megwrites | Reading

I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison,
Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame.
I lock you in a form that is part music box, part meat
Grinder to separate the song of the bird from the bone.
I lock your persona in a dream-inducing sleeper hold
While your better selves watch from the bleachers.
I make you both gym & crow here. As the crow
You undergo a beautiful catharsis trapped one night
In the shadows of the gym. As the gym, the feel of crow-
Shit dropping to your floors is not unlike the stars
Falling from the pep rally posters on your walls.
I make you a box of darkness with a bird in its heart.
Voltas of acoustics, instinct & metaphor. It is not enough
To love you. It is not enough to want you destroyed.

From American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin page 11

queen_ypolita

I started my day with some parkrun tourism. It turned out to be a bit of a struggle with the strong wind and a right calf that feels a bit tight. So I wasn't expecting a good time, but after the first little bit it wasn't completely awful even if I kept feeling it. And looking at the whole thing in a positive light, it was still my second best time this year. I need to do more stretching and mobility exercises.

After showering and changing I went to the Yorkshire Museum. I really liked the Star Carr exhibition. There was also lots of see in the post-Roman to medieval exhibition but I didn't feel I quite gave it enough of a chance. Afterwards, I did some aimless walking about, had lunch and browsed books. I was prepared to buy a couple of books, but nothing really caught my attention that way. I had sort of planned for shopping this afternoon, but in the end I didn't really fancy it. And after a grey and rather nippy morning it was actually sunnier in the afternoon, even if it still wasn't very warm. Before the sun came out, I overheard somebody talking about the "October weather", and that seemed quite appropriate right then.

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firecat

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/judge-blocks-passport-ban-citing

There’s lots to like in this temporary ruling, but the bit that makes my geeky soul sing is where the judge bases her ruling in part on the ban violating the Paperwork Reduction Act.

torachan

1. Nintendo announced that preorders for the Switch 2 will start on 4/24 and the price will stay the same. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to get one.

2. I had ordered some jeans from Target the other day but have to return them because they don't fit (they discontinued the style of jeans I have been wearing these past few years so now I have to try to find an equivalent), so we were planning to go to Target to return them today, and then last night we watched a video about the new pickle menu items at Popeye's, and there is no Popeye's conveniently nearby but there are two near Targets on the other side of town. So we decided to go to one of those Targets and then get lunch at Popeye's. Sadly they seem to be already out of the fried pickle chips, but Carla did get their pickle brined wings and a pickle lemonade. I just got regular chicken tenders, but they were really delicious. I wish we had a Popeye's or even KFC nearby but the only fast food chicken near us is Chick-fil-A. :( Anyway! Returned the pants, stocked up on cat food, and had a nice lunch. Oh, and Popeye's also right now has strawberries and cream biscuits, which are very tasty.

3. Chloe was being so tolerant of Jasper being near her, and Jasper was being a good boy and not pestering.

torachan

The final days of our trip!

( Last full day and flight home )

atlantablack posting in

poetry

The lullaby I wrote on your throat about the stained
hilt of the knife in my hand begins — Whisper, or snow
will come and make its sadness famous in your mouth.

The why of you a radiant devilfish, the what of you
a fat little soul bluing at the edges.

The surest way to receive a free ram is to tie your son’s hands
behind his back. Offer me a metaphor, God said.
Abraham stretched Isaac out on a rock, Like this?
( Read more... )

From Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod pg. 6

queen_ypolita

After a couple of years when I've been to Finland for Easter, this year I'm spending the Easter weekend somewhere not home, like I've done several other Easter weekends in the past. This time, I chose to come to York, which is both familiar and not. I've been here before to meet up with

trueriver when I lived in Sheffield and she lived in York, I took my parents there when they were visiting me in Sheffield, and I've been there for specific things like concerts at National Centre for Early Music. But on the whole it feels I don't really know it.

Today was mainly about travel. When I was looking for tickets it seemed natural to check LNER first but it either looked like their Easter tickets were not on sale yet or the cheapest advances were already gone. So I checked Grand Central, who I'd never travelled before, and immediately had better options and better prices, so I went for that. And it worked out well on the day.

