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  • AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought
    • AZURE Volume 8 >
      • PRACTICAL MEDICAL ADVICE FOR FEMALE SUBJECTS OF THE CAPE COLONY by Karen Jennings
      • PLAN B and others by M.B. McLatchey
      • IDIOSYNCRATIC ICONS: A MANIFESTO by Richard Collins
      • THE DARDANELLES (HERO AND LEANDER AT 60) by Greg Sendi
      • AN APPRECIATION OF THE SCHOLAR, ADALBERT by Vincent Mannings
      • ONE PARTING, YIELDING LINE by M. Ann Reed
      • THE RIVER FISHER'S DAUGHTER by Kirk Marshall
      • BEYOND THE GREAT HORIZON WALL by Kenny Kuhn
      • BLOOM by Michael Gessner
      • SOMETHING, I KNOW NOT WHAT by Ray Corvi
      • OF BUTLERS AND SPIES by Austin Barnes
      • WHAT THE FIRST GOD SPOKE I THINK WAS SUN by Richard Hague
      • SEELENKNARREN by Lorenz Poeschl
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 3 >
      • DECEMBER 25, 2022 by Aletha Irby
      • A SUMMARY OF 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF NASOCARPIA' by Peter Arscott
      • CARRYING CAPACITY by Charles Byrne
      • THE MUNE MONOLOGUES by Thomas Townsley
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 2 >
      • VARIATION ON A THEME & POSE POEM by Norman Minnick
      • THE MAP OF YOUR HANDS UNFOLDS A DOVE by Vikki C.
      • HISTORIES OF THE BEARD by Richard Hague
      • ILLUSTRATED COMMENTS ON THE APOPHATAPATAPHYSICAL METRICS OF COSMIC HUMOR by edo strannikov
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 1 >
      • ORANGES by John Moody
      • THE LACONIA by Wendy Webb
      • BREATH OF THE TEXT by Jeremiah Cassar Scalia
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 4 >
      • TO THOSE FOUND DEAD IN CHIMNEYS by R.W. Plym
      • WHAT TO EXPECT OF LIFE by Steven G. Kellman
      • IF IT WERE DRAWN by Jessica Reed
      • BLOOD IN THE ORCHIDS by Amanda Kotch
      • CORNELIUS RADHOPPER by Peter Arscott
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 3 >
      • ANIMAL INHERITANCE by akhir ali
      • THAT DUDE DERRIDA by Daniel Klawitter
      • FLAT-EARTH FRED by Phil Gallos
      • THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SEMICOLON by Orana Loren
      • MY BALDERDASHERY by Eric Paul Shaffer
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 2 >
      • MIRROR by Joshua Kepfer
      • CUE FALLING PIANO by D.C. Weaver
      • ANTON AND THE ECHO by Cristina Otero
      • THAT WHICH WE TRULY DON'T KNOW by JOACHIM GLAGE
      • CONGRATULATIONS by Alan Sincic
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 1 >
      • NEVER, NEVER LAND, MY SHIP by Mark Pearce
      • THE SMILE OF MONA LISA by Fatima Ijaz
      • OUROBOROS by Esme Sammons
      • THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA by Margaret D. Stetz
      • SNICKER-SNACK by Bruce Meyer
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 4 >
      • THE OWLET AND THE TURTLE by Greg Sendi
      • BRACTS and other poems by Nathaniel Calhoun
      • ANSWERS TO NON-EXISTENT QUESTIONS and other poems by Kevin Griffith
      • NEVERENDING KNOT by Jodie Dalgleish
      • LEARNING TO WALK by Jodie Dalgleish
      • OVERSOUL by P.S. Lutz
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 3 >
      • MAP OF MEMORY by Jesse Schotter
      • BISMILLAH by Abby Minor
      • MICROMORTS by Veronica Tang
      • LOVE LETTER TO LANGUAGE: AN ABECEDARIAN by Saramanda Swigart
      • IF YOU WERE ALL WATER by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 2 >
      • CONTRA FORMALISME by Leland Seese
      • DRUNKEN MAN ON A BICYCLE by Dan Butterworth
      • WOLF TICKETS THROUGH THE FERAL WINTER by Kirk Marshall
      • SYLVANUS, BARD by Marc Lerner
      • THE LOOKING GLASS OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM by Frank Meola
