[lunchboxpoems]

POEM WITH AN EMBEDDED LINE BY SUSAN COHEN

When the evening newscast leads to despair, when my Facebook feed raises my blood pressure, when I can’t listen to NPR anymore, I turn to the sky, blooming like chicory, its dearth of clouds, its vast blue endlessness. The trees are turning copper, gold, bronze, fired by the October sun, and the bees are going for broke, drunk on fermenting apples. I turn to my skillet, cast iron you can count on, glug some olive oil, sizzle some onions, adding garlic at the end to prevent bitterness. My husband, that sweet man, enters the room, asks what’s for dinner, says it smells good. He could live on garlic and onions slowly turning to gold. The water is boiling, so I throw in some peppers, halved, cored, and seeded, let them bob in the salty water until they’re soft. To the soffrito, I add ground beef, chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, tomato sauce, mashed cannellinis; simmer for a while. Then I stir in more white beans, stuff the hearts of the peppers, drape them with cheese and tuck the pan in the oven’s mouth. Let the terrible politicians practice / their terrible politics. At my kitchen table, all will be fed. I turn the radio to a classical station, maybe Vivaldi. All we have are these moments: the golden trees, the industrious bees, the falling light. Darkness will not overtake us.

BARBARA CROCKER

[sunlight-through-green-leaves]

29/01/2023 week 9

This week as a twenty year old I sprained my ankle and was quarantined for two days. This week as a twenty year old I had friends who care about me so much. I saw coldplay live and cried during the scientist. This week as a twenty year old I spoke to granola on a video call after so long and it was lovely. I also came to terms with the fact that some people are horrible and you don’t have to please everyone. You don’t need everyone to think you’re a good person to BE a good person. And I know I’m a good person. This week as a twenty year old I went to Arab street for dinner with friends and had a blast.

I also spoke to a guy on bumble who did not listen to music???

Anyway, my favourite song was The Scientist by Coldplay

OH AND I GOT TICKETS TO SEE TAYLOR SWIFT

[sunlight-through-green-leaves]

22/01/2024 week 8

This week as a 20 year old, we conquered the first week of the semester. It was pretty wild but I felt tame. I suppose that’s what stability is. Here’s to more of that this sem. I met friends and felt like they loved me, we played scrabble, had lunch and talked about life. This week as a 20 year old, I played my first games in canoe polo and enjoyed every second of it. Everything is so much more fun without pressure, I think my goal this sem is also going to be to take the pressure off. This week we also went out to dinner and a bar and got wine drunk as well as went to a club completely sober (two different nights ofc).

This week, I applied to five new places and my favourite song is tiny moves by bleachers

[counting-stars-gayly]

Luke giving Annabeth his knife for her to fight with VS Percy pretending to give Annabeth his sword so that he can fight in her place. In other words: Luke teaching Annabeth how to look out for herself like no one else will VS Percy showing Annabeth that he’ll always look out for her, no matter what. RICK RIORDAN WHEN I CATCH YOU

[emmanotfunny19]

medusa telling annabeth that they're alike and foreshadowing the parallel in episode 4 is so insane, annabeth was devoted & loyal to athena just like medusa and like medusa she was the one getting punished for somebody else’s impertinence (they both get punished by sea gods) this just shows athena is not a good god, and doesn’t punish men?😭

[inkskinned]

i know we’re both just messing around pretending to be whole but look at me. if the train was coming would you move. if the ground was falling from under your feet would you even notice or would it just be another tuesday for you. if somebody stabbed you could it hurt worse than you already do. what i’m saying is that i love you but i think we both drive over the speed limit when it’s raining. what i’m saying is that i want to hold your hand and i understand about how you sometimes have to sit down in the shower. what i’m saying is that i’m here for you and if the train comes please move.

[inkskinned]

i wrote this 7 years ago, somehow. every day someone else finds it and whispers to me - oh, i understand this. something always turns in the wash of my stomach: i am so, so glad you feel seen. i wish you had no idea what this post was about.

i wrote this while working in a program for new writers. on wednesdays, two of the teachers would be contractually obligated to read our writing aloud to the group of 300+ teens. i had never read my work in public before. i had something like 6k poems and was panicking about it. none of them are good enough. sometimes the train is howling. it is hard, actually, sometimes, even as an adult.

and then i thought - what is one thing i wish i could tell all of them. each of these 300 kids. what did i need to hear, at 16?

i wanted to tell them about the day you wake up, and the sun feels warm finally. i wanted to tell them about carving a life out of soapstone, your hands turning bloody. i wanted to tell them that sometimes yes - it actually does feel easy. i wanted to tell them about weddings and cookie dough and long road trips. about albums of new music and old friends laughing and the sound of snow falling.

