ALT For My Students, After the Election There are still your stories, still stars in the pine trees. There are still children making their way back from school, trying not to step on cracks in the sidewalk, believing it matters. There are still mothers kneeling in the ruins, promising the gunshots aren't coming. There are still fathers alone in the night, the wounds in them like mule-deer in the orchards, trying not to clack their antlers. There is still the heart, the moon. Come, loves, let's stand here after madness. The world is not over, only broken. There are old books, there are horses in the lemon trees. There are children, still, waiting in the classrooms, looking up with tired eyes full of wonder. Look at them. There is work we have to do. —Joseph Fasano

ALT all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones of those who did not make it, those who did not survive to see the confetti fall from the sky, those who did not live to watch the parade roll down the street. I have grown accustomed to a lifetime of aphorisms meant to assuage my fears, pithy sayings meant to convey that everything ends up fine in the end. There is no solace in rearranging language to make a different word tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe does not bend in a direction that will comfort us. Sometimes it bends in ways we don’t expect & there are people who fall off in the process. Please, dear reader, do not say I am hopeless, I believe there is a better future to fight for, I simply accept the possibility that I may not live to see it. I have grown weary of telling myself lies that I might one day begin to believe. We are not all left standing after the war has ended. Some of us have become ghosts by the time the dust has settled.

ALT A timeline infographic titled "The Big Map of Who Lived When?" showing notable historical figures across various fields from 1200 to 2000 CE, categorized by profession and era.

ALT Image of Xanthoria elegans, also known as Rusavskia elegans, commonly known as Sunburst Lichen, growing on a rock. It's bright orange!

ALT Image from the ISS: Looking out of the 'Cupola,' an observation window of the ISS built by the European Space Agency. The dome weighs over 1800kg and is equipped with shutters in case of contact with micrometeorites and debris. PHOTOGRAPH BY PAOLO NESPOLI AND ROLAND MILLER

ALT Young boy approaches mother in the kitchen boy: mom the kids at school say that my family’s only purpose is exposition mom: don’t listen - they’ve said that ever since we moved to this crummy town 3 years ago boy: but mom- mom: we’re outsiders jimmy, only a catastrophic event in which we prove useful could change that

ALT Three pairs of bear ears sticking out of the water.

ALT Facebook post: Why do I love NaNoWriMo? Here's just one of many reasons: my students talk like authors, and they haven't even started writing their novels yet: "In my story, the antagonist..." "No, see, my novel starts out with...: "That character is only in it for a few pages..." "But it has to end this way..." They totally own their stories.