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 1 >
      • INTIMATE THINGS by Laylage Courie
      • A SERIES OF PUNCTUATION by Hajar Hussaini
      • ROT AND GLORIANA by Laurel Miram
      • BLUES ON RED by Elie Doubleday
      • MY FICTION: REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF WORK by Richard Kostelanetz
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 4 >
      • ENDNOTES FOR AN ALLOCUTION by Peter Freund
      • UKEMI (and other poems) by Nicole Vento
      • MEMORANDUM ON DESIRE by Laylage Courie
      • THE HOLYWOOD DEUTERONOMY by Jim Shankman
      • AT THE MAD HATTER-MARCH HARE ART GALLERY (and other poems) by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 3 >
      • THE MACHINE, STOLEN FIRE, and PERFORMANCE by Vivek Narayan
      • FIRST FRUITS by Stephen Massimilla
      • ONCE UPON A TOMORROW-TIME by Christopher Routheut
      • YIELD LIGHT OF WAY by Ken Goodman
      • SEVEN TALES by Sara Streett
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 2 >
      • THE PUNCH-CARD CIPHERS by DF Short
      • SHE WAS THE FIRST TO GIVE A TOAST by Kelli Russell Agodon
      • HABLU L-WARIDI by Jesse Hilson
      • THE KEY TO DREAMS by Sean S. Bentley
      • SOFA, SO GOOD, SORT OF by Remy Ngamije
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 1 >
      • STAMPING THE DEAD by Habib Mohana
      • LEGS by A. Joachim Glage
      • I THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX by Heikki Huotari
      • LUŽÁNKY by V.B. Borjen
    • ARCHIVES: VOLUME 3 >
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 4 >
        • TALES UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN by Devon Ortega
        • WAKE UP by JayJay Conrad
        • AMONG THE MEN IS APRIL by Logo Wei
        • SWEET by Melinda Giordano
        • BLACK ROSES by Osamase Ekhator
        • MEET ME TONIGHT ON METAPHOR STREET by Vivek Narayan
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 3 >
        • MENAGE A TROIS, WITH HORSE by Don Dussault
        • THE BLACK by Ben Colandrea
        • BLUE SKY LANGUAGE by Christien Gholson
        • UN DETECTIVE VIEJO by Franco Strong
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 2 >
        • THE CLEANSING by Linda Dennard
        • SHUFFLE by Debbie Fox
        • DID YOU FALL OR RISE FROM THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING? by M. Ann Reed
        • THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE PORNQUEEN by Omar Sabbagh
        • KIGALI MEMORIAL by Carlos Andres Gomez
        • PANTOUM OF THE MEAT by Ouita Rogers
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 1 >
        • HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY by Joanne B. Mulcahy
        • PROTOCOL NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE by Kenneth Hanes
        • LESS' MORE by TWIXT
        • POINTLESS MR. PROBST by Beatriz Seelaender
    • ARCHIVES: VOLUME 2 >
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 4 >
        • SYLVAN PASSAGES by Dan Wood
        • SISTER ALONE by Janet M Powers
        • CENTURY 2.1 by Alan Flurry
        • CLAIMED BY THE SEA by Sam Reese
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 3 >
        • CROSSHATCHING by M.K. Rainey
        • LULLABY by Barbara Daddino
        • HOUSEMOUTH (and other poems) by Anhvu Buchanan and Brent Piller
        • THE RESIDUE IN PUBLIC TEA AND COFFEE CUPS by V.B. Borjen
        • SYZYGY (and other poems) by Malorie Seeley-Sherwood
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 2 >
        • DRAGONFLIES: A DISCOURSE ON ANXIETY by Lara Lillibridge
        • AND RICHARD BURBAGE ALSO HAD A SISTER by Freya Shipley
        • THE WATCHERS by M.K. Rainey
        • JAZZ INTERACTION WITH SYMBOLS by Sarah T.
