@better-name-for-rp-blog

“Life is short, right? We both know that. Well, what if you’re my chance? What if you are the thing that’s actually going to make me happiest?” - Jojo Moyes, After You

“A Simple Thesis Poem”

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The age old question

To make a better life for zirself?

Did zir walk or perhaps run away from the flames that were on the other side?

We never talk about what zir found on the other side, thoroughly

Did this chicken find a message in a bottle telling them it will all be okay?

Or a worn down album from Sting and The Police?

Zir may stop to pick up the classic vinyl if zir found it laying on the busted sidewalk to listen to the poetry in their lyrics

The chicken makes it across the road

To pick up the record

To realize there is no record player to properly enjoy their poetry

Finding an old Gatorade bottle

The flavor Fierce Grape

Maybe purchased at Trader Joes

The Mecca of grocery stores

Thoughts of childhood soccer games

Slightly dramatic

And traumatic running through their brain waves

Zirs thirst no longer quenched

Remembering to be kind to the earth that continues to hold zirself up day and night

Throwing it away in the waste basket adjacent to where they found that fiercely delicious poetry created by the Police

That does not sting

Zir notices a couple holding hands

Within one block their hand lock changes several times

Are they trying to find comfort in how they show affection?

Can they not comfortably hold hands because their love has become less delicious?

Did their love get too close to the sun like Icarus’s wings?

Will their love melt back into each other or into other’s hearts?

We will never know the answers to all these questions

We will never know why the chicken truly crossed the road

What we do know is this

Zir chicken struts across the road to pen poetry for zirself

Zir chooses to share their poetry with everyone else

In time

On zir terms

Not to impress

Or be cohesive

Simply to get through another day

Deciphering messages found in other’s poetry and empty Gatorade bottles…(Panku)

© Elizabeth Sophia Strauss

NASA releases the clearest images of Neptune’s rings in over 30 years

“You will never have to question my loyalty.”

— Unknown

“I hope you find someone you can’t live without. I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it’s like to have to try and live without them.”

— Kiera Cass

Random Conversation Starters

“So it’s not like I actually want a snake, but more like I want a snake jus tbecause I don’t seem like the type of person that would have one.”

“Excuse you, I am great at being a third wheel.”

“What if he thinks of you as more than a friend?”

“We’re pretty sure she’s dead at this point but then she sits up and demands that we bring her a man.”

“Do you … do you ever think about what kind of weird roommate stories you would tell but you can’t think of any and you realize that it’s because you’re the weird roommate?”

“I don’t particularly care for cake.”

“So I was looking at conspiracy theories on the internet because, well, you know, and it turns out the middle ages might not even exist! I’m in the middle of reading a paper on it.”

“Who would I have a hickey from??”

“Y’all better hope I never pass out and need an IV. I will freak out if I wake up with something sticking in my arm.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa – someone’s in here!”

“You have to ask him because if I ask him, then he’d be going as my friend but if you ask him then he’d be going as your friend.”

“I’m only a little awkward sometimes.”

“Okay, but how do I tell him I like him without telling him I like him??”

“I don’t know how to describe it, but I just feel like your soul is like UUUUGGGHHHHHHHHHH.”

“Hi, yeah, I don’t like you. I mean I do, but just as friend. Will you please just chill so we can hang out again? Thanks.”

“You can try it but realistically speaking probably not.”

“It is not a hickey! It’s one of those airbrush tattoo things. I realize now that the placement and color may have been a mistake.”

“Well, first I’d have to wax my arm.”

“Mom, don’t worry, I have never done the sex or had the drugs or made the fun.”

“He told me I looked like a unicorn today and it made my heart so happy.”

“Don’t worry. I only cried a little.”

“No, I don’t wanna be her stupid boyfriend! But I don’t want anyone else to either.”

“It was then that I realized my mistake.”

“I’m not naming my child triangle!”

“The other one’s even harrier!”

“Technically it wasn’t on fire.”

“Listen - no listen. I want you to understand this. I do not care.”

