Why limit yourself to three reads each month?
You can enjoy unlimited access to wonderful writers and poets on Medium by becoming a member for a very modest monthly or…
Their inspiring rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” 18 months ago had to be virtual
Do you remember those early days of the pandemic?
How uncertain were those times — how unfamiliar the deserted streets. Covid-19 had precipitated our world into the unknown. Most countries had issued stay-at-home orders, closed schools and non-essential business, imposed international travel restrictions.
Despite the disruption of our lives, we…
Some folks turn away in disgust, while others understand the daily struggles for food, shelter, and a shower
The NIMBY Brigade
Did you read the sign
No job
No food
Please help
Your nostrils flare
Eyes move sideways
You won’t look
Pretend nobody’s there
You may
Throw a coin
Yet lay the blame
At their lame shoes
Whose feet should not stray
Into your street
Nor uproot the ambience
Of suburbia
…
The timing of the emails was too close for it to be a random event
A Personal Message from Malala greeted me when I opened my Inbox on Sunday morning.
(Malala Yousafzai is the activist who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012.)
“Wow!” I thought. “She’s reacted to my essay about Afghanistan I published on Medium.”
Once I opened said email, I saw the…
Afghanistan/Politics
Holding back international recognition of the Taliban instills hope the restrictions on women’s rights will be lifted
Afghanistan is in crisis — the economy is on the verge of collapse, as are health and other government services. People can’t withdraw money from banks, while others are selling their personal items on the streets or begging. …
Music/Inspiration
A true story of how I found, lost, then found him again months later
I didn’t write his name down when I caught him playing the piano on a TV news channel.
“You’ll remember that.” my puffed-up little ego whispered in my hippocampus.
Well, of course I forgot — couldn’t even remember which TV channel!
With such scant clues, I had zero chance of…
100 WORDS
Thrifty Words 100 Challenge #34: Undaunted
Helen Suzman (1917–2009) was born to Samuel and Frieda Gavronsky, both immigrants from Eastern Europe who had come to South Africa to escape the restrictions imposed on Jews by Russia.
In 1953, Suzman won a seat representing the United Party, who’d been defeated in 1948 by the Nationalist Party —…
SATIRE
In the footsteps of self-help torchbearers who lit the way, I won’t disappoint
I’ll leave you in the dark, just as they did — only I won’t charge you thousands of dollars to learn nothing. I’m offering it for free!
People assume because I’m a septuagenarian, I know more about life than most people.
They’re correct.
86% of the global population is younger…
Poetry/Humor
Growing your tresses can be stressful — but I won’t give up
I want my hair to flow like a river
Stream over my shoulders
A natural caress of tresses
As the wind curls and
Swirls
No more short, sharp,
Shiftless days with no blow-drying
Angular
Rectangular face
Exposed to the morning light
I yearn for longer hair
A perilous journey to…
GiaB writing prompt #2–2 time
Dear clock
Why do you race ahead of me?
I learned to read you as a child
With no idea of when or where
Your hands would take me
Your numbers one to twelve
Toll the bells of seconds
Midday, midnight,
Mark the march of minutes
While regiments of hours…