        • SPIDER (and other poems) by Natalie Crick
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 1 >
        • ECHOES by Daniel Freeman
        • MAPS by Susan Brennan
        • EDGAR'S FATHER'S MAGIC WORDS by JWM Morgan
        • LOCKJAW: IN TWO ACTS by James Blevins
        • WHAT THE LIVING DO by Susan Wadds
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        • WORLD PEACE 3 by Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca
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        • THE LAST ALLUSIONIST by Sakina B. Fakhri
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        • BRASS TYRANT AND THE AMERICAN THIRST by Kirk Marshall
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        • THE TRIALS OF TOBIT by Joseph Lisowski
        • LIKE MANY GIANT FOOTPRINTS (and other poems) by William Doreski
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        • LAWTON, OKLAHOMA by Mark Lawley
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        • ON POETRY AND PROSE by Sakina B. Fakhri
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        • TWO MICE IN A BLACK BOX & THE DECONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE by Sakina B. Fakhri
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        • CHARACTER SKETCHES by Diana McClure
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Back to AZURE (Volume 6, Issue 4)

What to Expect of Life

By Steven G. Kellman
Picture

I'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly
I'm gonna make it to heaven
Baby, remember my name!                                                                                                                                                     
                          - Irene Cara       

Birth activates an inexorable timing mechanism. According to demographers, the buzzer for a child born in the United States today will go off in 78.5 years. That is a significantly longer interval than for Neanderthals, who clocked out at 22.9 years, so that, according to the Constitution, no Neanderthal could legally serve as president of the United States. But a contemporary American has barely enough time to walk the Appalachian Trail, master the oboe, or learn Norwegian before everything comes to a crashing halt. Longevity is of course more complicated than one simple number; it varies by region, race, income, sex, and education. Wars, mass shootings, and pandemics can skew statistical predictions. So, some say, can fasting, practicing yoga, and quaffing one’s own urine.
            Life insurance is an actuarial gamble. It would have been an injudicious bet for Jeanne Calment (1875-1997) to pay premiums on a policy no beneficiary could collect from before she died at 122 years 164 days. All men – and women – are, sooner or later, mortal, even Methuselah, whose pull date is listed in Genesis as 969 years. Even Galapagos tortoises eventually expire, after 175 years. But Greek gods and their consorts are another matter. When Eos, the goddess of dawn, pleaded with Zeus to grant her lover Tithonus, a prince of Troy, eternal life, she neglected to request exemption from aging. So, like the struldbruggs that Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver encounters on the island of Luggnagg, Tithonus lives on and on and on, but he wastes away until Eos takes pity and transforms him into a cicada. Perhaps a more accurate translation would be cockroach, the pest that never dies. Who would want to pad on years of pain and misery?
            In English-speaking countries, the term of art for studying longevity is “life expectancy.” The German, Lebenserwartung, is roughly the same. However, in countries in which Romance languages are spoken, the interval between birth and death is more a matter of aspiration than anticipation. The French call it “Espérance de vie humaine,” the Italians “Speranza de vida,” and the Spanish “Esperanza de vida” – all signifying hope, not expectation, for life. Caught between espérance and expectancy, a stoic hopes for the best while expecting the worst.
            In The Arabian Nights, Aladdin rubs a lamp, freeing a genie who grants him three wishes. In the many versions of the tale, rarely does Aladdin ask for long life, rather than more immediate and practical things. In the 1992 Disney version, Aladdin’s three wishes are: to be a prince, to be saved from drowning, and to free the genie from his lamp. Rarely do we direct our hopes and expectations toward longevity. It is more natural to hope for fame, fortune, love, happiness, and wisdom than to live 122 years 164 days. It is also natural to expect failure in seeking any of those.
