three poem day

October 4, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

who would have guessed
i’d become such a dog person:
entering a house and immediately being picked
by the big lab-pit mix
as the one who’d pay the most attention to him
[and him being exactly right]
as i’d kneel down for his face licks
and let him roll around in my lap
as i pet his belly
and squish his puppy face
and pull him around the kitchen
at the end of a tug toy rope
and always answer the call
of more pets
more belly rubs
more playtime
more attention
throughout the evening —
the adults standing and talking
the kids sitting and being entertained
and me and the puppy
rolling around on the floor
content as can be

i should have known from that first rain storm
and how much my heart was still in love with Louka
even as she smelled like wet wet dog
that i was an absolute goner
for the whole canine race

[i adore all animals, but dogs are something special]

~~~

not to be that person
but i can’t let a poem go
about loving animals
without bringing up my first love:
cats

cats of all kinds and colors
cats of all breeds and demeanors
i love the cats who hiss and snarl
and i love the cats who cuddle and curl
and i love the standoffish cats
who give you the time of day for one (1) pet
and then you may never see them again
and i love the needy cats
and the house cats
and the outside cats
and the stray cats
and the cats who act like dogs
and the cats who scream for food at 5 am
and the cats who play nonstop
and the cats who find the best sunspots and just sleep —
they are all great
and i love them all
with all of my heart

[along with all dogs, and all animals, as established in my previous poem]

~~~

it’s very silly to have competing poems
for dogs
vs
for cats
because i’ve spent my whole life loving the ‘underdog’
[which, ironically, is usually cats]
but i can
love them both equally
along with all animals
because i am that person
i am that Wild Magic character
who needs at least two animals around her
in order to sleep a good sleep at night

i wish i could call wild creatures to my bed
and cuddle with deer and raccoons and buffalo and echidnas all
but i am just as happy
having one cat and one puppy
in my bed with me
half on top of me
i really don’t sleep great
unless there is some kind of creature, be it feline, canine
or kip
and definitely the best sleep is with all three

i am an animal person
an animal lover
a lover of all creatures
even creepy crawly ones
even the spiders i’m so terrified of
i still see their reason for being
i wish i could deal with them being in the house
[and some of them, i can
some of them i can]

honestly
and truly
the only species of animals i’m not
1,000% on board with

are humans…

[and even then, half my life is spent
trying to make sure the humans i know and love
are feeling seen and heard and listened to and loved,
so damn, i really do love all this planet’s creatures…

and other planets’…?
i just haven’t met yet!]

September 21, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

as much as i joke
that i hate people

i really do
do a lot of things
to help out
people

and care
so hard
about people

and my life’s purpose seems to be
helping people
healing people
slowly
one by one
conversation by conversation
just making people feel
listened-to
and heard

i hate when other people don’t do what i do
don’t really truly listen

but then, if they all did
i’d have no purpose in this world
would i?

~~~

[but there are too many people
in this world
to heal

and too much to heal
in one conversation

why can’t people just
be
kind?]

~~~

the older i get
the less i look for
fame
and my name
in lights
and other goals i had myself convinced
i needed to make my time
here on this planet
count

those were always a means to an end

the end being healing

the end being feeling listened to

and i can do that better one on one
than with a large fan-base
anyway

so kindness is what i look for
and what i hope to leave
on this planet

i really do intend to leave it
better than i found it

and if that means taking each person i meet
and making them feel
important to me

then that’s good because
they are.

March 9, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

imagination

figments fleeting by

a socked foot slipping past the corner of your eye

an echo of your own voice, continuing on and on and on

and the raptured words of someone you don’t even know
swimming in your
mind

~~~

i suppose i’m doing
exactly
what he invited me to do
[which is pretty cool]

~~~

if i can’t explore
abandoned buildings near me
i can at least explore
the abandoned ruins
of my mind

February 21, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

a video game
a story
we care
but we are prepared
for it to be over
[will it be soon?
or is there far more
yet to come?]

~~~

so excited
to be done with this video game
so we can listen
to the soundtrack
without worrying about
any type of
spoilers

