Author: Jacques Fleury
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As the Sun Sets Over Port-au-Prince
Jacques Fleury Spare Change News In honor of my mother Marie-Evelyne, an iconoclast in her own right In Haiti I grew up taking blood baths, basking in the epoch of oppression. My nation was occupied by the French, and despite my French influence, I consider myself a Creole poet and not a French Creole poet.…
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The Joy That Killed
Fiction by Jacques Fleury Mrs. Hannah Havnoklu, having had a night of nervous sleep, slowly sat up in bed and looked back at her husband, Hans. She smiled at him and got up to go to the bathroom. Today was going to be one of the most joyous days of their life together. They’d been…
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Facts from Fiction: The Evolution of Women in American Literature
By Jacques Fleury “When you look down into silence, you see no friend; When you lift your gaze to space, you hear no echo. It is like striking a single chord it rings out but there’s no music.” “Literature: A Rahapsody” Lu Ji I started writing poetry in high school and was encouraged to continue…
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3 a.m. at The Café
It sits on a quaint yet poorly lit country road right alongside a towering willow tree that casts a sinister shadow over it. It is painted light blue with white trimmings, low windows – and upon closer inspection; the paint has started to come off. The café itself is also dimly lit with light fixtures…
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A Candle for Lina
Her skin is like mud, where horses trample O Can’t you see it, Her skin is like mud, where horses trample O can’t you see it, can’t you see it? In Haiti, misery makes everything pale, grungy, weathered, attenuated, wasteful, sallow, dumb, grinded down, pocketed. When it’s done, we swap grinning for crying, we trade…
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Beyond the Class System in America
My name is Jacques, a.k.a. “The Haitian Firefly” in artistic circles. I am a poet, author, columnist, novelist and essayist. I came up with the nickname “The Haitian Firefly” to reflect my bold individuality and life credo that we are all essentially fireflies, we glow but only for a short amount of time, so we…
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Dancing with Demons: On Living with Depression
In Honor of my supportive, family, friends and fans. One restless night among the many restless nights of living a life marred with relentless anxiety and depression, I dreamt that I was walking along a boardwalk somewhere in America with my psychiatrist walking alongside me, trying desperately to talk me out of ending my life.…
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‘Tis the Season to be Jolly
We have been through a lot this year: celebrating the second year of Barak Obama’s presidency and some wondering if they made the right choice; the announcement of the impending end of the war in Iraq; and last but not least, the floundering economy, which had some losing their jobs and homes and those who…
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Mental Illness and Stigma: How Far Have We Come?
Mental illness was once, and to some extent still is, a taboo subject that most people feel uncomfortable talking about within familial or societal spheres. However, because of the superfluity of media coverage and cinematic portrayals of people afflicted with mental illness, it has gone from private whispers behind closed doors to public dialogues. However,…