Twice a year the system comes to me
presents itself in a mandatory form
and it asks me:
in what ways do you participate in society?
in what ways are you working on participating more?

They mean I should find a job.
Have more money so i can pay more taxes.
If that's too much maybe I can volunteer
help meet all those needs the system doesn't want to pay for.

Dear system
I participate in society
by feeding peanuts to birds
do you see how happy the brds are when i do that?
do you see them then fly away, and spread that joy all around town?

Dear system,
I participate in society
by leaving kind words for all of my friends
who are being crushed by systems
I try to create reasons for hope and reduce loneliness

Dear system,
I participate in society
Whenever I write a poem
I work very hard on making people see both pain and beauty
from an all new perspective

Dear system,
I participate in society
By yelling FUCK YOU
whenever you try to reduce my value
to fit inside a question box.

#Poetri

(written in august 2025)

Not "exercise" as in "shape your body to match the expectation that you must look a certain way."

"Exercise" as in "loving your body & being kind to it by moving in ways that will help you be healthy & feel good in the body that you have."

In the basement there's a crack in the floor
below it you could see dirt
the basement gets one hour of light per day on average
but there's a little plant there
in the crack in the floor
making due

it knows it will never be
a famous tree or an impressive bush
1 stem, 2 leaves, that's it
it's so little, but so much
life is streaming through every cell
celebrating all existance

outside the trees are talking
life has been hard this year, there was a drought
how long until they can't survive?
and the trees say
'if the rain will no longer pour on my leaves
if the sun doesn't dry them
if the bugs don't tickle me when they wake up
i wouldn't want to be here, even if i could still sustain life'

in the basement the little plant dreams
of rainstorms and sunbeams
it knows it will likely never have those
but it knows the value of being alive
all of it wants to grow
if grow is not an option, it wants to stay,
maintain, persist
it can imagine dying
but not imagine wanting to

#PoetRi

I feel deepy the weight of international news right now, and am trying to see beyond it to some more peaceful future. Even here on Mastodon, in what once felt like a quieter space, there is so much hurt, and it's manifesting as angry, cynical or very sad.

I think there needs to be space for softness, and I'm so glad of anything that gives space to this.

This is not avoidance, I am not turning my head away. But I believe a world needs to be built from gentleness, and that it is possible.