you will learn the pattern of the train. you will learn to close your eyes when you hear the engine rumbling. you will learn to let yourself have the grey days in their lily-soft numbness. sometimes it will feel like life is wet paint, and god has smeared your canvas across a sewer grate. sometimes it will be so boring it isn’t even pronounceable - the tenacious, soundless blankness. survival isn’t just ugly nights and wild mornings. it is also the steady, unimportant moments. it is just driving with your seatbelt on. it is calling a friend on the way home. it is burying your face into the fur of your dog.

when i had finished reading this poem aloud, the auditorium was silent for a solid minute. someone stood up to take a picture of where it had been projected onto a screen, and then three more people followed the action, and then - like a bad internet story, people remembered they were supposed to be clapping. kids came up to me after it - thank you for writing that. i think i hear a train coming.

i would write this differently now, i think, but it has been 7 years. i still live by the tracks. i also haven’t picked up a blade in over 10 years. the scars are still there, but these days i only pick up scissors to cut my hair. i know why you can’t tell your mom about it. i know how the numbness slips over everything, a restless horrible cotton. i know how when you dropped the dish, you weren’t crying about the broken glass. i know about feeling like all the roads have closed their exits, that you aren’t supposed to still-be-here - and yet.

i am still here, and still yours, and i haven’t forgotten. what i’m saying is if any hope is calling to you - i know it’s hard, but you have to listen. i’m saying keep driving, but slow down the car. sit down in the shower, i’m not judging you. we can stay in the dark with the good hot water and do nothing but stare. notice the stab wound. make it through another tuesday.

i know what it is like to miss yourself. do what you need to. come home to me. i am writing to you, my past self, from the future. i’ll be waiting for you.

and when the train is coming - please move.

[lelif]

On Love and Community

@princes-heels // ? // @inkskinned // mitski, my love mine all mine//@littlespoonsokka // @boymiffy // @2aminhouston // ? // @theviralwitch // @noodle // @criterioncollectiongirl // @fatsoupy // ? // @mjalti // george saunders, congratulations, by the way// @jb-blunk // @ponchopeligroso // @headspace-hotel // everything, everywhere, all at once(2022) //@cheruib // ? // ? // @tordenvejr

[umfiodeprata]

AI art and humanity

[nateconnolly]

40,000 years ago, early humans painted hands on the wall of a cave. This morning, my baby cousin began finger painting. All of recorded history happened between these two paintings of human hands. The Nazca Lines and the Mona Lisa. The first TransAtlantic flight and the first voyage to the Moon. Humanity invented the wheel, the telescope, and the nuclear bomb. We eradicated wild poliovirus types 2 and 3. We discovered radio waves, dinosaurs, and the laws of thermodynamics. Freedom Riders crossed the South. Hippies burned their draft cards. Countless genocides, scientific advancements, migrations, and rebellions. More than a hundred billion humans lived and died between these two paintings—one on a sheet of paper, and one on the inside of a cave. At the dawn of time, ancient humans stretched out their hands. And this morning, a child reached back. 

[havingapoemwithyou]

the sweetness of dogs by Mary Oliver

[sunlight-through-green-leaves]

how am I supposed to deal with being the second choice for what feels like every single person on this campus?

please give advice. i am trying to not care but i really don’t know how to get there.

[danyllura]

Something I found very interesting about the Barbie movie was the Ken’s mimicking of patriarchy. I’ve seen some comments putting it as a stance of men’s inherent desire to oppress women but would argue it much more reflects the socialization process many young boys experience that encourages them take on misogynistic views. The kens do not resent the Barbie’s. They’ve grown up in a society the Barbie’s run and the adore and love them. I think you could say that reflects the early stages of life for many boys where often the main role models they know are women, their mothers (as they often have a more involved role than fathers) and eventually their teachers, which women still make up the vast majority of early childhood educators.

The Kens also notably lack a sense of brotherhood at the start of the movie. And it isn’t until they’re in the real world our main Ken experiences positive male attention and approval (which is only due to him also being a man). It is that desire for approval from his male peers that initially drives him to believe in patriarchy.

There is of course also the underlying struggle of his unrequited feelings for Barbie, but none of the kens truly resent the Barbies. They don’t actually want them as oppressed servants. Yes they want their attention, but even during kendom we see them happiest on their cheesy guitar playing group date. They begin oppressing Barbie’s not because it’s what they actually want but rather it’s them mimicking the behaviour of men.

And that is why I think it makes such a great ode to the socialization of young boys to be misogynistic. Boys do not have an innate hatred for women, nor is it something they naturally grow into of their own fruition. But rather it’s a patterned of learned behaviours they in most cases initially mimic for the approval of other men or to gain attention, but overtime becomes a very real ideology then adopt and believe in and likely pass on.

[miss-crazy-rose]

“The Barbie movie is anti-men”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

This movie acknowledges that men suffer from loneliness, that patriarchy is detrimental to their mental health (Mattel CEO saying he’s tired and just want to be silly goofy with his buddies, which is sooo valid) and that men struggle to figure who they are outside of their gender role and/or relationship.

The Ken song you all love so much literally leads to the Kens setting aside their rivalry to form a brotherhood and start questioning what they really want and who they really are.

