Shamed in Death

Another friend dead
Dead of a secret disease
Buried in secret
With hushed overtones
In hidden graves
Or cremated behind curtains
Ashamed of the truth
Their ashes sprinkled at night
Like garbage thrown away
Never to be spoken of again

-o0o-

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

His Sanguine Mark

I struggle to remember you,
on the day you died.
Eleven years ago.

I struggle to remember you.
I only remember that place.
I remember being in your room,
watching the dark spot on the carpet,
the spattering on the wall,
and the smell of it,
where life upended your bucket,
and the last bits of you spilled out.
The faintest smell of gunpowder.

I hoped,
perhaps,
that it would never go away.
That your mark,
red and rusting on the carpet,
would never leave this world.

I figured,
that we are creatures of pain,
you and I,
scraped raw to the nerve,
and you determined to go down that road,
to meet your reaper face-to-face.
I don’t think I possess your courage.

I miss you dearly, old friend.

-o0o-

Excusing the Bible

You must understand
Your Bible was held alongside a knife to my throat
Your Bible weighted the boot in my ribs
Your Bible cocked the gun in my ear
So when I say that I find your Bible threatening
When you tell me that my point of view is at fault
I can't help to think
That perhaps my point of view
Is precisely the thing being disregarded
You come across like Charlton Heston
Bibles don't kill people
People with Bibles kill people
I am almost inclined to agree

-o0o-

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

Concern Troll

Oh absolutely!

No, seriously!

You wholeheartedly,

Have my interests at heart.

I can tell,

Since your position,

Is telling me to shut up.

How comforting that would be...

   for you.

-o0o-

This was my status to my boyfriend's Facebook page:

This quote is somewhat related to two separate incidents in the last week, and one not regarding atheism at all, but I found the quote summed up concern trolls pretty well:

"As a blogger I've received a great deal of advice from believers on how atheists should run our movement. I got all comments and emails all the time from believers saying "This is, you know, it's like you just might wanna little, little word of advice on how you should run your movement." It's very difficult to avoid the observation that this advice is almost always in the direction of telling us to tone it down, telling us to be less confrontational, less visible. Y'know, I have almost never seen a believer advise the atheist movement to speak up more loudly and more passionately. You know, to not be afraid of offending people if we think we're right. You know to really be willing to get in people's faces about things that they don't wanna think about. I mean, I have gotten a lot of advice from believers on how atheists should run our movement and it is almost always in the direction of politely suggesting that we shut up. Uhm... Maybe I'm being cynical here... I don't think that's a coincidence. And again, when you look at the history of social change movements you see the same pattern again and again, it was true of the women's movement, the labour movement, the civil rights movement, the queer movement. As soon as a movement starts to get some real traction, as soon as a movement starts to get some real power, opponents start fear-mongering about how angry they are. They start fear-mongering about, you know, the angry blacks, the angry women, the angry communists in the labour movement, the angry queers, "They're gonna turn into this uncontrolled raging mob and they're gonna tear up your city!" Or else they start concern-trolling about how "Oh anger just alienates people and the movement needs to be sweet and diplomatic and, you know, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar". I don't need flies. And really, I don't think it's a coincidence that we're being advised to lay down our anger, one of the most powerful tools that any social change movement can have right at the time that we are beginning to get some real power.”

Greta Christina, in her Skepticon 4 (2011) speech entitled, “Why Are you Atheists so Angry.”

-o0o-

And here comes another entitled boy...

And into my life another straight boy pops in,
Bursting me with his sharp cock, like a pin.
Inserting himself in my every space,
While I try to wipe the torrent of spit from my face...

So I rebuff his attempt to distract and derail,
Shocked and horrified his face goes all pale.
How dare I have the nerve to object!
He quickly reminds me to have some respect.

Declaring the way it’s going to be,
Because I need another straight cis- boy to calibrate me,
“Intellectually dishonest,” he ejaculates,
To teach me what’s-what he pontificates.

Indignant that I won’t play along with his game,
To gild up his goodness and spank me my blame.
Him Mister Righteous and me Mister Clown.
He cries because I won’t ride his horse to town.

Blatantly ignoring my original objection,
He storms on ahead with his childish erection,
Flailing his arms at my stubborn contention,
He fires himself up with yet more pretention.

He’s not here to fight, he just asked a question,
As if prosecution for the Devil was his only intention.
The pattern continues with the insecure male,
If it threatens your penis then try to derail.

Then mansplain to safeguard your holy position,
Reminding me my place is one of submission,
To your concerns, methods, and “intellectual” clime.
As if men hadn’t done that since the beginning of time.

Because I’m fucking stupid, never seen this before.
Some straight cis- boy having a shit on my floor,
And getting all righteous when I don’t play ball,
And let boys be boys at the centre of it all.

I’ve seen you before, and a thousand times more.
You’re just another sexist with his foot in my door.
An entitled boy who has to have his say,
And throws a big tantrum when he can’t have his way.

If you want to be ally to people like me,
Question your privilege and complicity.
Till then you can pout and sulk and frown,
Just shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down.

When I talk of rape, and you come along,
With your cock to pierce me as if I’m doing it wrong,
I’ll tell you what I told the man who hurt me back when,
I'll never play by your rules ever again.

-o0o-

On a related note: Every time I make a comment about sexism, feminism, rape, intersectionality, privilege, race, etc... and all the privileged / married / employed / white / straight / cis- men come out of the woodwork to tell me how I'm doing it wrong:

(http://www.buzzfeed.com/adamdavis/everything-is-a-social-construct)

(http://9gag.com/gag/ae3jONB)

-o0o-

Insomnia

Heretical, that little candle flickers on
     all by itself, to spite Ms. Sleep
     who comes with Mr. Moon
     and his broom with dreams to sweep
Candle's up and away
     light the room bright as day
     old candle chuckles cheerfully
     and summons their toys to play
While the stars are still out
     old candle plays in the yard
     the firmament tut-tut-ing
at the candle, strutting
bright and sparkly
Aldebaran bright red
     flushed with anger
     the candle playing the wrong role
Polaris shaken for shame
     the candle stealing the turn
     as if the gyre of the Earth would ebb
The sky unhinged at the room awakened
     twisted every star
     to sing, and beg
     kumbaya, Ms Sleep
     kumbaya
Awake again
     again
     again
One hour here, one hour there
     Ms. Sleep can sneak in
To dull the room and let the stars shine
     give Mr. Moon a chance on stage
     let them sweep that broom
     dusting dreams on every page
But the little candle
     with evening not content
     craves the morning too
     and burning midday Sun’s lament
And our old candle eats
dinner, breakfast, lunch
     each by the same flame
     a bite, a munch
Burning little embers in the sun
Madam Sun pursing her lips
     cocking her hips
     like a gun ready to rip
     at the upstart flame
And if old candle falters there
     Ms. Sleep and Mr. Moon repair
     and all the lights line up in queues
     before old candle’s wax renews

-o0o-