Gale Acuff – a poem
Gabriella Bedetti – a poem
TAK Erzinger – 2 poems
Doris Ferleger – 4 poems
Howie Good – 4 poems
Keri Heath – a story
Yuan Hongri – a poem, translated by Yuanbing Zhang
DS Maolalaí – 5 poems
Joel Schueler – a poem
Carol Smallwood – flash fiction
Dear Friends,
Well…
This is what I wrote in February, when whimperbang last graced this digital wilderness with new works, “What’s this year to bring? Are we driving towards something or away from it? A lot out of focus. Future unclear. Consult the magic 8-ball. Ouija. Tarot.”
Who knew what loomed around the corner? Who knows what looms around the next? I pray this finds you, dear readers…dear friends…having found a bit more of yourselves, having dug in your heels in preparation for whatever is next.
I will say:
Black Lives Matter.
I will say:
Get out the vote (you who may), and keep speaking out (you who have voices), and keep standing up for those who cannot.
I will say:
Read this poem by Martin Niemöller
First They Came
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
I pray for peace.
Not an armistice.
Not a lull.
Not a quiet between the brackish sounds of humanity jostling for the top position, or fossil fuels, or the apples of our neighbors’ orchards.
But the tranquility that may come when all of humanity stands in awe and humility before its own self and its brethren:
every manner of human, varying in color, creed, sex and gender;
all creatures, great and small, that populate the air, land and sea;
the trees, flowers and weeds;
the oceans and earth that feed us, the air we breathe.
Kind Regards,
Raymond Prucher, Editor
whimperbang
Issue 22, September 2020