Facing Casual Racism: A Sales Associate's Reflection

Explore a poignant story of race and identity in retail, as a young white sales associate confronts casual racism in the workplace.

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
The World was moving and she was right there with it and she was— by Victoria Nordlund

The World was moving and she was right there with it and she was— here in Bridgeport at the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater right behind the 7 ft man at the David Byrne concert & he was the on…

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Not My Circus by Mary Whitlow

Not My Circus I was raised on shouting, learned early to read a room by the angle of a slammed door, how to live at the edge of someone else’s storm. I grew up a specialist in everybody’s business,…

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Tips by Mark Williams

Tips He thought it would be quiet in the corner, that we could talk, away from all the talk, the laughter, the music closer to the bar. He knew his voice had weakened. It’s the ozone or the pollen …

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Summer, 2004 by Mark Smeltzer

Summer, 2004 I spent that year obsessing Over my first birthday With two digits in it. I told myself that ten Is a long time to be alive. When things get big enough They earn labels like decades. I…

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Memorabilia by Michael T. Young

Memorabilia I was washing dishes for the move. It was the end of a friendship, so we had to leave the apartment and define our differences in new places. My hand was inside the glass, scrubbing the…

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Poem to the Future by Kelli Russell Agodon

Poem to the Future Future, if you stop by, I promise to open the door. I know sometimes you arrive in combat boots, laces braided with bombs and drones, even the way you cuff your jeans feels like …

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Popsicle by Jennifer L. Freed

Popsicle When my mother in her hospital bed began moving, mumbling, when it seemed she might live after all, the nurses reattached her tubes and lines, and the doctors returned, gave orders, made n…

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Someone Saved My Life by Magin LaSov Gregg

Someone Saved My Life Nightfall, Cori and I drove from Maryland to Mississippi, listening the whole way to Elton John, past yawning Virginia farmland & Georgia’s red clay hills headlong into Al…

ONE ART: a journal of poetry
At Home in the Body by Robbi Nester

At Home in the Body My cousin is a dancer, while I have always lived too much in my mind. When I visited, she dragged me to a belly-dancing lesson. In the dim light, women in clouds of scented oil …

ONE ART: a journal of poetry