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From the author: After five years of teaching inside two all-male State Prisons in Northern Ohio, I know first-hand the power of Shakespeare and poetry. Like other art forms, poetry is universal in its appeal. Shakespeare remains a source of powerful lessons. Sure, I have an expensive doctorate, and ifContinue Reading

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Once upon a time… Such a derivative phrase. And overused, in my opinion. But, it serves as well as any for my purposes, so here it goes. Once upon a time, there was a small village clinging to the rocky edge of the smallest island at the northernmost tip ofContinue Reading

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The sensation of soil against my bare feet is a new one. I have understood and analyzed the concept of touch, but analysis and experience are very different. There is something… humming? Is that what that is? Yes, something humming, and I can feel it through the flat part ofContinue Reading

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My father was attacked by an unidentified animal. It concentrated on his eyes and neck. He is horrible to look at. He has become an angry threat because of his deformity. When people look, he looks back. When people ask, he follows them into the store and harasses them untilContinue Reading

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Venue upon venue, theaters sold out before ticket prices were disclosed. The time of entrepreneurial entertainers in Victorian England was at an all-time high. Some were high with the notion of fame. Others were drunk with it. But Salazar, stoic and steady, reached the pinnacle of the arcane within theContinue Reading

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The magician is having trouble reassembling his assistant. The trick is one he’s done hundreds of times before. The assistant goes in. The saw goes through. The boxes are elevated waist-high like gurneys on wheeled stilts. The boxes spin, and the assistant kicks her feet. The boxes are brought backContinue Reading

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Zee felt the oxygen rush through her body as she began the Sim Go breathing technique. Her rapid breaths pumped her veins with life and jettisoned this newly invigorated blood throughout her internal depths. She felt her entire body. She silenced her mind completely. Everything that she controlled, utterly dedicatedContinue Reading

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From Jacob’s Jack and the Beanstalk & Christ’s Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus & others There once lived a young prince who, after his five elder brothers had each met an untimely death and his father had fallen ill, took over the daily affairs of the kingdom. HeContinue Reading

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Marco had schizophrenia.  He thought he was magic. When he walked down the street and was in his normal state, he acted with kindness.  He gave the few coins his sister gave to him, to the ones with signs that said “HUNGRY.” He wasn’t hungry.  At least not today.  AtContinue Reading