This is the most pro-men movie I have ever seen, you guys are just brainwashed and don’t know how to snap out of it

[joyful-soul-collector]

I've seen a lot of people talking about how Barbie talks about how the patriarchy affects women and how well it does that, so I wanna talk about how Barbie talks about how the patriarchy affects men and how well it does that. Because it does that really well tbh.

At the beginning of the movie, it's made very clear that the Kens are constantly competing with each other, and trying to prove their worth, their Ken-ness, to both the Barbies, and more importantly, to the other Kens. In fact, multiple times through the movie it's shown that Ken seems to find the opinions of other Kens as a motivator for him to do things. He tries to show off to Barbie only after he sees the other Kens saying hi to her. He only starts dancing with Barbie when he sees the other Kens dancing with her. He only goes with her to the Real World after another Ken accuses him of cowardice and he decides to prove him wrong. Barbie says "Ken's not cool!" and Ken responds "He is to me."

This shows so damn well what the patriarchy is like for men. Because for the Kens it's not necessarily about Barbie, it's about what other Kens think of you. Being a man you are constantly, incessantly trying so damn hard to prove to the other men around you that you are a man, the manliest man to ever man, the best Ken to ever Ken. Literally doing backflips trying to prove yourself. And this is before patriarchy is even officially introduced to the story, there's no undertone of power yet, this is just what it's like to be a man around other men. It's toxic masculinity.

And when the patriarchy is introduced, that's increased tenfold. At first it looks like they've banded together to take power, but really they're still competing with each other, they're just doing it differently. Rather than competing to see who can get Barbie to fall in love with them, they're competing to see who can be the manliest, have the manliest stuff, wear the manliest clothes, have the manliest house and decorations.

And then they literally go to war. War is considered one of the few places where it's socially accepted for men to be more emotional, form deep and personal bonds with other men, and that's exactly what happens in the movie. They go to war, and there's an entire song where they bond and learn not to fight with each other anymore.

And that I think is the message from the Kens. For men, the way the patriarchy affects them is it forces constant competition and animosity, even around people that are supposed to be your friends. It makes it impossible to express your feelings unless they're with a romantic partner, and all of this turns you into a pent up ball of emotions with nowhere to go.

Which means that the message is: In order to fix the way the patriarchy oppresses men, men need to learn how to form close bonds with people, especially other men. Because like Barbie said to Ken, he needs to discover who he is without her. Men have learned to lean on women as a crutch, using them to figure out how to Be A Person and express emotions in a healthy way, but this can very quickly turn into a woman feeling like she needs too be his mother and teach him how to do these things. And Ken was 100% doing this, or at least he was trying to throughout the movie. Ken was so desperate for Barbie to be in love with him, not necessarily because he loved her, but because he needed a person he could just exist as himself around. Because he couldn't do that with the other Kens, the only person he could be himself around was Barbie.

And what's so great about the end of the movie is that the Kens did eventually figure out how to form close bonds with each other! They went to war, argued and fought, but by the end of the song they were holding hands, kissing each other on the cheek, telling each other they were enough. Even when Ken is up in the dreamhouse, crying and saying that he looks stupid, all the other Kens start shouting back up to him, saying that he looks cool. And Ken responds by giving one of his new friends his coat, which was clearly very important to him.

What the Kens did, that's what men in the real world need to do. They need to form close bonds with other men and stop competing with each other. Hopefully not by going to war the way the Kens did, Barbie isn't a blueprint for solving the patriarchy lol.

I'd be happy to do it through a song though.

[trashworldblog]

the thing about barbie is that it captures the exact feeling of growing up as a girl. you begin with thinking everything is perfectly pink, that you are perfect, until.

until someone stares at you.

until you compare yourself to others.

until you feel the fear of aging.

until someone assults you.

until someone makes you feel unsafe.

until you notice the horrors of the world around you.

until you want to crawl into a hole where no one will look at you.

until you feel like you can do nothing at all.

and you have to find ways to stop these things. these things that you can not change, and barely influence.

and you think nothing in the world is fixable. you arent fixable.

until you see friends laugh together.

until you have a nice moment with a stranger.

until you look at the beauty of nature.

until you talk about these issues with others.

until you find community.

until you find yourself.

and then the world starts looking a little pinker again.

[thundergrace]

[havingrevelations-deactivated20]

shaking six year old me by the shoulders YOU WERE RIGHT. YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT LOVE AND ABOUT FAIRNESS AND ABOUT SHARING IS CARING. YOU WERE RIGHT. THE ADULTS DON’T KNOW ANY MORE ABOUT TRUTH THAN YOU DO. KEEP BELIEVING IN THE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN. NOTHING IS “JUST THE WAY IT IS”. I AM SORRY THEY EVER CONVINCED YOU TO FEEL SHAME. YOU ARE REAL AND A PART OF THIS WORLD. YOU WERE RIGHT.