“Wait, were you just like, flirting with me?”

“What the heck is a nougat?”

“Only thirty percent of all my jokes are dad jokes. The rest are memes and dark humor.”

“Which Dairy Queen story do you wanna hear first?”

“I’d better be getting a godchild out of this.”

“That’s not the only door you’ve broken.”

“I’ve averaged 1 & 1/2 meals for the past 3 days.”

“That’s the worst idea I’ve ever head. Let’s do it.”

“You guys are so cute. It’s disgusting.”

In honor of International Womens Day, here is a thread of women of color, queer women of color and trans women of color who deserve to be celebrated today for their accomplishments:

Up first: Sylvia Rivera who is a Latina trans activist, helped create STAR with Marsha P Johnson. She was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. She is a pioneer of trans rights!! ❤️

Bisexual Mexican artist Frida Kahlo spoke out about being disabled after a bus accident. Her self-portraits comment on the female form and utilize traditional Mexican themes and colors!

Kara Walker is a Black artist who creates these very powerful silhouettes highlighting race and scenerios of our past in slavery. She creates many other works as well, but those are my personal favorite. I’ve seen them in person!

Katherine Johnson who is represented in the movie “Hidden Figures”, calculated the precise trajectories that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969. She was a very talented mathematician. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Malala Yousafzai is a prominent figure in our world. Every day she fights to ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education. She is also the youngest Nobel Prize recipient. Even after the gunman incident, her voice never stayed quiet.

Rosa Parks of course. She was a leader in the local NAACP and the civil rights movement, iconically refused to give up her seat. Her willingness to disobey the rule helped to spark the Montgomery boycott and other efforts to end segregation in America.

Marsha P. (“Pay it No Mind”) Johnson was another pioneer in the trans movement. She helped created STAR with Sylvia Rivera. She was a drag queen, sex worker, and while her gender identity remains questioned in discourse, a lot of trans people claim her as one of their own.

Cecilia Chung, an Asian trans woman living with HIV, has spent her life fighting to end discrimination, stigma and violence across marginalized communities first as the former chair of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

Of course Michelle Obama!! She has focused on social issues like education and healthy living. She was deeply committed to the well-being of our nation and to the future of its people, especially its children.

One more: Patsy Takemoto Mink devoted her life to advocating for gender equality and educational reform. She is the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives. Title IX owes its existence largely to her efforts. So thank you to all of these amazing, intelligent, passionate, beautiful, inspiring women throughout history who are fucking badass. I just had to shed some appreciation to them for changing the world and resonating with me to continue follow in my great aunt’s activism for people of color.

Happy International Women’s Day to ALL my sisters and I’m with you in solidarity and power!

The conversation I wish we would have

His chest was slick with sweat as I shifted against his side to pull the covers up around myself and finally ask the question that had been burning inside me since we had started sleeping together again.

Afraid to possibly face the rejection in his eyes, I pressed a kiss to his cheek before tucking my face into his neck.

“Who are we to each other?”

The hand that had been lazily trailing up and down my spine faltered. I wished I hadn't asked.

We had been strangers, friends with benefits, lovers, each other’s, estranged for a while, friends again, and now- now I didn't know how to label us. Didn't know if he wanted to label us.

To label us would make things real and complicated and messy.

Another moment is stillness and his hand resumed its path on my back.

“You tell me.”

His answer was a non- answer. An avoidance. A turn around.

“You know what I would like is to be. What I want us to be again.”

I shifted again to lean against his chest so I could meet his eyes now.

“What feels like forever ago, we stood in the kitchen, and I told you I had to say the words at least once.”

His hand tightened around my waist as I ran my hand up his neck to hold his cheek.

“I have to say it again. I need to say it again.”

“Then say it.”

“I love you. I am in love with you.”

“I know.”

iwa likes missionary not only because he gets to see your pretty face, but also because he likes to see your internal struggle as he pushes your legs to your chest, your eyebrows furrowing as you’re torn between telling him it’s ‘too much’ and begging him for more.