Requiescat in pesto

by Phillip Martin in the September 11, 2019 issue

Needed: a ritual for clipping the last basil
for the last batch of pesto
for inhaling that final blast of slower days
as the blender grinds
like last rites for the summer

here in the middle of September
something to comfort us
amid this rigid schedule
and the last ripe tomato
lingering on the windowsill

something to remind us
all this homework will come to an end

This poem appears in the September 11, 2019 issue.

Against killing children

We have become a society of people who cannot prevent our own children from being killed in their classrooms—and who do not much mind the killing of other people’s children by weapons of war.

by Wendell Berry