Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears Talent Show By Monica Crumback When she asks and one of those bitches says she’s off key, she comes home and tries to be cool. She doesn’t cry or fuss, just sits and lists the few girls still her friends. Oh hell yes, she’s got this, I’m told and retold. Does she, […]

Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears rehabilitation in b minor By Joanna S Lee in my house, there are Names that are never spoken, drawers that stay shut, songs never played. but this morning I picked up my left-strung guitar for the first time in lifetimes, its out-of-tune silvered sinews teaching me to forget […]

Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears Wet Walks with Otis Redding By Charles Clifford Brooks III After strings kept the elderly reminded of my youth so apparently out of place I went out in a drizzle. I’ve got dreams, came between drags, dreams to remember …  The light of apartments held me from spheres spread […]

Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears Blues By Alan Britt Blues is gospel, secular style. The hand of the blues belongs to Jim, on his raft  dreaming down the wild Mississippi when fires behind bull rushes and gambling with your soul were ways of life. Now, about your sad story of bankers  crumbling beneath […]

Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears Tone Poem: The Finale, “Leonard Cohen–I’m Your Man” By Max Reif He stands at the mic, craggy faded eagle in a grey suit, singing the verse in a voice of smoke surrounded by stark figures black like spectres from his own youth. As he finishes, the band picks […]