Truly, one of the greatest evocative and provocative living contemporary artists, Survivance/resistance/futurist writers, and performance poets,
Diné artist Demian DinéYazhi’ ingeniously embedded “Free Palestine” in the flickering letters of their powerful, poemic-neon artwork at the Whitney Museum’s Whitney Biennial
we must stop imagining destruction + extraction + deforestation + cages + torture + displacement + surveillance + genocide!
we must stop predicting apocalypses + fascist governments + capitalist hierarchies!
we must pursue + predict + imagine routes toward liberation!
the red-winged black birds brown-headed cowbirds starlings & common grackles are here roosting in old elm and black walnut trees talking, singing by the way, they are not common-looking: their head feathers are a gorgeous iridescent peacock blue of course the Crows are here: they live here
by the way,
i am making a black walnut banana bread with overripened bananas
i can’t not eat these 3 bananas, somehow;
i cannot give them up to compost, or set them out for possums, raccoons this time / i have to eat them, use them, myself — right this minute
i insist //
have you seen the children’s rib cages, eye sockets, skulls, their femurs
i saw the same emaciation, wasting of my friend’s body / stage 4 metastatic cancer / it was my first time seeing starvation up close and personal
what a strange modern creature she is wholly without ambition this is not to say, without competition or without any temptation to unfollow her path
she became so perplexingly contented, in her own self, so grounded in herself, nearly buried
that she simply forgot she was actually vulnerable, alive and living
there were times — few, when others, almost always men, offered or lured her with a temporary or false loft, telling her things about herself she already knew
validation is one helluva drug
and she had emanated a buoyancy, a life raft for lost souls, for arrested seekers / this was a maiden’s heel in her, that she despised // she, latching onto their empty breast, for some external re-nourishment but they were hollowed out and filled in with ego, lies or greed
wholly devoid of the rich blood of life, their milk — bland, defective or impotent
while allowing their needy suckle to drain and diminish her life force ////
Israeli Occupation Forces fired upon starving people assembled for food and aid distribution; they killed more than 100 human beings and wounded more than 1000 human beings
i feel like i should have started my heirloom tomato and chiltepin seeds on New Year’s Eve, but i haven’t even ordered or sorted seeds yet;
that I should’ve picked up a bottle of mineral facial sunscreen and given myself a pedicure yesterday;
that the swimsuits overwhelming retail spaces are not for spring breakers and resort goers but for anyone headed to North Avenue Beach in Chicago or Silver Beach in Michigan today;
and that i wish i didn’t know that the Thwaites Glacier is hanging on by fewer and weaker pinning points;
do you respect or even revere military service? i know many of you certainly do/
“25 years old Aaron Bushnell has succumbed to his injuries after self-immolation outside the gates of Israeli embassy in the settler colonial U.S. capital, Washington D.C. Bushnell live-streamed a Twitch video stating, “I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest but, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” He then poured unidentifiable liquid upon himself and set himself on fire as he repeatedly screamed, “Free Palestine”!
In typical fashion, Western media and pro-genocide human filth have taken it upon themselves to condemn, ridicule, joke, ignore, and manipulate the action and character of Bushnell. Remarking with vile and inhumane disregard for his actions instead of examining and reflecting on what drove Bushnell to this extreme form of protest. Let us not lose sight of our humanity as politicians and warmongering cowards steer humanity closer and closer toward authoritarian control and collective madness.
Let this moment remind us of why we must speak up and continue fighting for Palestinian Liberation and decolonization of all colonized peoples. Let it remind us to unite toward continued actions of love and solidarity and survival. Let it remind us that we desperately need one another for the fights ahead and that we must fight with all our might to protect one another as we strive to dismantle unjust and oppressive systems in our bodies, in our families, in our friendships, in our communities, and in this gigantic world.
May Aaron’s friends and family have the space and courage to mourn and the confidence of outside support to rise above the scorn and ridicule of inhumane journalists, media outlets, and brainwashed citizens. May Aaron rest amongst his ancestors and bless this world with clarity, compassion, hope, and rebirth.” — RISE INDIGENOUS
fresh snow, a perfect medium for the long shadows cast by the house & black walnut tree, under the high and full Snow Moon of predawn february 24, 2024
the black flies and ladybugs of these warming winters droves sounds dramatic but dozens, hundreds of each hatching in the southern windows boxelder bugs too not amityville horror-level i know now that was bullshit, no evil entity need exist (save for my kind) all old country houses are nurseries for insecta
gutted the bathroom and found 1000 black walnuts beneath the tub and later, inside the kitchen doorway lintel, a red squirrel’s deep nest, convenient, efficient all old country houses are potential residence for rodentia
absent humans (my kind) abandoned for a year or two, the wild begins to reclaim
and who doesn’t want in, after all?
i did, i wanted in found myself let in, found my own way in — or what does it really matter. i was in.
the many days over 30 years she imagined or wished herself gone she wears like a scarlet letter, better a moss green letter, a french blue one
A for Agony A for Asshole A for “A”, school girl, good girl A for Antigone A for Anam
the tears, wasted and years, squandered tethering her to expectations of men and mothers to shame and insignificance to dumb successes and false failures
“To be neutral, to be passive in a situation is to collaborate with whatever is going on.
You can’t be neutral on a moving train,’ I would tell them. . . . Events are already moving in certain deadly directions, and to be neutral means to accept that.
If you ever wondered what you’d have done during [Transatlantic human trafficking and chattel slavery, Manifest Destiny, The Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, the Wounded Knee Massacre, The Homestead Act, Jim Crow and lynch mobs, the Holocaust, Apartheid, or the Civil Rights Movement] … well, you’re doing it right now.
this morning, i accidentally swiped my cosmetic brush across the 4 toned mineral highlight powder instead of translucent powder — and i now look like a 70s disco queen (especially with bed hair) or Ziggy Stardust (it’s too much to rewash my face and i’m just gonna look like this all day)
and, that i had another Big Dream (Jungian) early this morning before Sun’s rise — it was powerful and unnerving; are you dreaming too? have you had any Big Dreams?
and, that after buying myself 5 (actually 7) houseplant babies for the Ides of February, bringing the total upwards of 50 plants, my house is still not even close to being filled — so how can i be called a “plant lady”?
and that a crow died here and i performed some rites over and left gifts upon, their dear remains;
likely dying during or before the brief, but deep snowdrifts of january 2024
and definitely not by predation; Crows are simply too smart for the local feral cat bird-killers (the only worthwhile information that author Jonathan Franzen ever imparted to me) — and work in groups to warn and defend against hawks and owls;
