Eris

Anarchist, book lover, student, mildly crazy, secular humanist, history nerd, and activist, raised in the nobility, well versed in noble etiquette and decorum, has some problems with modern life, totally up for discussions on anything from politics to who is above who according to which system of medieval hierarchies and what this means for the interactions between them but also fantasy books, Narnia, philosophy and whatever you feel like throwing at me. Yes of course I know my protocol, yes I could help you with it, yes I get pissed when it's misused in movies or books. Now apparently writing poems to vent during school...

[comradeeris]

On marriage, the aristocracy, and homosexuality.

I am just going to toss out a theory here. First of all, of course there are homophobic aristocrats, and of course there are aristocrats who aren't against gay marriage. But if we generalise, couldn't the reason aristocrats are against gay marriage be as simple as them not viewing marriage as for love. If marriage exists for contractual mutual gain, and to provide a legitimate heir, then, no, by that definition gay marriage is impossible. It would also explain why the aristocracy is less opposed to gay relationships than gay marriage, especially in teenagers. Of course it still pisses me off, and I would prefer my parents where entirely supportive of my life, but I think this theory lends some understanding to their insanity and perhaps also my aversion to marriage. I have always disagreed with the modern view of marriage for love, because I don't know all that many people who married entirely for love. I have no idea if this made any sense. But would quite like discussing it with someone, so toss me a dm or start a discussion.

[comradeeris]

Rant about etiquette, and conservatives and a dash of hate for American monarchists

For insisting with their entire hearts that they are proper conservatives, who believe in old values, especially monarchists, especially of the American type, the amount of etiquette and manners I see present is appalling, and I mean, fair enough I am quite a stickler for such things, but even basic politeness seems to be lacking! What are these values you are preaching? So purposeless you deign not live by them. On the note of American monarchists, it is an odd phenomenon, for people who have never grown up with the idea that the highest office in the land isn't just remote but impossible, to desire to make it impossible to common folks, do these monarchists even know the complications of nobility and aristocracy a monarchy brings with it? No they don't, at least most of them never show even a level of politeness I would consider fine in a restaurant, much less when in a meeting with a monarch! Manners are selfless, not selfish, purposefully disrespecting another person's ideals, wishes or opinions is not good manners, and for a conservative espousing the value of the good old days, well, manners must be key...

[comradeeris]

Poem 39

The patriarchy is in my mind

The patriarchy is in my mind, it is deep inside,

It hurts, it burns, it feels so wrong, the patriarchy haunts my life,

I tell myself it isn’t right, I am not wrong, it is my right,

Yet whispers deep from within come, they tell of shame, of fear, of wrongs,

I fight with men and listen then when whispers come, that wasn’t right,

The whispers speak of finesse and grace, of silent voices, conforming ways,

I am not that lady, I walk not in that lady’s trace, yet my mind tells me so,

That if only I was sweet, fine and kind, maybe I at once was right,

And then comes logic cold and harsh, saying, what idiot be you now?

You fight against this order, right? So why is not even your mind on your side?

I don’t know I scream and shout, and feel the shame again, again,

How can I fight when not even my mind is on my side,

It starts a spiral, deep and grey, forever going deeper yet, of saying,

Hey, that wasn’t lady like, hey, your mind ain’t feminist, hey, your mind is judging you,

I sink, I sink, I sink, I know conforming wouldn’t help, no girl can do that which is right,

Society condems her yet, but I can fight, or at least try, to topple the patriarchy,

That lives in my mind.

[comradeeris]

Poem 38

We are all humans

We are all humans here, woman, man, child, black, white, coloured,

We can all fight against oppression, together, unified.

We can all struggle onwards, seeing oppression and fighting it,

But never, never, never, our oppression is nothing to be proud of.

We fight, our together, united struggle, fighting.

We aren’t separate, we are humans, fighting for a better world and equality.

I may not understand the struggles of another group but I can fight for them.

I can stand up and say, their struggle is my struggle, even though I will never know it.

[comradeeris]

Poem 37

COVID-19 is everywhere on the news

The world is changing fast, what we once believed to be an ending is now merely a start.

COVID-19 has come and stayed, it has killed and remained.

It is hard to know what to do or say or plan and act.

When every plan you make depends on a future so black.

Our rights are being taken, at every measure hence, to ensure a future in which we return.

Perhaps I understand, we want not danger for our kind, but to suppress for our safety that which makes survival a life?

Is not so very wise, though I hope that after this, every man and woman knows that art and the outdoors is worth far more than we can afford.

Rent strikes are emerging, people aren’t happy, the fight for domination is starting again, the people are questioning again, why should these rich pricks earn millions on the profits we have made?