            In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1965 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, Doris Day sits down at a piano and belts out what became her signature song: “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).” “Will I be pretty” she asks. “Will I be rich?” She expresses no curiosity about the length of her life. The refrain replies – in bungled Spanish – with the fatalistic response: “Que sera, sera./ Whatever will be, will be./ The future’s not ours to see./ Que sera, sera./ What will be, will be.” The flat refusal to prognosticate begs many epistemological questions, but it is notable that the sorts of expectations it singles out to discourage are matters of appearance and affluence. Longevity is ignored. “Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed,” observed Alexander Pope in a letter to John Gay. But since expectation is the engine of enterprise, a life totally devoid of anticipation is a comatose vegetation.  
            As the eldest son of Queen Victoria, Edward II grew up expecting to become King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions and Emperor of India. What he could not have expected was the fact that his mother would reign for an unprecedented sixty-three years, allowing him only nine years on the throne before his own death. But the expectation of becoming the monarch, like the expectation of becoming a shepherd or a shrimper, shapes the entire life. So does wishing to become a movie star or an astronaut. Espérance is what we dream of; expectation is what we will settle for.
            The World Health Organization publishes global rankings of life expectancy from birth, and it surely enhances Japanese national pride to know that Japan is currently at the top, with an average of 84.3 years. An epidemic of gun violence and obesity places the United States far down on the list, at number 40 – below its neighbor Canada, at number 15, though not quite as far as Lesotho, which, at number 183, averages 50.7 years. However, transnational comparisons are somewhat misleading, since infant mortality is factored into the averages, and babies tend to die at higher rates in less industrialized nations. A pregnant woman is said to be expecting, but in many poorer societies stillbirth or early death has often been a common expectation. Nevertheless, a child who manages to survive the first five years in Ghana, where an average of 46.2 children out of 1,000 do not make it to six, might live almost as long as someone in Belgium, where the child mortality rate is 3.4 out of 1,000.
            The same consideration applies to cross-historical comparisons. The life expectancy from birth in ancient Rome is usually estimated at 30 years. However, though there are no centenarians among the most eminent Romans, many died at ages not uncommon among modern citizens of prosperous democracies. Cicero would have lived beyond his 63 years if he had not been murdered, while Augustus lived to 75, Livy to 74, Quintilian to 65, and Seneca the Elder to 92.
            The Latin term for life expectancy, vitae probabilitas, expresses a statistical conception, as if quantitative measurements define life. Might we either expect or hope for some quality of life beyond mere duration? “A long life without wisdom is worse than a short life with it,” proclaimed medieval poet Moses ibn Ezra. But the greatest wisdom might be a recognition of one’s own ignorance. Living well is more desirable than bare endurance, though just what it means to live well is a question that has vexed the lives of philosophers, theologians, physicians, nutritionists, and accountants. Benjamin Franklin advised prudent sleeping patterns as the recipe for becoming “happy, healthy, and wise,” as if insomniacs and slugabeds were disqualified from any state of beatitude. René Descartes invented analytic geometry and much of modern philosophy, but, since he would regularly faire la grasse matinée (make the fat morning), rising from bed after noon, he was apparently not wise enough for Franklin. The Declaration of Independence posits “the pursuit of happiness” as an unalienable right, but the frenetic chasing after happiness guarantees misery. “Call no man happy till he is dead,” warned Aeschylus, though it is doubtful that corpses are happy either.
            Termination is probably unavoidable, but the expiration date might be flexible. The humorist Evan Esar, who lived to 96, was mistaken when he advised: “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” Diet, exercise, and environment surely have some effect on the length of life, and we can do something about them. Dylan Thomas did not have to drink himself into an early grave, at 39. Medical advances in organ transplantation and genetic engineering have boosted expectations about delaying death, perhaps even indefinitely. Researchers have doubled the lives of earthworms by manipulating their genes, holding out hope, if not expectations, for human beings. Could we outlive the ocean quahog scientists named Ming, a clam that, at its death in 2006, at age 507, set the Guinness World Record as the oldest animal in the world?
            ​Shakespeare’s Macbeth likens life not only to “a tale told by an idiot” but also “a brief candle,” and if the flame does not expire, the wax will surely deliquesce. In Sonnet 73, after insisting upon the imminence of his demise, the poet turns to his beloved with the consolation that: “This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,/To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” It is the fragility, transience, and scantiness of our lives that makes us cherish them. If we could expect lives measured not in years or even decades but in centuries, would it all seem boring and banal? The exhortation to seize the day is much less compelling on days that never seem to end. “Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,” wrote Omar Khayyám, “Before we too into the Dust descend.” Dust lacks either hope or expectation, which might be the clearest evidence that we are, instead, animate clay, for an undetermined span of time.  
Steven G. Kellman is a journalist, educator, and scholar. His work has appeared in publications such as The American Scholar, Atlantic Monthly, Bookforum, Huffingtonpost.com, Forward, Southwest Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New York Times Book Review, Georgia Review, The Nation, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Gettsyburg Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

Back to AZURE (Volume 6, Issue 4)
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  • ABOUT
    • Our Literary Aesthetic
    • Staff >
      • Writings by Sakina B. Fakhri
    • Contact Us
    • SUBSCRIBE
  • CONTESTS
  • AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought
    • AZURE Volume 8 >
      • PRACTICAL MEDICAL ADVICE FOR FEMALE SUBJECTS OF THE CAPE COLONY by Karen Jennings
      • PLAN B and others by M.B. McLatchey
      • IDIOSYNCRATIC ICONS: A MANIFESTO by Richard Collins
      • THE DARDANELLES (HERO AND LEANDER AT 60) by Greg Sendi
      • AN APPRECIATION OF THE SCHOLAR, ADALBERT by Vincent Mannings
      • ONE PARTING, YIELDING LINE by M. Ann Reed
      • THE RIVER FISHER'S DAUGHTER by Kirk Marshall
      • BEYOND THE GREAT HORIZON WALL by Kenny Kuhn
      • BLOOM by Michael Gessner
      • SOMETHING, I KNOW NOT WHAT by Ray Corvi
      • OF BUTLERS AND SPIES by Austin Barnes
      • WHAT THE FIRST GOD SPOKE I THINK WAS SUN by Richard Hague
      • SEELENKNARREN by Lorenz Poeschl
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 3 >
      • DECEMBER 25, 2022 by Aletha Irby
      • A SUMMARY OF 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF NASOCARPIA' by Peter Arscott
      • CARRYING CAPACITY by Charles Byrne
      • THE MUNE MONOLOGUES by Thomas Townsley
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 2 >
      • VARIATION ON A THEME & POSE POEM by Norman Minnick
      • THE MAP OF YOUR HANDS UNFOLDS A DOVE by Vikki C.
      • HISTORIES OF THE BEARD by Richard Hague
      • ILLUSTRATED COMMENTS ON THE APOPHATAPATAPHYSICAL METRICS OF COSMIC HUMOR by edo strannikov
    • AZURE Volume 7, Issue 1 >
      • ORANGES by John Moody
      • THE LACONIA by Wendy Webb
      • BREATH OF THE TEXT by Jeremiah Cassar Scalia
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 4 >
      • TO THOSE FOUND DEAD IN CHIMNEYS by R.W. Plym
      • WHAT TO EXPECT OF LIFE by Steven G. Kellman
      • IF IT WERE DRAWN by Jessica Reed
      • BLOOD IN THE ORCHIDS by Amanda Kotch
      • CORNELIUS RADHOPPER by Peter Arscott
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 3 >
      • ANIMAL INHERITANCE by akhir ali
      • THAT DUDE DERRIDA by Daniel Klawitter
      • FLAT-EARTH FRED by Phil Gallos
      • THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SEMICOLON by Orana Loren
      • MY BALDERDASHERY by Eric Paul Shaffer
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 2 >
      • MIRROR by Joshua Kepfer
      • CUE FALLING PIANO by D.C. Weaver
      • ANTON AND THE ECHO by Cristina Otero
      • THAT WHICH WE TRULY DON'T KNOW by JOACHIM GLAGE
      • CONGRATULATIONS by Alan Sincic
    • AZURE Volume 6, Issue 1 >
      • NEVER, NEVER LAND, MY SHIP by Mark Pearce
      • THE SMILE OF MONA LISA by Fatima Ijaz
      • OUROBOROS by Esme Sammons
      • THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA by Margaret D. Stetz
      • SNICKER-SNACK by Bruce Meyer
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 4 >
      • THE OWLET AND THE TURTLE by Greg Sendi
      • BRACTS and other poems by Nathaniel Calhoun
      • ANSWERS TO NON-EXISTENT QUESTIONS and other poems by Kevin Griffith
      • NEVERENDING KNOT by Jodie Dalgleish
      • LEARNING TO WALK by Jodie Dalgleish
      • OVERSOUL by P.S. Lutz
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 3 >
      • MAP OF MEMORY by Jesse Schotter
      • BISMILLAH by Abby Minor
      • MICROMORTS by Veronica Tang
      • LOVE LETTER TO LANGUAGE: AN ABECEDARIAN by Saramanda Swigart
      • IF YOU WERE ALL WATER by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 2 >
      • CONTRA FORMALISME by Leland Seese
      • DRUNKEN MAN ON A BICYCLE by Dan Butterworth
      • WOLF TICKETS THROUGH THE FERAL WINTER by Kirk Marshall
      • SYLVANUS, BARD by Marc Lerner
      • THE LOOKING GLASS OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM by Frank Meola
    • AZURE Volume 5, Issue 1 >
      • INTIMATE THINGS by Laylage Courie
      • A SERIES OF PUNCTUATION by Hajar Hussaini
      • ROT AND GLORIANA by Laurel Miram
      • BLUES ON RED by Elie Doubleday
      • MY FICTION: REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF WORK by Richard Kostelanetz
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 4 >
      • ENDNOTES FOR AN ALLOCUTION by Peter Freund
      • UKEMI (and other poems) by Nicole Vento
      • MEMORANDUM ON DESIRE by Laylage Courie
      • THE HOLYWOOD DEUTERONOMY by Jim Shankman
      • AT THE MAD HATTER-MARCH HARE ART GALLERY (and other poems) by M. Ann Reed
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 3 >
      • THE MACHINE, STOLEN FIRE, and PERFORMANCE by Vivek Narayan
      • FIRST FRUITS by Stephen Massimilla
      • ONCE UPON A TOMORROW-TIME by Christopher Routheut
      • YIELD LIGHT OF WAY by Ken Goodman
      • SEVEN TALES by Sara Streett
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 2 >
      • THE PUNCH-CARD CIPHERS by DF Short
      • SHE WAS THE FIRST TO GIVE A TOAST by Kelli Russell Agodon
      • HABLU L-WARIDI by Jesse Hilson
      • THE KEY TO DREAMS by Sean S. Bentley
      • SOFA, SO GOOD, SORT OF by Remy Ngamije
    • AZURE Volume 4, Issue 1 >
      • STAMPING THE DEAD by Habib Mohana
      • LEGS by A. Joachim Glage
      • I THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX by Heikki Huotari
      • LUŽÁNKY by V.B. Borjen
    • ARCHIVES: VOLUME 3 >
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 4 >
        • TALES UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN by Devon Ortega
        • WAKE UP by JayJay Conrad
        • AMONG THE MEN IS APRIL by Logo Wei
        • SWEET by Melinda Giordano
        • BLACK ROSES by Osamase Ekhator
        • MEET ME TONIGHT ON METAPHOR STREET by Vivek Narayan
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 3 >
        • MENAGE A TROIS, WITH HORSE by Don Dussault
        • THE BLACK by Ben Colandrea
        • BLUE SKY LANGUAGE by Christien Gholson
        • UN DETECTIVE VIEJO by Franco Strong
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 2 >
        • THE CLEANSING by Linda Dennard
        • SHUFFLE by Debbie Fox
        • DID YOU FALL OR RISE FROM THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING? by M. Ann Reed
        • THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE PORNQUEEN by Omar Sabbagh
