Three A.M. in Hell By Andrea S. Gereighty Blood on the table bone on the wing tonight something evil covers the sky. The moon cross cut Drips with excrement, pus. The wind slices knives serrated, through us. Dehumidifiers hum song, hymn, prayer nothing can save us terrorism stalks there. Will we be hijacked cut down…
Under the Cover of Night
Jacques Fleury Spare Change News The full moon permeates the darkened street where Chiro sprints to hide under the bridge, the rolling waves of the ocean muffling the footsteps trailing behind him. Exhausted from fear and the run itself, he leans against the wall to catch his breath as the hooligans pursuing him get close…
New Chapter for Harvard Square Bookstand: $2 books give way to free book exchange
Julie Monrad Spare Change News Have you ever noticed the second-hand bookstand in Cambridge on the sidewalk in front of 1324 Massachusetts Ave., near Holyoke Street? Not just glanced and continued walking, but truly observed it? Next time you find yourself walking along Massachusetts Avenue, debating whether or not to enter Harvard Book Store or…
The Birth of Ar Lain Ta (Part One) The Birth of Ar Lain Ta (Part One)
By Marc D. Goldfinger Everyone gets to pay the gatekeeper. In the end we pay with the only currency that we own. The gatekeeper’s desires are simple. All he wants is all we’ve got. They call me the Troll. I’m a gatekeeper of sorts and I have my own kingdom. Of course, I have to…
Haitian Folk Tales: The Snake and the Pauper
Jacques Fleury Spare Change News It was a beautiful sunny day in the forest of Carfou, a small town in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city. The birds were chirping and the trees were swaying in a sing-song sort of way. Di Dim, a local farmer, strolled down the winding dirt road, occasionally stumbling…
A Holocaust of Toads
By Doug Holder As boys- we dropped rocks a flurry of bomblets on a passing phalanx of toads. Commanders for once free from the clamp of parental constraint punch drunk with the notion of our control of fate life death. And like mini Dr. Mengeles, we experimented stuffing firecrackers down their twitching throats and watched…
Learning from the Sixties: A Talk with John Maher
A new book, Learning From The Sixties: Memoir Of An Organizer, is intended to pass on the lessons learned along the way by anti-Vietnam War activist and political organizer John Maher, a longtime Cambridge resident, to a new generation. In the book, Maher describes his journey from student activist, a leader of the New Left,…
Poetry: Westwood Lodge, 1980–1990
Westwood Lodge, 1980–1990 By Sarah Hanna And then again, you go west, to that perennial Resort at the end of the bending street, row of pines, Where Sexton strolled through noon, made mocassins, And danced in a circle: the Summer Hotel. Why every tumid season, cicadas burning blue, Beetles mounting one another, chewing all the…
Tales from the Wandering: Stories based on the lives of the homeless in Boston
Tales from the Wandering Stories based on the lives of the homeless in Boston Spotting Your Own Skin For the better part of the next ten years, the Black Smoke stayed within orbit around a variety of couches and TV screens in the tristate area. In the beginning, he’d pour out of the room and…
Poetry At Occupy Boston
Following this short piece is a poem I read at Occupy Boston Poetry. As I walked into the camping area I was impressed at the organization of the occupation. The people had a logistics tent, a media tent and a staging area where they would hold meetings and entertainment. It was truly an honor to…