All Over the Place: Black and Women History

February and March

By Michael H. Brownstein

Now that African American History Month is here and the Month of the Woman (March) is soon upon us, it’s time to give credit where credit is due. White people write the history books; it’s too bad African American history books are written by whites as well.
    Yes, Harriet Tubman did free slaves and, yes, Rosa Parks did not give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery. And that’s the problem. Hilliard Brooks, 22, was shot and killed by police in 1952 when she refused to give up her seat – three years before anyone had ever heard of Parks. Children going home from school were arrested often for not standing to let white people sit. A grandmother and her grandson spent time in jail when they refused to give up their seat.

As the World Turns: Whatever Happened to That Fairchild C-123 of the CIA?

By Ed Rogers

The country of Nicaragua has seen its share of war, and the CIA has been in the middle of it all. In my book Boystown: The Cocaine Highway, I tell of my characters flying guns into the mountains of Honduras and drugs back to the United States. That story took place in the mid-sixties and all with the knowledge of the CIA.

BODY COUNT: Killers (a novel): Chapter 28. No Joy on the Homefront

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Within minutes, the sound of sirens filled the air. It seemed like hundreds coming from all directions. They didn’t park on the street but raced across the open grass of the park until they were stopped by the tree line. Their lights turned night into day. It looked as though every cop in Memphis had shown up for the party.
    The medics from each of two ambulances ran into the clearing. Two men stopped at the dead man next to the crying woman while the other crew, a woman and a man, ran to where Wayne was propped against a tree. Blake and Rainbow went toward the medics who were bent over the killer. Blake told Rainbow, “Get out your phone and take pictures of all this before they fuck up the scene. You can bet we’re going to be questioned.”

From “The Scratching Post”:Change

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, February 4, 2017. Republished here by permission of the author.]



I recently came across this provocative quote by Mary Shelley:

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.

Highways and Byways: The Sandhills

By Maik Strosahl

I remember hating Nebraska in my younger years. I did not find anything of interest in the landscape. Funny, now that I drive professionally, I find many things that catch my attention. Now, Nebraska has turned into a treasure trove of inspiration. Here is a piece from the road inspired by one of those stretches of highway on the western side of the state I used to find boring.


Over the shallows of the Platte,
the Nemaha, the Dismal,

clouds descend into the sandhills,
wings spread, landing gear

touches down in water,
skidding across the surface,

Boldt Words & Images: Good Evening! Good Evening!

By Bob Boldt

Imagine dollars in my hand 

meaningless as November leaves.

Money, like all the precious, leaves first.

None would prefer freezing

over the warmth of the last flaming Bible.

Rudderless, captainless, shipless, wreck,

I wander like Tyrannosaurus before me,

watching his fiery, July 4th, slow-motion descent.

BODY COUNT: Killers (a novel): Chapter 27. End Game II

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Blake came out of the building to find the other five waiting for him. “I see the gang’s all here. What’s the plan?”
    Wayne held up his GPS tracker. “Each team has one of these, and now we need to find our targets and attach them without getting caught by the drivers.”
    Blake took Wayne’s tracker in his hand. “It’s larger than I would have thought.”
    He handed it back to Wayne, who turned in over in his hand and said, “It’s the tracker’s magnet that takes up space.”

All Over the Place: I Just Want to See How the Drunks on Ash Street Are Doing

By Michael H. Brownstein

When my county became a red zone in the wake of the pandemic, I already knew the answer. Of course, this is my personal opinion. I live in the entertainment zone of my town. This means bars and restaurants with bars. It does not mean theater or dance or creativity. It simply means places for people to drink and get drunk. One of the managers of one of the businesses came down with Covid-19. He was driven to the hospital by another employee – neither wore a mask. He stayed home a couple of days and then he began going outside. He even entered the bar where he works. Even now he does not look that healthy.

From “The Scratching Post”:Helplessness

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, January 31, 2016. Republished here by permission of the author.]

Helplessness is the defining condition of all life. It is especially so for human beings. We anticipate aging and death; we understand the concept of fate. Women know what it means to be born into a culture that denigrates their sex. People of color know what it means to live among racists. The poor know that their lives will be a battle with hunger, squalor, and shame. We all can be brought low or perish because of the corrupt games of the powerful or the capriciousness of warmongers. And, of course, disease and natural catastrophes can destroy our innocent lives.

12 Years Ago Tomorrow: Smiling is over-rated in America

By Moristotle

[Originally published on January 30, 2009.]

I told my friend Ken, who took this photograph a couple of days ago and labeled it “Visionary,”¹ that I tended not to feel comfortable with photographs of myself in which I was not smiling. He commented that smiling is much over-rated in America. If you look at photographs from just a few generations ago, you’ll see no one smiling.

BODY COUNT: Killers (a novel): Chapter 26. The End Game

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Next morning, Blake’s whole team – less Shelley, who had gone to Seattle – were gathered in Operations. Each team member had a sheet of paper listing all of the roving security guards who fit Mary’s profile of the Hometown Killer. All of the guards were black males and drove the standard, small pickup truck used in Memphis for roving security checks, with a company logo on the doors, so they would be easy to spot.
    Under each man’s name, Peter had added personal information about him. Mary asked her teammates to independently pick and highlight the names of the men they thought most likely suspects. After 30 minutes, she collected the papers and reviewed the picks. A few minutes later she entered three of the names into her computer and sent them to the big screen.

Highways and Byways: Red Stars

By Maik Strosahl

I have had a few loads going into wind farm territories in Iowa and Kansas over the last couple of weeks. It reminds me of when they were installing turbines north of Elwood, Indiana and my drives north to Marion as they slowly grew out of the ground. Just for the big pieces it took seven trucks to bring them in. It was a cool experience watching them all go up. When they were finally done, I was driving through in the cold darkness of an early winter morning and I thought about what signals aliens might read into the red lights on top of the turbines as they would flicker on and off. Thus, “Red Stars” was born.


New stars burn cold in constellations,
flickering a generated red,
blinking out with the passing of a wing—
perhaps that of an angel or a bird,
or maybe it is just another shiny knife
cutting through space
and the moonless breeze,
again and again,
off then on,
flashing notice to more distant stars
that we are here:
dare not fly too close.

Copyright © 2021 by Maik Strosahl Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He also dabbles in short fiction and may be onto some ideas for a novel. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there. In September 2020, he started the blog “Disturbing the Pond.”

Drinking Kubulis is available in book form at last!

By Moristotle

To paraphrase Bobby Burns, the best laid schemes of writers and editors as well as “o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley.” I stated in my September 18 post (“Now available as a whole: Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café”) that Roger Owens “plans to have it available by the end of the year in paperback and as an e-book, for sale on Amazon.”

From “The Scratching Post”:A day at the DMV

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, January 26, 2019. Republished here by permission of the author.]

In September of 2017, I had a heart and kidney transplant, and a long convalescence began. I thought I might never drive again. I canceled my auto insurance, let my license lapse, and ignored the notice to renew my registration.
    As a year passed, my thinking reversed. Yes, I would become a highway hazard again. I would go through the hassle and expense of renewing everything. And I resolved to succumb to an insidious scheme known as Real ID.

BODY COUNT books now available as a series on Amazon

By Moristotle

As the editor of Ed Rogers’ three BODY COUNT novels, I am pleased to announce that Amazon now accommodates series of books, and Ed has taken advantage of it by creating a series entry on Amazon. The graphic shown here is a composite of the series’ text description and its image.