Photography and sculpture © Ira Joel Haber

Affliction

The Colonel walked by wearing his newlook of shock and awe.
Everybody saw it and tried not to react but a few gave up trying
and just gaped and stared. Heretofore, in front of the Five and
Dime, at a parking meter, the Colonel would greet you like a
trusted staff officeror a promisingrecruit—you know, hearty
embraces, smart salutes. But now he merely returned your stare
with that look, as though you might be able to tell him what
happened, where he, himself, had marched off to. Oh, the Colonel
was still in there, we were certain of it, still drawing up battle plans
and troop movements. He was just hunkered down inside that
awful look that was tough as concrete, impenetrable as a bunker.

Clark Holtzman lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He performs as Lord Byron with the spoken word jazz band, Program for Jazz.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 230 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS), two Pollock-Krasner grants, two Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grants and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc. in 2017 & 2018 he received the Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA artist-in-residence grant.