TONGUE-TIED By Kelly Hayes-Raitt Iraq  2003   The one I want to wrap in my arms and bring home is Nebras. I didn’t even know her name when I return to Iraq, shortly after the assault on Baghdad. I am armed with only a photo of a beggar touching her nose with her tongue. I […]

AN ALL-STAR NEW YEAR’S PARTY By Allen McGill   Julius was struggling to keep the stern demeanor that everyone expected of him, but the clever repartee emanating from the stage was about to trigger his laugh reflex. “Oscar, sit down and behave yourself,” he called out, then turned away, arranging his toga and pretending not

Alignment   Her presence, the lack of it, has allowed normality to surge back in, equalizing pressures, allowing horizons to be level.   yet the sky however full of new configurations, cannot obscure reality, nor remnant-memories hidden there like distant clouds   caught and held secure.   so sometimes in the infinity, arrays appear, alignments,

ONLY IN MEXICO (Perhaps) By Tom Clarkson   All in the same week might you experience:  —While waiting for your muffler to get fixed, ending up playing with your mechanic’s children and a baby Tejón. —Seeing a guy trimming his toenails with a foot and a half long machete. —While enjoying a drink on a

BUT CAN SHE ACT? By William Franklin   Back in the days of black and white TV, when it and I were young, I would hear my parents during a Playhouse 90 presentation (or something of the sort) exclaim, “Boy, can she act.” Or they would say, “Boy, can he act.” And I, being quite small,

The Straw Man By Mildred Boyd   Though everyone calls him the Straw Man, Andres Mendoza is neither a character from The Wizard of Oz nor a fallacious argument set up only to be knocked down. Andres is a gifted, ­if somewhat unconventional, artist. Instead of brushes and paints he produces his masterpieces with beeswax

FIRST ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR 1839~1842(Is it really so different today?) By Kenneth J ClarkeChapter HeadingsFrom his upcoming historical novelAnd Then There Was One   When a military commander like Muhammad Akbar Khan Leads the tribes to drive ferenghee’s1 beyond ‘Afghanistan, When the British politician thinks ‘is career must come first, ‘Tis a time when the conqueror’s

CHILD of the month By Rich Petersen Alan José Bravo Alvizo   You can’t tell from the photo, but seven-year old Alan Bravo Alvizo is sitting in his red wheelchair because he is unable to walk. Alan was born with a form of cerebral paralysis (also known as cerebral palsy) that renders him unable to

FRONT ROW CENTER By Michael Warren Blithe SpiritBy Noel CowardDirected by Shirley Appelbaum   This is a beautifully staged and professional revival of Noel Coward’s classic “improbable farce” of 1941, featuring connubial love and haunting from beyond the grave. The joke of the play is that the suave novelist “Charles Condomine” unwittingly summons the spirit

Viva la Vida LocaBy Sergio Drumond SERGIO DRUMOND is an artist, theologian and writer. Born in Brazil, he worked in Europe and Asia as a book illustrator, cartoonist, painter and animator. He also lived in the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand, teaching art as well as helping NGOs with social and relief work. He and his