The hotel I'd booked was meant to re-open after some refurbishment before Easter, but in the end I had a call a couple of weeks ago to say they wanted to move it to a different hotel, not even part of the same "family" as it were. At first I was worried they'd move me somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but a quick check confirmed the location was fine, so I accepted the move. And so far so good.

I hadn't planned anything specific for this afternoon, so I went for a walk on the city walls (for most of the length, not quite all), and did some aimless walking around. I could have stayed out a little longer, except it started raining. At first it was just a few drops here and there, which I didn't mind, but over time it became proper rain and staying out getting wet didn't really appeal any more. I'm hoping tomorrow and Sunday will be better, at least the forecast is suggesting it will be dry.

rydra_wong

Round-up thread from What The Trans?!:

https://bsky.app/profile/whatthetrans.com/post/3lmwvjkupl22c

spiralsheep

- This Is Just To Say I have read the account that was in the ice book, of the ascent of Mount Erebus, and which you were probably saving for next week. Forgive me, it was a ripping yarn, so adventurous and so cold:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/The_Ascent_of_Mount_Erubus

- Friday's Five is loving and giving.

I. Who was your first crush?

I don't think I've ever had a "crush" in the conventional sense, not even on a fictional character, so my first crushing love was probably London Underground, lol. I've never had to commute by tube and have therefore preserved my first love, which I encountered before crushes at gigs. I love the cooperative behaviours of regular tube travellers, and the architecture + art of the stations (and Poems on the Underground), and the well-planned convenience of routes and ticketing, and THAT map, and so much more. Of course, it helps that my first love was a 20th century phenomenon - I might not be so enamoured after decades of intentional Conservative dismantling of public transport. And, let's be honest, wooden escalators were a mind-bending trip into past history even in when I was young. Mornington Crescent!

II. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Yes, both, and neither. I have more love for people than energy for companionable behaviours, but I also enjoy my own company.

III. What is your favourite non-sexual thing you like to do with the love of your life?

Eat, with everyone I love or even like. Almost all human relationships benefit from shared preparation and consumption of sustenance ime (which is an additional reason why health problems impacting on that can be socially and personally devastating).

IV. What is one quirky habit your partner does that either annoys you or makes you grin?

"your partner" o_O

V. Do you believe in monogamous relationships?

I mean, I believe some people choose to make them exist although even then serial monogamy seems to be more common than actual monogamy. I also believe polyandrous relationships exist &c. The whole idea of confining oneself to one all-important relationship at the expense of all others is not a psychologically healthy development imo and smacks of isolation from community to me. I think it's a good idea to raise children in stable environments but it takes a village to raise a child.

VI. So, are y'all crushed introverts/extroverts who like non-sexual things with quirks and believe in only one wife?

torachan

1. We took a longer walk today and went down to Bay Cities Deli to get sandwiches for dinner. It gets super busy at lunch and dinner time, so we went down there mid afternoon, which was definitely the right choice. It wasn't too crowded inside, and we got our sandwiches to bring home for dinner later, and a snack and something to drink while we sat and rested before the walk home. Plenty of tables available outside at that time of day, too.

2. Jasper says, you may kiss the paw.

atlantablack posting in

poetry

Delete the number,
trash the boxes
give the sweaters away.
Stop holding onto things
that do not fit you anymore.
Clutter has many faces.

Forgive them.
They didn’t apologize,
and you’re still mad,
but what I do know is this:
a closed fist
can punch through a wall,
but you can’t fix the hole
until you open your hands.

The past
is one of the few things
more stubborn than we are.
It will not change
and doesn’t care if
you have a better idea
of how the story
should’ve ended.
( Read more... )

from Excuse Me as I Kiss the Sky pg. 119-121

torachan

On Friday we went in to Tokyo in the morning and then decided to go to Disneyland for dinner and spend a few hours there in the evening to enjoy it on a non-rainy day. Tickets are reduced price for evening visits, and the price varies per day, but I think these were about 5000 yen each (~$35) and we could enter from 5pm.

