a year in poetry

November 25, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i would like the word “billionaire”
to have the same negative connotation
as other words that really oughtn’t —
like “bitch” or “cunt”
or even racialized words…
let’s take the social implications
and flip them on their head.

just leaning femme doesn’t make someone
hated

and someone’s race no longer invites
such hatred being
spat

it’s the power usurped or gotten through
inhumane ways
that needs to be a slur
that needs to be a slur
let’s make “billionaire”
a slur
until all mega-rich people
give philanthropically
until their billions are
‘mere’ millions
and
people don’t hope to be one
anymore
[and then maybe their power
in our ‘democracy’/oligarchy
will be
nil]

November 24, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i haven’t done my regularly scheduled morning poetry
in days
because of social times
and busy-ness
and re-discovering art
and then
our poor puppy
having so much gi distress
we’re parents of a newborn
sleeping when she sleeps
and waking the moment she indicates
she may have
another accident

at least i can do things for my kip
like be ready with the wipes when they get back inside
or take one of the overnight outsides
so they can grab a little extra sleep
because at least i can nap during the day
they can’t
even without work
their day is
set
with awake

the puppy and i will nap on the same couch
we’ve been sleeping on for days
and again
even during the daylight
i’ll sleep when she sleeps
and be privy to her stirrings
immediately

November 22, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i think
i was enamored
in the myth of celebrity
that i wanted the concept of me
as an artist
more than i wanted
to make the art
i could make

and now that i’ve turned my whole perspective upside down
and realized that celebrity might be a little [lot] too much for me
i’m so lost in terms of what kind of art i’d want to make

but the art still flows through my blood
and makes a home in my bones,
but do i treat celebrity like a goal
or a disease i’m to avoid?

or

[more likely than not]

do i try to concentrate on my art
and turn my head away from all celebrity
good
and bad
and just live in the art
that’s in my head/heart/body/soul/me

November 21, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

have you ever seen art
that makes you want to
be
a better artist?
that makes you want to
pry yourself open
and create the most honest art you can?
that makes you want to
be vulnerable
be truthful
be fully yourself
through your own art?
and
even though you don’t know necessarily how
you do know
it’s possible
because of someone else’s
great, honest, vulnerable, truthful
art
?

November 18, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

kip and i have been adding
“for the resistance”
to the end of any task we do
because keeping our
queer
mentally ill
trans
asses
alive
is 100% part of the resistance

so we are making bagels
for the resistance
and taking lovely walks
for the resistance
and playing video games
for the resistance
and writing poetry
for the resistance
and loving each other
for the resistance
and loving ourselves
for the resistance

it is resisting everyone who says we don’t belong
on this planet
that clearly holds us close
and loves us
that we do
for the
resistance

November 17, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

my massage therapist’s fingers
find space between my ribs
where before there was resistance
and knots
and no way of going through

and she breathes a sigh of relief
as my body returns to
what it should be
rather than holding all the stress
of the whole world
in my muscles
and knotting up the nerves along with it

and i walk away refreshed
but also, of course, worried —
how long will it take for my body to collapse back
to the shape it’s been in
for nearly a month now?

and will pain ever be a thing
i am
without?