A Taste of the Divine

Merry Christmas 🎄

Just reblog this post to enter the giveaway for a chance to win an itch.io key (delivered via dm on tumblr or email, whatever the winner prefers) for the new Winter Solstice mini game!

Going ahead and posting it now so everyone can enter! That way the winners will get their keys promptly when I upload the finalized mini game.

This is one of those non-poem things that are among my favorite poems.

As the OP stated, the use of alliterative consonants is aesthetically just great, especially the placement of the strongest use at the end: “fuck him on the floor.” The use of “chintz” is indeed great word choice.

Because I’m insane, decided to scan the poem:

Not only is the second sentence, indeed, perfect iambic pentameter, the entire poem is perfectly metered, though the first sentence has four iambs rather than five.

There are further things I love about this poem, though: I like the casual connotations of “keep it real” juxtaposed with “chintz.” It causes me to interpret the “chintz” more strongly as meaning something fake, a facade. There is also of course the coarseness of “fuck,” which is a contrast with “chintz” but a different kind of contrast, gutsy and carnal where “chintz” is flimsy and inanimate.

And then there is the storytelling: there is SO MUCH storytelling in just these two lines. To break it down: The speaker is having sex with a married man, in the house he shares with his wife, which is “filled with chintz”—something that here connotes fakeness, in contrast with “keep it real.”

The illicit encounter in the poem takes place within a house filled with facade, the flimsy construction of the wife’s marriage and domestic sphere, but the encounter itself is a taste of something “real.” That’s a story, and it’s just two lines.

This is EIGHTEEN SYLLABLES, y’all. The amount of meaning condensed into these eighteen syllables is stunning, and it is so elegantly done.

music night happened the previous night.  and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.  

iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.  

it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship.  iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.  

as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited.  iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him - 

- but iroh can wait up for him.  

iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.  

and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.  

iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.  

and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.  

zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire.  zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.

and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang.  zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission.  zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.  

and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko.  after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.

and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.  

it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion.   i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.  

one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.  

This is a big deal, it's the largest national trans survey and the last one was in 2015. The next one won't be for at least another five years.

There's some fairly personal questions and some heavy ones, like ones about harassment and domestic violence. They don't ask for your name or other definitively identifying information, and take steps to keep the rest of the data confidential. You can skip (most) questions you don't want to answer while filling out the rest. Data can be useful for lobbying politicians for things that are good for trans people, especially ones who are basically sympathetic but not sure they should prioritize trans issues. (In their words, "The USTS fills in some of the large gaps in research about transgender people, and it provides critical tools for researchers, policymakers, and advocates seeking to better understand the needs of transgender people and to find ways to improve their lives.") Most questions have set options, but there's also an opportunity at the end to share personal stories in your own words.

"The U.S. Transgender Survey documents the experiences of trans people, which it defines as anyone who identifies with a different gender than they were assigned at birth. That includes nonbinary people. We aim to be as inclusive as possible about what it means to be trans, and we welcome nonbinary people and others who identify with a different gender than they were assigned at birth to take the survey."

"No, you don’t have to be currently out or living as trans or nonbinary. The survey is open to trans people at any stage of their lives, journey, or transition."

“Yep, Still Does Nothing To Me” Kill Elon Musk with a poison laced marijuana joint

Amazon Grace Snipe Jeff Bezos from the church tower

Actually, Tesla Was The Doctor Steer Elon Musk’s self-driving Tesla to run him over

Prime Delivery Kill Jeff Bezos by dropping a grenade through the chimney into his room

I Like This Color Way Better Cause Elon Musk’s gory death by removing the forklift safety guidelines

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Throw Jeff Bezos into his 10,000 Year Clock

Alexa, Kill This Clown Electrocute Jeff Bezos with his own Amazon Alexa

Just Like His Kars Launch Elon Musk into space

Spac-Ex Actually, let Grimes launch Elon Musk into space

Wage Against The Machine Let Jeff Bezos be trampled to death by the angered mob

like, hey, cat why don’t you have to use your Cat Dollars to invest in tampons? And cat is just like: fuck that noise, my body is OPTIMAL for not being made of inconvenient nonsense, sucks to be you

Periods

Bad backs

Permanent breasts that do not leave once baby is weaned

Dangerously large, unprotected, and non retractable male reproductive systems

Huge brain takes up way too much energy gotta eat more sleep less

Baby brain bigger than hips guess birth is life threatening now

•Breathing, eating, communication all from the same pathway, major choking hazard. Give me a dolphin style breathing tube.

•Most pleasurable nerve endings on the body locating on the filthiest parts of you, guarenteed spread of bacteria.

Subject: ???

Dear Jonathan,