WHEN I DIE I WANT TO BE A CAPITAL "S" SAINT

by Elise Kazanjian

just like Carlo Acutis, the first millennial

saint, appointed by Pope Leo XIV.

There may be a problem. He was

fifteen. I’m 90. One of the last saintly

nonagenarians was St. Anthony 

The Great, 3rd century.

 

Rev. Anthony Gerber in St. Louis

explains there are capital ‘S’ saints 

and lowercase ‘s’ saints in heaven. 

Carlo is a capital ‘S’ 

pronounced infallibly

in heaven by the Catholic Church. 

 

Until my demise I hope to

follow Carlo’s example to insure I

too not only get into heaven, but am a 

big ‘S’ saint. And it will be taxing—

he observed a no-nonsense daily

life, a hard act to follow.

 

Carlo Attended Daily Mass—

I confess I go to the Armenian Church 

mostly on high holidays

like Easter to enjoy

sumptuous delights, ie,

Khourabia, a cookie that melts

in my mouth.   

 

Carlo Converted His peers/friends—

Most of my peers/friends 

seem happy in what they believe, 

and do not believe.

I would be remiss trying to change

them, and probably would acquire

a guilt complex which I don’t need.

 

Carlo Launched a Website Cataloguing Miracles—

I have trouble just with basic computer knowledge 

let alone miracles. I break out in a sweat 

when texting, sending photos, 

or emailing big corporations 

slamming them for their slimy

practices in charging outrageous fees.

Carlo Is Known as “God’s Influencer”—

Frankly, I would prefer 

being a Social Media Influencer 

like Masoom Minawalu

who promotes women’s rights, 

and empowers people of India 

to succeed in their individual endeavors.

 

Carlo’s Body Rests In A Glass Fronted Tomb—

The faithful come to pay their respects to this

young saint. I assume I have another ten years.

At 100, my body will not be that great

to look at. I will choose another burial

practice. Meanwhile, I’ll say a prayer to Carlo,

and hope that someday I can join him as a big ‘S’ saint.

A San Francisco poet, Elise Kazanjian's work has appeared in the 2025 Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Season Lightly With Salt, Our California, Vistas & Byways, the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She has worked at Sunset Magazine, as Foreign Editor, CCTV, Beijing, China, and as a San Francisco pawnbroker.

THE PROMISE OF NOTRE DAME

by Micheline Ishay

Notre Dame over Paris towered.  
Her spire inspired and empowered,           
Sheltering the beggars across time. 
Shockingly, a fire burned its spine.            
The top fell: crackling, 
Crashing, and blazing…                               
 
Such collapses come always fast,
As other tragedies of recent past.
Plagues, floods, and worsening storms. 
The plundered planet in an altered form.
Choking air, winds swirling,                        
Sweltering, drowning…
 
Wars destroy lives even faster, 
Slaughter peace-loving dancers,
Bury children under rubble,
Entrap peace in an endless tunnel. 
The music was thrilling, 
Then shooting and shrieking…
 
Their screams drowned underground, 
Lost in Pluto’s crowded underworld. 
Vile geniuses dug a cave of hell  
While humanity failed to prevail.                                                   
Wrath unleashed the dogs of war, 
Fangs flashing, growls and gore.                             
 
In the “City of Lost Children,”
Thieves stole youthful dreams
Staving off aging by any means.
Schooling generations for revenge.
In cycles of never-ending violence
Interrupted by dreadful silence.
                                                
They say miracles cannot be ignored.                    
Notre Dame is almost restored; 
Its iconic rooster found under debris,
Remade for a world to be free.
It took less than a day to crumble, 
But years for artisans to reassemble.
 
A step at a time: 
Sweating, Swearing,

Longing, Laughing, laughing… 

Micheline Ishay is Professor of International Studies and Human Rights at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and was founding Director of the International Human Rights Program. She is the author of half a dozen of books, including Internationalism and Its Betrayal (University of Minnesota Press, 1995), The Nationalism Reader (Humanities Press, 1995; Prometheus, 1999), and The Levant Express: The Arab Uprisings, Human Rights, and the Future of the Middle East (Yale University Press, 2019). Her books, The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (2004, 2008) and The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches, and Documents from Ancient Times to the Present (1997, 2008, 2022) have been translated into multiple languages and published in second or third editions. 

THE SADDEST DAY OF MY LIFE: JANUARY 6, 2021

by Nan Ottenritter

on the eve of the January 6 hearings

Television crews and technicians prepare for Thursday night's hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, on June 7. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP via The Washington Post)

I want to say my saddest moment of my life

was when my first love left me, my father died, or

when we pulled the plug on my terminally ill brother.

 

I want to say the saddest day of my life

was a missed job opportunity, a miscarriage,

a failed novel.

 

But truth be told, it was seeing

our stormed Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The cracked glass, ransacked desks.

 

Hearing screams of trapped Capitol Police,

chants of hanging Mike Pence,

the hubris of those unquestioning, disrespectful

 

of all I have come to regard as second only to god,

sacred as only sacred in a secular sense can be.

How can you not appreciate our American democracy?

 

This democracy is the only life I know.

Please don’t take it away from me, from us.

Let me talk to you of miracles,

 

moments of shame and victory,

moments shared and shattered,

moments that are, like it or not, our collective lives.

 

I want to remain with you.

And you?

Nan Ottenritter lives and writes in Richmond, VA. Her first chapbook Eleanor, Speak is available from Finishing Line Press.

THE FLORIDA CASE BEFORE THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION

by Lavinia Kumar

Cornelia Adele Fassett (1831-1898), Florida Case Before the Electoral Commission

                  

If Cornelia Fassett were here today,

she’d have painted a disputed election even larger.

 

The piece would have Facebook friends and tweets,

shown her Supreme Court chamber streamed live to millions.

 

Samuel Tilden won many more votes

but Rutherford Hayes fought the Electoral tally—

with twenty Electoral votes too short

he claimed voter intimidation and all sorts of fraud.

 

A Commission stood to create a miracle,

and debated nine days about voters in four states.

 

And, lo, they sought and found the needed,

which switched the Electoral College to Republican.

 

Ah, yes, it is said that history repeats,

but ghosts will tell that is not true of miracles.

Lavinia Kumar is currently interested in writing of unsung women of the past, Her poetry has appeared in US, Irish, & UK publications. Her books include Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Women, Women: Soldiers, Spies of Revolutionary and Civil Wars and No Longer Silent Women: the Silk and Iron of Women Scientists.