Monthly Archives: February 2015

Gitmo

Posted on February 28, 2015 by toritto

A repost – ’cause it’s still open Tropical cages inhabited by human forms sculpted by the ailments of our time weak are the bodies but still alive huge eyes, white golf balls, fleshless frames of bone held at the Emperor’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Moment of Perfection – Poem#30 – From the Archives

Posted on February 27, 2015 by toritto

I don’t recall which day it was of the thousands I have lived when I realized that nothing lasts and what a shame it was that perfection is for just a moment before the downward slope begins. I don’t know … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

For Michael – Thirty Years Ago

Posted on February 26, 2015 by toritto

Thirty years ago today my son died in my arms. He was just nine years old and would have been ten that April in 1985. I can’t picture myself with a son who would be forty in a month and … Continue reading →

Posted in family | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

American Gulag

Posted on February 25, 2015 by toritto

A concrete room seven by twelve measured by feet placed one in front of the other in the straight line I have walked for decades. . Concrete furniture permanently arranged table, chair, bed I have no right to move furniture … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

ISIS Fangirls

Posted on February 24, 2015 by toritto

A couple of days ago three “straight A” teenage girls, two 15 and a 16 year old, in the U.K. boarded a plane at Gatwick and headed off to Turkey, indicating that they were on their way to Syria to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

FGM and the Demise of Foot Binding – a Repost

Posted on February 23, 2015 by toritto

the illusion Foot binding – “the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice likely originated in the Southern Tang Dynasty in Nanking but spread to upper class families and eventually became … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Patience and Prudence

Posted on February 22, 2015 by toritto

At a corner table of a Wendy’s an old woman sits every morning bent over her paper, her coffee and half eaten egg patiently awaiting further attention. In the banality that is old age she thinks how little she enjoyed … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

In Memoriam

Posted on February 21, 2015 by toritto

Fifty years ago today “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us.” . ————————————————— http://www.noamchronsky.com/?p=252 ——————————————-

Posted in history | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

“Dido” Elizabeth Belle

Posted on February 20, 2015 by toritto

Dido Elizabeth Belle and the Lady Elizabeth Murray “Dido” Elizabeth Belle was a bi-racial woman born into slavery in 1761 in the West Indies, the daughter of a slave woman, Maria Belle and a British career naval officer, John Lindsay, … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

We Might Have Gone to England

Posted on February 19, 2015 by toritto

by toritto We might have gone to England British Air in business class spent Summer time in Westminster placed flowers at the cenotaph.   Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge Cotswolds, Stratford, see King Lear You wanted so to visit England I … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments