Table of Contents

Masthead 2024

Charles Troob, Publisher
Lorne Taichman, Associate Publisher

Prose Editors: Andy Shapiro and Susan Smahl
Prose Readers:
Jill Eldredge Gabriele
Arlyne LeSchack
Carmen Mason
Ira Rubin

Poetry Editors:
 Bill Aarnes and Carmen Mason
Poetry Judges:
Mark Fischweicher
Irene Sax

Letter from the Publishers 2024

Welcome to the 2024 edition of Voices Online, the literary magazine of the Lifelong Peer Learning Program. Earlier editions—going back to 2013—can be found on this web site.

We are happy to present the work of seven poets and sixteen prose writers. Some of this writing has been generated in LP2 study groups and activities. Some of it is the creative work that our members have done on our own. We hope that in future issues even more of our talented members will be represented.

Much thanks to the editors and readers who have helped to make this possible—and, of course, to our contributors!

Charles Troob
Publisher

Lorne Taichman
Associate Publisher

Prose

Tom Ashley, The Carousel
Robert N. Chan, I’m a Congressman, Not a Murderer
Lisa Cristal, The Dune Shacks and the Ocean
Pat Fortunato, The Bike Bitch
Sonya Friedman, Little Red and Grandma Blue
Sonya Friedman, “Waiting for Godot”
Jill Eldredge Gabriele, The “A” Train
Jill Eldredge Gabriele, What’s the Downside
James Gould, Afghanistan Leave
Carmen Mason, Kiku
Judith Meyerowitz, JDawg
Judith Meyerowitz, Sadie
Michael Kessler, Health and Welfare
Mary Padilla, Dispatches
Mary Padilla, Finding the Way
Andrew Shapiro, Two Chapters from My Unpublished Memoir
Susan Smahl, A Hard Rain (A Note on Patti Smith at the Nobel Prize Ceremony)
Susan Smahl, My Night at Rao’s
Lorne Taichman, Cell Soup
Charles Troob, The Continental Baths, 1971
Charles Troob, Metropolitan Diary
Denise Waxman, MacArthur Park

Poetry

Stewart Alter, A Dieter’s Sonnet: (A Shape Poem)
Stewart Alter, Going Beyond
Stewart Alter, Running for President
Stewart Alter, Sometimes
Stewart Alter, Used To
Mark Fischweicher, Boundaries
Mark Fischweicher, Marshland
Mark Fischweicher, plantings
Jonathan Gellman, The Sun and Shadows of Democracy
Carmen Mason, 1984
Mary Padilla, On Staying Afloat
Mary Padilla, Reality
Mary Padilla, Transmission
Mary Padilla, What Is
Mireya Perez Bustillo, Looking East
Mireya Perez Bustillo, Market Day
Mireya Perez Bustillo, The Coney Island Aquarium
Sara Petitt, Sunday Afternoon