        • KIGALI MEMORIAL by Carlos Andres Gomez
        • PANTOUM OF THE MEAT by Ouita Rogers
      • AZURE Volume 3, Issue 1 >
        • HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY by Joanne B. Mulcahy
        • PROTOCOL NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE by Kenneth Hanes
        • LESS' MORE by TWIXT
        • POINTLESS MR. PROBST by Beatriz Seelaender
    • ARCHIVES: VOLUME 2 >
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 4 >
        • SYLVAN PASSAGES by Dan Wood
        • SISTER ALONE by Janet M Powers
        • CENTURY 2.1 by Alan Flurry
        • CLAIMED BY THE SEA by Sam Reese
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 3 >
        • CROSSHATCHING by M.K. Rainey
        • LULLABY by Barbara Daddino
        • HOUSEMOUTH (and other poems) by Anhvu Buchanan and Brent Piller
        • THE RESIDUE IN PUBLIC TEA AND COFFEE CUPS by V.B. Borjen
        • SYZYGY (and other poems) by Malorie Seeley-Sherwood
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 2 >
        • DRAGONFLIES: A DISCOURSE ON ANXIETY by Lara Lillibridge
        • AND RICHARD BURBAGE ALSO HAD A SISTER by Freya Shipley
        • THE WATCHERS by M.K. Rainey
        • JAZZ INTERACTION WITH SYMBOLS by Sarah T.
        • SPIDER (and other poems) by Natalie Crick
      • AZURE Volume 2, Issue 1 >
        • ECHOES by Daniel Freeman
        • MAPS by Susan Brennan
        • EDGAR'S FATHER'S MAGIC WORDS by JWM Morgan
        • LOCKJAW: IN TWO ACTS by James Blevins
        • WHAT THE LIVING DO by Susan Wadds
    • Archives: Volume 1 >
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 10 >
        • SUSURROS DE RECURRENCIA by Franco Strong
        • THE OLD MAN by Sarah T.
        • PERMUTATIONS by Laura Cesarco Eglin
        • WORLD PEACE 3 by Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 9 >
        • LITTLE GHOST by Danny Judge
        • THE LAST ALLUSIONIST by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • CHURCH by Diana McClure
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 8 >
        • DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS by Nancy Flynn
        • WHAT I COULDN'T SAY by Erika Ranee & Diana McClure
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 7 >
        • BRASS TYRANT AND THE AMERICAN THIRST by Kirk Marshall
        • LADY KILLER by Monika Viola
        • THE RIBBONS by Ferguson Williams
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 6 >
        • AURELIA: A BALLET IN PROSE (ACT 2 - Part 1) by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • NEW AGE UNCAGED by Frank Light
        • IMMIGRATION/INTEGRATION by Jaret Vadera & Diana McClure
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 5 >
        • THE TRIALS OF TOBIT by Joseph Lisowski
        • LIKE MANY GIANT FOOTPRINTS (and other poems) by William Doreski
        • AURELIA: A BALLET IN PROSE (ACT I) by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 4 >
        • WARDENCLIFF by Barbara Daddino
        • BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY by Reg Darling
        • AURELIA: A BALLET IN PROSE (LIBRETTO) by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 3 >
        • LAWTON, OKLAHOMA by Mark Lawley
        • TWEETY BIRD'S GRACE by Diana McClure
        • CONTAGION AND THE DINNER GUEST by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • ON POETRY AND PROSE by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 2 >
        • TWO MICE IN A BLACK BOX & THE DECONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE by Sakina B. Fakhri
      • AZURE Volume 1, Issue 1 >
        • CHARACTER SKETCHES by Diana McClure
        • SEASONS ON A GRAVESTONE by Sakina B. Fakhri
        • COCKTAIL PARTY by Diana McClure
        • DESUETUDE by Sakina B. Fakhri
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