Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

Pleiades, seven little goats, little eyes, seven sisters, / Subaru, pearls, hen with chicks, united. / Taken there, held, or forever running from maddened machismo, / forever unchecked — forever.

— Allison Adelle Hedge Coke / Look at This Blue

My mother taught me that you can follow behind everyone and walk in the dust, or you can walk ahead through the unbroken thorny brush. You may get blood on your ankles, but you arrive first and not covered in the residue of others. This land is fertile and blessed in many regards, and the men ain’t the only one’s entitled to its bounty.

— Lynn Nottage / Ruined

Maybe it was the thing itself. Just being there, together. Two little girls who knew what nobody else in the world knew—how not to ask questions. How to believe what had to be believed. There was politeness in that reluctance and generosity as well.

— Toni Morrison / “Recitatif”

Less than 4% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 76% of the nudes are female.

— Guerrilla Girls / “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?” / 2012 update to the 1989 piece

Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory. The particles could lodge in tissue and cause inflammation, as air pollution particles do, or chemicals in the plastics could cause harm.

— Damian Carrington / “Microplastics found in every human placenta tested in study” / The Guardian

When he busted my face, oftentimes, my diligence went unnoticed / When he claimed I was in car wrecks / his mom believed. / Nearly killed me in one, so must be / must be a car wreck every other week, each time / purple faded, teeth repaired, gauze removed / bruised from brow to jaw, pummeled / what a mess

— Allison Adelle Hedge Coke / Look at This Blue

Ascetic or carnivore. Men will crack your glaze

even if you leave them before morning. Pigs
ride the sirens in packs.

— Brenda Shaughnessy / “Postfeminism”

What I’m Listening To:

I won’t take no lip from the devil
I won’t take no lip from you

— Mama Zu / “Lip”