Patiently Brown 2: A Journal of the Plague Year

For those of us with disabilities and compromised immunity, the coronavirus contagion is loaded with particular fear. Like the elderly, our bodies are already dealing with underlying issues, some of which are already being treated for, and some for which there is no reliable big pharma treatment but sometimes symptomatic help. Over the last six…

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Xanaxocene

A poem about the coronavirus and our changing world

Stardust

in a distant eon, you and i were stars. tumble and spark, ether and eterntity, dust and light, while the world was being born. we were young. fierce and shining like a child’s eyes. in a distant eon, you and i were stars. rock and fire distance and delight. while the world flourished we joined…

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They Don’t Come Easily!

i don’t find these days that poems come easily.  they’re no longer at my beck and call. these days, if i want one, it’s as though, like my arthritic hands, battling the last squeeze of toothpaste, my mind squeezes out a little word or two, some syntax. the world is full of silences those beats…

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Trigger Warning/Not One Less

After the world celebrated and commemorated International Women’s Day on March 8th with so many marches, rallies, gatherings for women’s rights, and so forth, the fact of the matter is that women are being continually violated and killed with impunity. Earlier last summer on the blog in a piece called The Weight of All Our…

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March Mermaids

A visual series celebrating International Women’s Day!

World Social Justice Day

The United Nations has declared February 20th as World Social Justice day. In this era, social justice is like a carrot dangling before humanity while the vast majority of us are being beaten with sticks. So, social justice is an aspirational desire, a desire to remediate the wrongs of past times and current ways of…

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Hey, Bobby Marley!

If Bob Marley (1945-81) were alive today, it is likely that he would be assassinated again, by the U.S. government and its agents. His 79th birthday would be today, February 6th, although he perished at the age of 36, a man in the prime of his music, lyrics, and creativity.  It is fitting he was…

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My Dida’s House

Reading the stories of so many Indian women, I am reminded of this, my only heirloom. I want to tell too, of my hidden memories. My Dida’s house, the noise, the open sewers, the eternal mangy cat with her multi-hued descendants. The ceaseless summer war between cat and human, mosquito and human. The long afternoons…

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The Heart of Winter

We’re in the heart of winter, with dark days, blizzardy conditions occasionally, and slushy, slippery streets. It’s hard to muster up excitement to go for a walk and there’s very little to do if you don’t have loads of money.  It’s even hard to think about my blog or plan what to write about next,…

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I am the truth… as well as you…

This article is a brief and introductory summary of recent political developments in BJP India and some examples of resistance to the Hindu fascist agenda.

A Murder of Crows

On my recent visit to Kolkata, India, I was struck by many things, but one that stands out for me in the wave of pollution that blankets the city, is the harsh cawing of the crows, who proclaim their resilience much like people.  Their ubiquitous presence was a big part of my urban childhood summers…

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A Rapist in Your Way

Today’s piece pays homage– and it must– to the brave women of Chile and around the world who are standing up for their right to be free from sexual and gender-based violence. Currently, Mexico leads the world in murder of women and other forms of sexual violence. The United Nations, whose research wing may be…

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