Being Human Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Pie and Chai Magazine

Critterworld

Steve Watkins July 31, 2023

A Story

First the rumors.

No, Henry’s Meats didn’t come around with their knives to carve steaks from the body. Mutt & Jeff’s Grill didn’t serve elephant-burgers.

Nobody sawed off the feet for umbrella stands. Nobody caught any weird African diseases, no elephantiasis. The little girl from Michigan, the one who got trapped in the car, she might have seen a psychiatrist for a while, but if she did it was back up North, so I don’t see how anybody could have known for sure about that story, true or not.

Tree of Heaven and Hell

Ken McFarland September 1, 2023

The Awful Ailanthus

All Creatures Great and Small

Alison Zak September 1, 2023

“Any foolish boy can stamp on a bug.”*

Off Our Rockers

Mary Batten September 1, 2023

From Lies, Race, and Redemption: A Memoir

As a white Southern woman born in 1937, I grew up in a segregated society of “White only” and “Colored only” signs, separate water fountains, separate bathrooms, separate waiting rooms and schools and churches, separate entrances to the town of Smithfield, Virginia’s one movie theater. “Separate but equal” was the mantra, but it was a lie. You had to be blind, insensitive, and in total denial to believe it. Since I was the privileged color, racism hadn’t threatened my life and stripped me of my humanity, but it had sickened my soul.