Journey of a Palimpsestic Historian

Musings of a activist, historian, world traveler, wanderer, partner, friend, aunt, writer, mother, photographer, lover of hugs trying to embrace everything before her.

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

[sapphic-sweety]

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

The Tourist Trap

The earth-tone adobe buildings in the plaza challenge the need for new. Sellers /on blankets like generations before selling their ancestry in turquoise and silver to white tourists who want to enjoy the beauty.

Without ever interacting with the colonial creating presently persisting poverty and inequality. Without understanding that our lifestyles continue to kill the land we stole from them.

We fill better about ourselves as we “help” when really we’ve maintained the status quo amongst the earth tone buildings that remember the world before Manifest Destiny invaded.

2/9/18

[amandamarie105]

Panera Chair

Falling down

neutral shades

float away

always changing

The colors

intermingle and

remind me

that we’re

all different

Falling down

float away

always changing

neutral shades

Just enough

color to

catch my

eye while

remaining bland

Falling down

always changing

neutral shades

float away

2/9/18

[amandamarie105]

Don’t Change

Little girl walking around

one pink cowboy boot and one 

of her mom’s tennis shoes. 

Don’t change sweet child 

always live your truth without 

regards for constructed norms.

Pre-teen boy in an obnoxious green jacket

don’t let the toxic masculinity of 

our world mold you into a boring clone.

Don’t change dear boy

always live your truth without

regards for constructed norms.

Angsty teenaged girl trying to fit in

the world is so large, don't get

stuck in today and fitting in.

Don't change beloved girl

always live your truth without

regards for constructed norms.

2/9/18

[amandamarie105]

Inspiration

Blue face on the fence

watching me work

wondering why I keep stopping

to stare at him.

I’ve gendered him based on 

social norms that I fight

but are continually attempting 

to tie themselves to me

so I can never break through.

The blue face on a fence 

speaks to me, probably because 

I think that even I could

create him, of course, the deeply

seated need to not get in trouble

ensures I would never attempt

anything like this. Still, I wonder

about his creator. Why here in the drive-thru line 

where I’ve never noticed him before

The blue face on the fence

calls to me, begging my secrets

pulling the words out of me.

What do you want to know blue 

face?  That I am lost professionally?

That I am bombarded by offensive language 

every day by “good” people?  That I 

am weary of fake allies? That I have 

no idea what I am doing as a parent?

What do you want blue face on the 

fence? What do I have to share to 

get you to back away and let me 

settle back into my hard fought peace?  

I still feel like I am on the margins even

though I am not, but its hard

to get past a lifetime of being

somewhere in the middle to challenge

the best and actually occupy that space.

The blue face on the fence has 

broken through years of blockage. 

I’ve written more in ten minutes 

about him than I have since the trauma of

childbirth--which I would 

give about anything to go through

again at this point. Thank you blue face on 

the fence who knows your creators 

intentions, but I am sure it wasn’t this.

#poetry #inspiration #blueface #streetart #findingthemust

2/9/18

[amandamarie105]

[amandamarie105]

How I know Oppression Exists

When a presidential candidate discusses their right to touch women inappropriately it is “locker room talk”.

When women challenge that discussion as misogynistic, they are being overly sensitive and creating a false problem

 When a white male shoots up a school or a movie theater he is psychologically ill.              

When a brown male is shot by a white man or a police officer he is at fault for wearing a hoodie, for not stopping, for stopping, for being.

 When a white man challenges the government’s sovereignty by stealing American land, he is a hero; the government backs down.

When indigenous people fight for their land to not be drilled and risking the contamination of water, they are illegal squatters who the government (the same that has broken every single treaty) sprays freezing water at.

 1600s white people leave Europe for a better chance at life “Yeah! Great American history!”

2000s Brown people leave their homes for a better chance at life, “They are a threat to all we believe in and will ruin our country”

When a county’s citizens continually tout their freedom of religion and how a war is being waged on their country even though all religious holidays are connected to their beliefs and 99% of all elected officials share their beliefs

A Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu, A Buddhist suggests that they should have equal protection under the same laws, “There is a war against Christianity”

A man must be married to a woman because only they can procreate.  But thousands of kids are in foster care the the straight divorce rate is over 50%.

An LGBTQ family dares to exist and suddenly we are in a morally decaying society and they are coming after our children to convert them.

When a wealthy family has passed on their wealth for generations and believes if they could do it others should be able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” (even though they likely haven’t ever had to actually work).

But a poor person works 3 jobs, never getting ahead and begins to challenge the system and argue that they need some support.  LAZY.

So go ahead.  Please whine about how the brown people, the women, the poor people, the immigrants, the non-Christians, the LGBTQ community are ruining your country, but remember, while you are working at dividing and conquering, there are more of us than you.

[amandamarie105]

some thoughts MLK day 2017

They try to co-opt your being

To make you less dangerous

To suggest they know who you were

Because they have whitewashed you.

 Angry white people yelling

about how we are misinterpreting

his words. Using his “beliefs” to

scold those he aimed to liberate

 They say you argued for a colorblind

World, but clearly haven’t read

Any of your writings or looked

Though any historical documents

 They grab one line out of context

And pervert it to suggest that He

Would somehow be offended by

People rising up and demanding equality.

 Because we fight in a way that

Offends you, you work to undermine

Our movements. As if there is only

One way to fight for your rights.

 You want us to bow down and prostrate

Peacefully until you deem us ready

To have these rights bestowed on us.

The oppressor never gives up

 So we rise and challenge your

Bullshit whitewashing and oversimplification

Of history and movements,

Because you are still killing brown bodies.

[amandamarie105]

#twins #likefatherlikedaughter #plaid #snowday

[wordsnquotes]

Don’t be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value.

Arthur Miller (via wordsnquotes)