power

October 5, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i got
a sudden sad
yesterday

appearing out of
[seemingly]
nowhere, bubbling up to my eyes
hot with unexpected tears
all of a sudden
filling
overflowing
dripping down my
sad sad face
as i searched for something
to take the pain even slightly
away

and my kip was there to hold me
[the only thing that ever truly helps]
and jiggle/wiggle me around
to make me laugh some of the tears away

and the puppy was there to nuzzle into my face
and dry up the dripped tears with her fur

and the cat was there
to confuse my sadness away
when she tried to lick the inside of my
recently emptied coffee mug

but later

kip was on the couch
slowly melting to prone
as the weight of the news
read from the phone
crushed them down
gravity invading their bones
until they couldn’t move anymore

and i had used up all my personal stock of
any sort of ‘light at the end of the
fascist
tunnel’ feeling to wipe my eyes
and continue the laundry that needed
to be done,
so i couldn’t be there for my kip
as they had just been there for me
experiencing the same sadness
i had just
felt

this is a horrible timeline

why can’t people
[in power]
just
be
kind?

May 18, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

hiding
or fighting
a fascist dictatorship

a takeover of/from
what once called itself
the paradigm of democracy

and we the people
somehow
voted this power-monger in

[though, with wealth, it’s easy enough
to turn the tides of an election
with tactics on either side
of the line of
voter fraud]

but what do we do
when our numbers mean so little
against media takeovers and social distractions
and virtue signaling and in-fighting?

a revolution is at hand
but the powerful seem to have control
over literally everything

[we’ve been here before —
we, as a species —
perhaps the technology is new,
but i’m certain
i’m certain
the despair and feeling of powerlessness
has all happened
and will all happen
again
and again
and again and again and again
because humans hunger for power
almost as much as they hunger for community

it’s just
will we learn
from our past

or not?]

May 10, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

whenever folks have asked me, lately,
how i’m doing
[as a regular “good morning”/“hello again!” introduction]
i always answer honestly
[because i really can’t not
unless i’m in the midst of going somewhere else
and only have the time for the word “fine”]
i’ve been answering
after a pause
“good? i mean, if i’m not thinking about
the state of the world
and our country
and the eroding rights
that no one in power
seems to be stopping,
yeah, i’m actually, surprisingly, doing well.
but, you know, the minute i think about
anything outside of myself
i fall apart”

and the folks who have asked me
nod in agreement
then sigh and shake their heads in disgust
and we begin a dialogue
about all the terror
located in our nations capital
[and all over]

and while this hostile government takeover/
overt turn into fascism
is actively terrifying and illegal and immoral
it is making it okay
to talk about government abuses
in the day to day,
and be honest
that we shouldn’t actually
be okay,

so i suppose i’ll give it that.

[strangely, does fascism bring us all in
closer to community
because we actively, finally, see
what we all so desperately need?]

March 31, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

Trans Day of
Visibility
Trans Day of
Being
Trans Day
of Moving
of Growing
of Expanding
of Transcending
all expectations
and irrational rules
that the rulers of our society
deem
“right” only by way of
following
and not questioning
and having our heads down
as lambs in line for slaughter

but our Black Sheep
our Trans Sheep
our Questioning
Querying
Queers
who force others to ask
“Why”
of those usurpers of power
when only faced with the fact of our Existence

and though that scares some into
violence,
Trans Day of
Power
reminds us that
Simply our State of Being is enough
to topple regimes that seem to have been around for ages
[but hundreds of years is nothing
in the grand scheme of our
Existence]

Trans Day of
Millennia
upon Millennia
of our History

Trans Day of
The People

Trans Day of
Reminding Ourselves that when we feel
attacked
and disempowered
and scared
we have All of our
Ancestors
behind us

Trans Day of
Visibility

today might be
a terrifying day
[especially in the u.s. of a.]
to be Visible
to be Trans
when we are the scapegoat
of all that seems to be
the system
breaking

but Trans Day of
Enlightenment
Trans Day
of Knowing
that every
Trans Day
of
Visibility
only makes our Magic
More Apparent

We Are
Sacred

and We Have Always Fought For
Everyone’s
Liberation

February 28, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

Full Economic Blackout.

[will it help?]

it will if We keep this up — end all excess spending
only buy what you need
and even then, try for small businesses —
search out companies you actually want to give your
hard-earned money to

it’s easier some places
and for some people
and much harder for others,
but even online, you can find
smaller companies
and alternates to the big guys —
see if a grocery store near you offers delivery,
for books, bookshop.org,
for audiobooks, libro.fm,
for gifts, try sellers on etsy
[bonus points if you find someone
and they have their own independent store]
use amazon as a search engine
and buy from elsewhere
[also, go ahead and fill up carts
just to abandon them, especially with things
you’d normally buy — huge purchases not bought
they chalk up to error/mistakes,
but smaller/normal-for-you sized carts
are counted
against
them]

so let’s do our best to fuck up the big guys
who are ruining the environment
and ruining employees’ lives
in the tiny ways We can
because enough small mosquitos can cause issues to giants

so let’s spend our money in places
We want our money spent,
and call/email/write/fax our representatives
when We can’t seem to crawl out from under this
humungous, oligarchical thumb

We
The Fucking
People

September 17, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

no one
can know everyone
and all we can get is a general vibe
of the wants and desires of a majroity

but when will the majority default to kindness?

and when will those in power listen to the majority anyway?