( The electrical parade! )

northlands posting in

poetry

to care this way

by Threa Almontaser

is turning me off. so i take a walk.
plums fall from trees and protest
& i can’t see the colour green
anymore & just last night yo
just last night god went SPLAT
on my window like a fluttery lick
spittle & told me all love starts
in a garden. what am i supposed to do
with that? another friend goes. gone
enough. almost never here. those facetimes
inside me out all year, wishing I could see you
in the hospital. life breaks who doesn’t cry
eventually. one more grave in the middle
of all that green. prayers tangle in my pockets
like earphone wire. i think about the best way
to maneuver my mask & eat, then give up.
i think about the best way to sneak
into the hospital. what about the body
& everything it can’t keep? i’m so over
the garden. i stood at its knee, dressed in
leaves, begging for fruit. learned the only
predator in paradise is me. no eating or being eaten.
bony limbs, broken lungs & growing more
unknown.

rachelmanija

That amazing cover is an extremely accurate drawing of an actual photograph which is reproduced in the book, of a performance piece by Claude Cahun.

Liberated is a graphic novel telling the true story of Claude Cahun, a French Jewish writer and artist born in 1894. Cahun, along with their lover, the photographer and artist Marcel Moore, was active in the Parisian surrealist movement. Later, they resisted the Nazis via a stealth propaganda campaign aimed at occupying Nazi soldiers. They created pamphlets and fliers, and smuggled them into the soldiers' cigarette packs and even pockets! And they did all this while Cahun was chronically ill. Eventually, they were ratted out, arrested, tried, and sentenced to death, but the war ended before the sentence was carried out.

Assigned female at birth, Cahun's life and art interrogated gender, persona, and identity, writing, Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. Marcel Moore was also assigned female at birth, but I'm not sure how Moore identified in terms of gender, or whether the name Marcel Moore was a preferred name or a pseudonym/artist's persona. I think the graphic novel probably doesn't pin this down on purpose, and my guess is that either it wasn't clear at this remove, or it seemed more true to Moore to leave it ambiguous/fluid.

The two of them met at school, fell in love, and traveled Europe together. And just when it started getting socially dicey for them to stay together, social cover fell into their lap when - I am not making this up - Moore's mother married Cahun's father! When they moved to the island of Jersey to escape the Nazis (this only worked for so long) they represented themselves as sisters living together.

The graphic novel is largely told in Cahun's words, with lovely graphic art plus a few of Cahun and Moore's own photographs. It's a quick, moving, inspiring, thought-provoking read, more relevant now than ever.

rydra_wong

Fuck TERF Island, and fuck Rowling gloating over how she bought this. Solidarity forever.

ETA: if anyone wants to rage-donate, off the top of my head here are some ideas:

https://transsafety.network/
https://transkidsdeservebetter.org/
https://transaid.cymru/
https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/london-trans-pride-2025
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/
https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/
https://lgbtiqoutside.org/

torachan

1. Disneyland Pride Nite tickets went on sale this morning! We are going on Wednesday 6/18.

2. We had a nice lunch at DCA today. Nice overcast weather and not too crowded.

3. Gotta love Gemma's judgy face.

torachan

The fifth was Carla's birthday and our first day at DisneySea. We did not do anything that day except Disney, so that will be a separate post on its own.

( 4/5-7 )

torachan

We went down to DCA for lunch today. I think we've now tried everything from the Food and Wine Festival that we wanted to, though we're going again on Sunday to hopefully ride Soarin' Over California one more time before the end of the event.

( Food and Wine Festival )

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a library of souls

reading

Reading

Sonnet 7 by Terrance Hayes

(no subject)

[Tabula Rasa] No Style Please

Judge rules against anti-trans passport ban

Daily Happiness

2025 Japan Trip Part 4 (4/8-9)

Lullaby on Mount Moriah by Traci Brimhall

Away for Easter

UK: trans rights protests across the country this weekend

In which Friday's child is loving and giving

Daily Happiness

A Series of Gentle Reminders by Rudy Francisco

2025 Disneyland Trip #22 (4/4/25) Tokyo Disneyland

(no subject)

Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun, by Kaz Rowe

Sending love and support to all my trans friends (and acquaintances) in the UK right now

Daily Happiness

2025 Japan Trip Part 3 (4/5-7)

2025 Disneyland Trip #27 (4/16/25)

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