the weight of their heart.

Or so they say,

Or so I’ve heard.

 

No.

We have waited.

They have unlearned to judge.

Now.

 

History will judge us,

By the courage we can muster to defeat our own shadows.

We can’t wait any longer.

 

Or so they say,

Or so I’ve been told.

 

Jana Schäfer is a lecturer and researcher in sociology. She and her cat Chicken live in Berlin. Chicken prefers tuna.

EGG RACE

by Devon Balwit

Image by Melodi2 via Answer Angels.

I write hate crime, mass shooting, extremist,
target, victim, second amendment, make
my students copy and pronounce, make
them lift their heads from their phones
and listen, all of us awkward, the ones
fasting for Ramadan, the ones who may
be gay, the ones who, secretly, do not care,
Orlando a place they’ve never heard of
in a country they barely know; they want
my language, not my history, and this lesson,
they can do without, my fumbling to do
justice to horror, while balancing the fragile
egg of blame in my tiny spoon, trying to dash
to the finish without letting it fall, homophobia,
intolerance, assault rifles, class ends and
I’ve taught something; none of us sure what.

Devon Balwit is a writer and teacher living in the Pacific Northwest.  Her work has appeared in TheNewVerse.News twice before. Her recent work has appeared or will soon in The Fog Machine, The Cape Rock, The Fem, Of(f) Course, drylandlit_press, and The Prick of the Spindle.