I wish for a heart you can see straight through
for a voice that glows in the dark
and a few really good friends to skip moonrocks to. - Andrea Gibson (jellyfish)
Ri Goat is a disabled poet who watches birds from bed.
| on mastodon since | 08-02-2019 |
| pronouns | die/diens, or any gender neutreul pronouns |
| favorite bird | Felicia |
i checked my email, and they send me 4 updates on my order in the not even 24 hours since i ordered.
All 4 found a new unique way to address me:
Beste vitaminefan,
Geachte heer/mevrouw,
Beste Ri Zeg ik liever niet G[oat],
Zeg ik liever niet Ri G[oat],
yesterday i ordered vitamins, like I do every 3 months. In the past I was always forced to misgender myself in exchange for vitamins, but now the website form had updated and I could click on 'zeg ik liever niet (I'd rather not say)' when it asked my gender. (I actually love talking about my lack of gender, but that option was preferable over calling myself male or female.)
Then today I got my vitamins in the mail. And a new middle name!
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.
(written in august 2025)
it's bird chirping time, so I had merlin bird id running, but got distracted so stopped listening myself.
Then glanced at the screen and it said the most recent bird it heard was a peregrine falcon.
I went: nope, bird app, we don't just have rare falcons in the neighbourhood, try again. But then I noticed all the birds were quiet.
It's the last hour before sunset, they're all really chatty at this time.
But complete silent. Then a jackdaw doing a careful caw, then the jackdaws started again.
The sparrows came back into action 2 minutes later, and there's been goose honks, but the sky is still a lot quieter than usual. .
When I paused merlin bird id i noticed it had not just heard the falcon, but also an eagle-owl.
So now I think it's unlikely those were BOTH here, but I guess one of them was and really scared a lot of birds?
Midnight Burger :podcast: