ATTENTION, CITY MARKET SHOPPERS … Shoppers had to either wade, swim or park on high ground and hike to the entrance of the Carbondale City Market on Tuesday morning due to heavy rain that flooded the parking lot. Fortunately for some, myself included, who had muck or rain boots stored in case of such an emergency had plenty of up-close parking spaces to choose from. Photo and text by Jane Bachrach


Lucky Charm

By Karen M. Greenwood
May 2, 2024

I must have one, right?

A lucky charm to keep me from harm?

I must have one …

For I do not live in a country war-torn

A place where gangs rule

Where those unlucky live in fear

Where children and women are abducted

Tortured, and raped

I must have one right?

For I can turn on lights, heat my house, access fresh water

And dispose waste

I must have one …

For I can vote, grow and buy food, love my post office and libraries

I can visit my physician to help regulate my body, working together for health and wellness

I must have one right?

A lucky charm that keeps me from harm?

Or … 

Do I need one?

For I live in a place where women’s rights are disappearing in a dystopian way

Religious freedom is moving to mean only one religion is ‘free’

For those who were free to be who they are and who they love, are once again villainized and shuttered

I must need one right?

For the greed is good, money at all costs mentality is destroying our Earth’s precious environments, flora and fauna be damned

For I’m living in a world where

Voices and votes are becoming silenced by the overloud few

Lawbreaking liars who personify the sins the few claim to hate

Lauding the power-hungry acts of dictators, killers… human monsters

I need one right?

I feel the need for one …

A lucky charm to keep me from harm

For the harm I fear

Is coming for me …

From me …

By the growing idea

That a gun for protection is what I need