Exchange, Love in Quarantine, and Crepuscular Flowers Published in Suburban Witchcraft
Blog
Paper is up at Spillwords!
Hair Emergency
I need help with a very disgusting issue.
About 2 months ago I decided to try the no shampoo approach (I absolutely do not recommend it, the dangers are grossly understated). Before going the no shampoo route I was washing my hair every 7-10 days. My hair produced very little by way of natural oils originally. It never smelled. It always felt clean. I have coarse, plentiful, wavy/curly hair. For every hair follicle I have 2 to 4 hairs so I just have a lot of hair. I was using organic products, no sulfate blah blah but it was getting super expensive. Anyhow since I started my hair has started to produce some mysterious substance. It is a very solid fat, it is not oil. This fat is not well distributed through the hair and I cannot get it evenly distributed brushing, combing, massaging, ignoring nothing works. This substance collects massive amounts of dirt and so my hair is absolutely, disgustingly filthy 10 minutes after a wash. It does not smell bad thankfully, my roommate is non stop sniffing my head so I guess it has a nice scent but the hair is so gross. Despite being covered in lard my hair is still frizzy and coarse. My scalp is not irritated at all. No itching or redness. My scalp feels pretty good so it does not seem like the follicles are clogged. I have tried now washing my hair with shampoo but it does not help. I cannot find anything that will break down this substance. It can’t be product build up because I wasn’t using products so what is there to build up? I have been working around trees a lot, maybe I have sap mixed with oil or something? How do I get out sap? Lard? Will it be necessary to shave my head? Is this just how normal hair is? It can’t be that awful, I would rather have horse hair as before if this is what hair feels like. Do I have a disease? I have seen no improvement at all in my hair. It certainly looks and feels worse. Because of the grease it is even harder than before to get wet. I have oddly very waterproof hair, like a duck or something. I have to submerge my head for a long time and it still never gets fully wet.
Update
On March 29th my poem “Paper” will be featured on Spillwords.com. I will post the link when it goes up so please visit. In other news I got an internship as a Journalist for Propl which starts May 1st.
Oneness
I feel around
in the darkness
for your hand.
Heart to palm
I hold you hostage,
make you feel
the echoes inside of me,
the oneness
which cannot be divided,
the oneness
which is us.
–
At night
we are two
warm bodies
woven together
on the edge of dreams.
Sometimes I lie awake
just so I can
hear your expectations
break apart.
–
Prayers
don’t always
come
in the form
of a wish.
Sometimes
they come
like fire
burning away
the inessential,
turning us over
so we can see
the world
as angels do
from above
and below
at the same time.
–
When you speak
to bare your soul
your voice
is as quiet
as a cat
and I never really know
if your promises
will keep.
Still I choose
to believe.
–
Your soul
weighs less than mine
because you have
memories of childhood
and all I have
are memories of survival,
memories too expensive
to revisit,
memories which come upon me
uninvited like a war.
–
You say “I love you”
with the shape
of your mouth
and your eyes
like two tremulous satellites
dancing in water
and I can almost believe
that I am worth it.
To Magdalena Andersson,
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke. Can it really be for peace that we allow the hunger and the fear of one man (or a group of such individuals) to dominate and dictate our actions? Is it not also fear that silences us and ties our hands together? I am not a proponent of war and I believe that revenge only serves to perpetuate cruelty. We have a right to defend ourselves of course but the goal should always be for the betterment of humankind. I don’t have any solutions unfortunately but I will say that at the end of the day when we are lying in bed, unable to escape ourselves, it is a comfort to know that we have stood for something, that we have believed in something, that we have focused our efforts on love, hope, freedom, creative expression, and peace. Love might not conquer everything but I would rather invest in love, than terror and fear. So keep standing up. Keep raising your voice. In the midst of war be the one that shelters. I can’t speak for every citizen but personally I would rather live in a country governed by compassion. So provide whatever support you can and know that in saving one nation, you save us all.
Shoutout!
I would like to give a shoutout to a close friend of mine. She is an extremely talented writer, a loving and supportive friend, and a super cool, authentic human being. Visit her. Adore her. She deserves it!
Sutured to a Flame
https://www.patreon.com/posts/sutured-to-flame-63535182
Today I put up a live video on my Patreon account. It is a poetry reading. It is free to view. All my content is free to view.
PUBLISH
My poem Paper was accepted for publication at Spillwords Press. I will let you know when it is officially published. Reccomendations for where I might try to publish going forward would be most welcome.
Patreon Account
I created a Patreon account. I will be posting some poetry/stories there. I don’t intend to charge for anything (I am not 100 percent sure how it works though) but there should be an option for donating. Is anyone else using Patreon? If I add exclusive member content does their need to be an associated cost? I want it to be totally voluntary. I would like to use the donations (if there are any) to submit to magazines.