COVID-19 is everywhere on the news, it drowns out the violations of democracy and human rights, it covers every outlet with this glob of thick goo avoiding every mention of the failing economic boom.

[comradeeris]

Poem 32

Misandry is my damn right

I hate men, not all men, not men as individuals, but men,

As a group and as a societal construct, your biology doesn’t concern me,

But your upbringing damn well does, because if you are raised to rule,

And expect that power on a silver plate, then I can only hope you have learnt to hide it too,

There are men that are better than most, and men that are worse than most,

But most men I must say I hate, for the scale merely ends with rape,

All those steps before are long, and you can never know how far a man will thread,

It is my right to hate, because who wouldn’t hate their oppressor.

Misandry you scream, yes, dear, misandry, got a problem?

I hate the men that make me fear the night,

I hate the men that make me take another route,

I hate the men that make me feel ever so small and weak,

I hate the patriarchy these men uphold,

I hate the feeling of deep objectification they make me feel,

Misandry is my damn right.

Not as individuals but as a group, I am allowed, I am entitled to hating my oppressors.

Misandry is the only damn way to survive!

[comradeeris]

Okay, for all the hype around this particular poem, I am not surprised, please note that I write poems to deal with panic attacks, they are the height of my emotional instability and wrought with ideas I don't stand by, they are a way for me to vent and handle the memories, I have explained this in previous posts, but whatever.

[comradeeris]

Poem 36

I pretend I don't live in the body of a survivor

I try hiding the pain behind masks of strength, anger and determination,

I try hiding the fact that I am breaking behind even stronger walls,

I am not broken, I do not wake up cold sweat in fright the memories of that night,

They do not haunt me, I don’t need help understanding, I am fine.

I am fighting a war inside and I don’t need help,

I am fighting my demons and trying to pretend, every word doesn’t hurt,

They don’t make images of the worst of crimes flash before my eyes,

I pretend I don’t flinch, I pretend that shiver was just cold,

I pretend that I don’t live in the body of a survivor.

But sometimes it is hard when the world makes it clear, when the words whisper loudly in my damn ear,

It gets harder and harder to pretend I don’t fear, to pretend I left the scene of that crime.

The what ifs haunt me and society too, how can I ever fix society if I am not even whole.

[comradeeris]

Poem 35

Rape doesn't break us

I hate it, I really do, that horrifying rise in panic, that nightmarish pain, that quick fear,

I feel my breath tighten, my nerves tingle, the memories emerge,

I didn't ask for this role, I didn’t ask to be a survivor,

So what if we scream, rape doesn’t break us, it still hurts,

Of course we aren’t less worthy for surviving, but we damn well are broken.

Autonomy is a feeling that is lost just at an attempt,

I can’t imagine how much worse it must feel if it succeeded,

I just know that shrill guilt of what could I have done better.

I just know that feeling of loss, of despair,

I can’t speak for all survivors, and much less all women, but I can scream loud and clear,

I did not emerge that day whole, I didn’t walk out of that kitchen the same girl I walked in,

Rape doesn’t break us, but it did change me.

Rape doesn’t make us stronger, but it damn well lets you fear,

I can’t speak for everyone, but I will never let a man get that near.

I have never felt as powerless with a knife in hand as that damn moment,

I have never felt so useless and guilty over not stopping it earlier as that moment.

I have never felt so disgusted by myself as for letting that man even touch me that night,

I know I am a victim, not the guilty, I know that man was wrong, but damn what could I have done...

[comradeeris]

Poem 34

Sisterhood

Sisterhood is the greatest gift we have,

Every working woman is my sister, for we are all in this large boat,

I know I said working because the woman of the bourgeoisie has nothing at all to do with me.

What unity can I have with a woman that exploits my sisters?

But every working woman is my sister, we are one large family against this world,

Against the patriarchy, against capitalism and against the heteronormative status quo,

My brothers I thank you for being here, but you won’t ever be my sisters,

I thank you for helping and letting us rant, but you will never understand,

That everyday damn pain we feel, that fear that leaves you shaking,

Those memories that come at night,

My sisters understand, sisterhood is all we have after all.

We will fight, I thank thee sisters, I thank thee mothers for all that you have and will do,

Sisterhood is the only way to live right here on this patriarchal earth.

[comradeeris]

Poem 33

We will not be thankful

We will not be thankful for what we have,

Not until 46% of us haven’t been there,

You know what I mean by there, under the body of a man we didn’t consent to having there,

We will not be thankful until our work is worth much much more than his birth,

We will not be thankful until equality means that 56% of women in LO don’t want to but can’t leave their relationship.

