The Power of Art

A Video by Bob Boldt

Waxing nostalgic about jobs lost to technology is little better than complaining that antibiotics put to many gravediggers out of work.

–Garry Kasparov

A Study in Greed

A Poem by Donal Mahoney

For years Willie has saved his money,
investing it in stocks and bonds,
waiting to sit in his recliner
each quarter with a martini
reviewing his profits.
They often warrant
another martini.

But when the market drops
Willie loses money
and has to tell his wife
they’ll get it back again
when the market goes up.

But a tornado recently
curled into his life and
Willie had to sell most
of his stocks and bonds
to repair the havoc.

He’s very disturbed
about the debacle now
but more so when his wife
sipping a cup of tea
says imagine what it’s like
to have no money and a
tragedy like ours occurs.

Nibbling on a macaroon
she tells Willie thousands
of people all over the world
live with no money every day,
some of them in huts
with no running water.
Then she asks Willie if they
have enough money
to buy that new car.

A Photograph by Mei Du

A Photograph by Patty Kline-Capaldo

A Piece of Fruit Every Morning

A Poem by Donal Mahoney

This morning Len sections his breakfast orange
with the knife he bought in Paris 40 years ago
on his honeymoon. He bought it from a vendor

at a street market selling every kind of knife,
beautiful creations he said he made at home.
Len no longer has that wife but he uses

the knife every morning to cut up his fruit
of the day. It might be a grapefruit, apple,
a melon in season but usually an orange.

Len never thinks about his first wife
but he remembers the blind beggar
sitting on a mat near the stand

pleading for a coin to buy bread
for breakfast as Len and his knife
rushed past to catch up with his wife.