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Occupation Experiments

December 4, 2022/ Joy Arbor

Is t

his a b

it of w

hat it means to be occu

pied? Beauty elsewhere.

A t

rack laid out with a deep groove.

And when you love y

our l

and, no p

lace but in the armies of love or hate.

Choose wisely.

But samud—steadfast.

C

leaving the l

and in two, c

leaving to the l

and.


Not an uncommon

occurrence, but usu

ally Procrustes c

hop(e)s off our ungainly

arms and legs embar

r as

sing p

arts hanging off the edge

but it’s an

other thing to never be al

lowed to g

row in

to y

ourself in the first p

lace. A pl

ant writhes and twists

into the s

pace you give it.

Not a straight proud back to the sky, a stem b

ends here and t

here to snatch at a d

apple of sun.

And you, who k

nows who you’d be

if allowed to a

rise without the sky hemmed in by w

alls.


I don’t w

ant to op

press you by pain

ting you as

no

thing

but victims. Do I dishonor you

by fixing my playground, my toy s

old

iers in this fami

liar pattern?

Or is this t

ruth? To com

bat the belfries

of our minds, the old swerve

to b

lame and point fingers

at you again

st me again

st you. The ene

my of my fri

end is my ene

my and the ene

my of my ene

my is my fri

end is a dead

end.

Joy Arbor Headshot

Joy Arbor is the author of the chapbook Where Are You From, Originally? (Finishing Line Press, 2016). Joy is currently working on a collection exploring the tension between being the granddaughter of a captain in Israel’s War of Independence and a human rights advocate who has traveled to the West Bank and listened to the stories of Palestinians living under Occupation. Poems from the collection have been nominated for Best of the Net, anthologized in A Human Voice, and published in Atlanta Review, Pleiades, Scoundrel Time, and others. She lives in Davis, California with her husband and son. https://joyarbor.net/.

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Genre Archive

  • Creative Nonfiction
  • Essays
  • Fiction
  • Flash Prose
  • Lunch Specials
  • Poetry
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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published the second Friday of every month.

Today’s course:

Glitch Wisdom

May 12, 2023/in Blog / KJ McCoy
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Lessons on Getting Paid: My First Year as a Freelance Writer

April 14, 2023/in Blog / EJ Saunders
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How to Kill a Cat, or How to Prepare for CATastrophe

March 10, 2023/in Blog / Meghan McGuire
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Midnight Snack

Take a bite out of these late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

The Secret Histories of Everywhere

June 2, 2023/in Midnight Snack / Brian Lynn
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Into the Linguistic Rabbit Hole

May 5, 2023/in Midnight Snack / paparouna
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Dancing into Detachment

April 7, 2023/in Midnight Snack / Robert Kirwin
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Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every third Friday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

LitDish: Ten Questions With Isabel Quintero

May 26, 2023/in Amuse-Bouche / Interviewed by Gail Vannelli
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Isabel_Quintero-scaled.jpg 1707 2560 Interviewed by Gail Vannelli https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Interviewed by Gail Vannelli2023-05-26 10:16:252023-05-26 10:16:25LitDish: Ten Questions With Isabel Quintero

Chop Day

May 19, 2023/in Amuse-Bouche / Hannah Felt Garner
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Litdish: Ten Questions With David A. Robertson

April 28, 2023/in Amuse-Bouche / Interviewed by Gail Vannelli
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https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/7722CAC2-6115-409D-A317-A768C6903639.jpeg 2018 2038 Interviewed by Gail Vannelli https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Interviewed by Gail Vannelli2023-04-28 10:13:482023-04-28 10:13:48Litdish: Ten Questions With David A. Robertson

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School Lunch

An occasional Wednesday series dishing up today’s best youth writers.

Today’s slice:

I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

May 12, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Brendan Nurczyk
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A Communal Announcement

April 28, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Isabella Dail
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Seventeen

April 14, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Abigail E. Calimaran
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Word From the Editor

Our contributors are diverse and the topics they share through their art vary, but their work embodies this mission. They explore climate change, family, relationships, poverty, immigration, human rights, gun control, among others topics. Some of these works represent the mission by showing pain or hardship, other times humor or shock, but they all carry in them a vision for a brighter world.

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