30 days of prompts: day 29

& round-up

Happy Monday!

I have many things for you today so, if you’re looking at your email, you’ll want to open this newsletter up in a new tab to get to the end.

---

Day 29: Prompt

Write a how-to poem.

Here are some examples:

• How to Apologize, Ellen Bass

• How to Start Over, Stuart Kestenbaum

• How to Write a Poem in a Time of War, Joy Harjo

• How to Lift Him, Ed Madden

• How to Dismantle a Heart, Rodney Gomez

• How to Make a Crab Cake, January Gill O'Neil

• How to Triumph Like a Girl, Ada Limón

• How to Prepare the Mind for Lightning, Brynn Saito

• How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual, Pamela Spiro Wagner

• How to See Deer, Philip Booth

& one of mine:

• How To

---

Quotations:

(Also known as lines that made me “!!!!!!”)

At the center of the world, / our hands in a blizzard of touch.

-Andres Cerpa

---

What a spectacle, how blood replicates us.

-Saddiq Dzukogi

---

We tatters

of lace and crafters of skyscrapers

are the only animals who can make a fist.

How much simpler if our bodies’ weapons

were separate, obvious as antlers.

-Jessica Jacobs

---

Tonight I am water I am rain I am a clear brook

[…]

I am two hands dissolving death

-Lis Sanchez

---

What do you feel? Come for a moment from the silence of your leaving.

-Peter Streckfus

---

To watch the world, always, is to distort it,

to cast hollow light onto a cave wall.

-Kirk Schlueter

---

You were a body,

breathless & cold

& violeted throat to temple,

the white of your eyes, violet,

violets everywhere like you had become

a summer field overnight, blooming.

-Nikki Zielinski

---

Tweets:

Owl! at the Library 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze

instructor: and what does the green light represent? me: the decadence and futility of the American dream instructor: this is a driver's exam

Rep. Elyza Halpern (CA District 54) @elyzawithawhy

Man, I am NOT cut out for LA. This girl at a party said “I’m a sub” and I said “oh that’s cool did you always wanna work with kids?” and she looked at me HORRIFIED. I THOUGHT SHE MEANT TEACHER. LIKE A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER. THAT’S NOT WHAT SHE MEANT.

lizzy @earlgreyteafan

i was once seeing this guy and he kind of sucked so i was venting and texting my friend about it. i then accidentally sent HIM “peter kind of sucks tbh” instead of texting my friend, so i made a whole blown out meme to defend myself so it looked like a trend

john @mrjohndarby

me: how can I impress your dad? gf: he's really into cars me: ok [later] her dad: nice to meet you me: let's talk about pixar's finest movie

Casey Balsham @CaseyBalsham

Just got excited at a crossword clue that was “cheese lovers” and was like oooooo there’s a name for people like me and the answer was mice

5head @hO__Obi

"paper straws r biodegradable tho" yeah i know they r biodegrading in my drink

Mickey 🔑 @mmiicckkkeeyyy

Yeah 😭

Anna Drezen @annadrezen

All this stuff says "ask your doctor" like I keep a sexy little doctor in a penthouse apartment wrapped in furs waiting for my call

Jake Charles @JacobDCharles

This is such a jaw-dropping line. scientificamerican.com/article/the-sc…

rachel syme @rachsyme

the best thing I’ve done in a while is buying a good ice cream scoop and sugar cones to keep at home and I can make myself a lil’ ice cream for an afternoon walk like I’m a ten year old with five dollars to spend at the Main Street Scoop Shoppe

bitsy von muffling @DoctorPissPants

If anyone wants to send me free stuff this pride month I'd be happy to post stuff like "I never felt comfortable in my body until I put on this cool hat" or whatever

Read Wobblies and Zapatistas @JoshuaPotash

You deserve this good news today

Danny Pellegrino @DannyPellegrino

My Yellowstone

Steven (with a ph) @SJKSalisbury

Having a little nap on the sofa before taking myself up to bed for my main sleep; I call that a snors d'oeuvre.

Sudden Beth @bethdanger

🇬🇧 it's jubilee week! Let's have a thread of our favourite things the Queen has done! I'll start: she negotiated clauses in the equality and diversity act so she wouldn't have to hire "coloured or foreign" workers in the Palace. These clauses remain in place to this day! 🇬🇧

jon drake @DrakeGatsby

[The year 2048] Whoever normalized $700 hoodies needs to be jumped also my house is underwater

Fatinum Jubilee @itsjacksonbbz

We need to make these manipulative tenderqueers scared again. A lot of these girls are terrorising people with no consequences!

Austin Ross @AustinTRoss

when I write another little story about the exact same themes I always write about

Diana @rlycalm

That whole “under socialism we won’t have fun” genre of posts is obvious cop behavior. Real socialists say stuff like “my 29 hot girlfriends and i are gonna turn the citibank building into a commune where we grow weed and throw topless raves every night,” and buddy they mean it

Dan B. @descripticon

Read Wobblies and Zapatistas @JoshuaPotash

Can’t stop thinking about this. Maybe the most horrifying statement about our society I’ve ever seen

bettemidler @BetteMidler

stalin nicole smith ( memorial day era ) @Y2Komrade

this was the entire buttiegieg campaign

J-san Ives @jivebot

Therapist: can we unpack that together? Me: no? I spent several decades packing it up nice and neat

Ryan Ken (they/them) @Ryan_Ken_Acts

“That weapon is for killing people abroad and not for American civilians” is such a wild thing to say on the World Wide Web

Atrios @Atrios

Cops as useless buffoons (not necessarily evil but not good!) was a standard movie/tv trope before the post-9/11 first responder worship bloomed

Anthony Oliveira @meakoopa

i feel like you’re on the threshold of revelation here

elyssa 💄 @vrijomslachtig

i don't think people realize how common incel talking points are among the general population of cis dudes

---

That’s all I have for you today!

& as always, I hope you’ll consider buying some books or art or zines or giving me attention on Instagram. No pressure, though.

See you tomorrow—

-Despy Boutris

Instagram
Twitter
Website
Shop