We will not be thankful to any man, we are thankful for our sisters and mothers, and their mothers, and their mothers that risked their life and limb in this fight for our rights,

We did not get these rights because of a man, we got them through hard fucking struggle,

We women cut off the ears of prime ministers, won revolutions and died for these rights,

We will not be thankful to any man, because no man gave us our rights, we fought and killed,

For them, we owe it all to our sisters and mothers in this struggle,

And we will not dishonour them by thanking any man for their work!

[comradeeris]

Poem 32

Misandry is my damn right

I hate men, not all men, not men as individuals, but men,

As a group and as a societal construct, your biology doesn’t concern me,

But your upbringing damn well does, because if you are raised to rule,

And expect that power on a silver plate, then I can only hope you have learnt to hide it too,

There are men that are better than most, and men that are worse than most,

But most men I must say I hate, for the scale merely ends with rape,

All those steps before are long, and you can never know how far a man will thread,

It is my right to hate, because who wouldn’t hate their oppressor.

Misandry you scream, yes, dear, misandry, got a problem?

I hate the men that make me fear the night,

I hate the men that make me take another route,

I hate the men that make me feel ever so small and weak,

I hate the patriarchy these men uphold,

I hate the feeling of deep objectification they make me feel,

Misandry is my damn right.

Not as individuals but as a group, I am allowed, I am entitled to hating my oppressors.

Misandry is the only damn way to survive!

[comradeeris]

Poem 31

Returning to the normal world

Tis the day after our day, the day during which even men try,

It cuts, more than most days, because damn we know to regain strength,

To return just hours later to a world that wishes us only dead,

The gravest of injustice, that half the world knows only fear, 

We fight because we what choice have we, 

If we stop we lose it all, just like workers but twice over,

International working women’s day may let us fight,

But it also makes us fear. I hate returning to the normal world.

A normal world that cuts so deep, the pain of womankind is never-ending, deep and inside.

[comradeeris]

Poem 30

This is to all those teachers

Who are you to define what is socially right,

When in the same line you called society’s right, wrong.

You waste the time of your students,

It matters not what society thinks, restraining the learning of your students, is wrong.

Especially for those of us who need that every chance.

For that half of humankind to which the hardest of work is only worth the birth of a man.

You cared only when I, a student you expect to be good did something bad,

When all these boys who will be told to be boys do it you hardly cared.

This is to all the teachers who made us who we are,

Silent, listening, ever kind, ever careful, ever good,

We will rebell, we will break, and when we crack that wall of silence,

First fall the men who were supposed to make us great but only made us theirs.

This is to all the teachers who made us who we are,

To all those teachers that just perpetuated the system.

[comradeeris]

Poem 29

International women's day

International women’s day, we have fought, suffered and died for this day,

International working women’s day, to be precise, for stepped it is in banners red,

A day like all those other days, to fight for life, liberty and bread.

We remember barely, far away a time when this was a resting day.

Watching out across the world, as rights are cut and men unfurled.

We have fought so hard for what we have, we fight yet losing still.

Forever we will fight in fear, or at least at last, until.

Every woman, man and child on equal grounds to life whirled.

[comradeeris]

Poem 28

Women aren't your bloody property

Hippity, hoppity, women are property, joke the teenage boys around me,

I don’t know about you, but slavery isn’t a joking matter to me.

Women are property, what a phrase to think you can utter in civilised society.

But I suppose it makes sense, a father handing over a hand to a man,

The constant question, is your boyfriend, husband, father okay with this?

Society makes women property, it doesn’t make us a fan.

We have changed the laws and the market, we will change the social sphere to bliss.

Women aren’t your bloody property!

We are free, equal, human beings, that is all we ever demanded and wanted.

Women aren’t your property! Even when society makes it seem so fatherly.

[comradeeris]

Poem 27

Women's aspect four

Tired mother, tired wife, tired student, tired child,

Every aspect of thy life is fraught with stress and filled with wild.

Mother, student, worker, wife, in a short mere twenty-four.

It matters not how hard we strive, how well we hide, someone still shouts whore.

Tired mother, stayed up late.

Tired wife, more work, less hate.

Tired student, stress that grates.

Tired child, long since learnt what awaits for the sin of their birth.

These are women's aspects four, and either she be madonna or whore.

[comradeeris]

Poem 26

The working womankind

The new womankind, the working woman kind.

No longer locked and chained to man and house.

What was once the domain of mankind,

Now of both, still keeps a woman as first a spouse.

Working woman has no time, as mother, as worker, and as wife.

The stress hits us far harder, as we remain to take the stress of man, of work, of home.

We have but hours twenty four to fit three lives.

But we no longer have to do it alone.

We work at home, we work at work, we manage every man and child,

But sisters strong and sisters brave have fought until the end of days,

And every step a better one, forward till equality is reconciled.