~~~

owowow
says the gestral
and both kip and i are
delighted

February 10, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

ugh
just
ugghhh

~~~

the eyes itch
and the nose sniffs
and the exhaustion hits
and it may just be allergies
it’s probably just allergies
but it still makes me want to
cry for hours or escape into the night
or simply sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep

~~~

i will say
at least my allergist
seemed just as confused
and almost as frustrated
as i am
when he told me
i’m just a big
question mark

January 2, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

down that coffee
chug that water
sprint down the stairs and
get ready for the day ahead
today
today
it will be
a day

[still kind of on
vacay
and spending time with kip
continuing traditions
and making new
and just do it
just get excited
and run run outrun the seasonal
depression
slowly invading your
head]

~~~

how come
this past
holiday season
i was unable to find
any
goddamn
candy canes
[of the candy cane flavor
variety]
?

[i found plenty
of skittles-flavored candy canes
and candy cane flavored
other things
but absolutely
zero
candy cane flavored
candy canes]

where did they all go?

has capitalism forced creativity
beyond our human wants and desires?

probably.

almost
definitely.

[well, at least our ai overlords
can enjoy the absurdity of our
‘ingenuity’
atop our burning bodies
after the world catches on fire
and the only water left
not contributing to coastal flooding
is being fed to them]

~~~

the problem
the problem
the problem is
i know
i know
i know our apocalypse
will be
so
so
so
slow

we won’t see it coming
we won’t acknowledge it here

we’ll just keep hoofing it to work
and buying our bagels
as our eyes slide past
broken infrastructure
and bodies in the street
until we’re about to be the body
and by then
it’ll be
too late
[and another person will walk past you
pretending
everything
everything
everything
is normal]

December 22, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

it feels
so silly to me
how i can only accomplish chores
when i’m actively avoiding
other
chores

[procrasinactivity
procrasticomplishment
can’t do a task? add a new/more time sensitive one
and watch yourself procrastinate that task
with the original one!]

[so much fun…!]

~~~

i can do it
i can do things
i can do scary scary things
i can do things that seem overwhelming
because, in the end
they tend to be
just things
and this is
just life
it’s all ephemeral
and liminal
and temporary

[what lasts may just be
vibes]

~~~

like, i mean, the vibrations you send out into the universe

i totally meant that
when i first
wrote it

November 20, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

evening poems
while william shatner
tells me all the unexplained mysteries
i should care about

but i simply
don’t

~~~

big yawns
and split-up sleep
and hopefully getting
the cat to eat
or take her meds
at least

[almost done with this trip
and i’m so excited to sleep
in my own bed
once again]

~~~

but seeing people has been absolutely lovely —
i wouldn’t exchange that
for anything

[even eight uninterrupted hours]

July 9, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

a family
a train ride
and thousands of sunflowers
in fields rolling past
at 266 km/h

and somehow it all reminds me of
van Gogh’s paintings
and how much i want to become
an impressionist

~~~

i just got so confused
as to why the baby in front of me
wasn’t crying in response to the
baby crying in the next train car over

and then i remembered that babies are not dogs
who bark and howl to be heard by others
of their species…

~~~

this whole trip
is a whirlwind

this whole life
kind of is
too

at least i have a train car
inside which to sit and write
all my silly poems

~~~

every
single
time
another train passes directly by
i
am
startled

~~~

there are
so many more palm trees
than i ever would have expected
in Europe

[i think that’s on me tho,
because climate is a known thing]

~~~

i think
if you’ve seen
any
van Gogh painting
of nature
or landscape

you’ve seen the full spirit of
what these trains speed past

June 22, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

when i think of an elephant, i see giant gentleness, i hear the stomps of their feet and the flapping of their ears, and i feel a sense of peace and safety

~~~

when i think of an elephant, i see mammoth past, i hear calls for connection for the present, i feel uncertainty for a future for them all

~~~

when i think of an elephant, i see a being, i hear a whole herd, i feel the lifetimes of their ancestors and descendants all around me

~~~

rsvp to The Elephant Play here