Oh, this is me poking fun of a simple minded behaviorism. Never much cared for Skinner.

#Reinforced

so I read Skinner, right?

learned her love of Jelly Bellies
and offered her one
during arguments

each time she'd see my point
reconsider
say I was right

but somehow

in the end

she came to hate sugar

#emoetry

Wolves we were meant to be free, Geri. you know, pack, yeah? hunt and roam care and protect raise our young not sit at the feet of... what's his name? yeah, Odin, right. whatever. i'm just sayin'

#Wolves
#vss365

Jade I can't see the word and not think of the sea by which I mean how once I was a boy and we went to the ocean and my sister thought she was brushed by a shark but it was really just a dolphin and it seemed to me she was like that always fortune blessed even magical sea creatures craved contact and I was jealous because once she and I had bounced giddily to Peter and the Wolf and she had been the joy and energy as much as Tschaikovsky and I merely went along jumping and smiling and marveled until one day by whatever rules govern grade school recess I became not enough and slipped out to sea

#Jade
#vss365

Gorgeous write

#Perplexed

when first we kissed
I hoped for sunlight
in a vase of flowers

but instead found
eyes of newsprint
and stock forecasts

inside,
a small, whispered complaint
choked at the chill
of breath turned to frost

and my father's voice
reminded me
not of listening
but doing what's right

#emoetry

#Nostalgia

the past sings
when moments lose
their voice

a siren's song
of once
of teenaged hope
of hand in mine

when looks
unstained by jealousy
opened the heart

as if to hum
a spell's return

#emoetry

#Undersea

it can be hard to remember
in the heart of plains
that such depth exists

that great, unknowable
fathoms
might yet call

yet they are no less present
though your drive passes
no blue-green reminders

you came from them
once

your heart remembers
its belonging

#vss365

#Mighty

I try to remember
the power of
small things

how breath
can settle the heart

how softened eyes
still melt me

still,
after all these years

how a teenaged girl
in repression's yoke

loved so much

she made a god

#emoetry

#Trickery

our small cat looks at me,
says, look...

the thing you don't get
is that it isn't just
that I'm sweet

I'm REALLY sweet

so...
food time, yes?
and rub my belly

#vss365

Magnificent.

#Loathing

it fits so neatly
on the heart

this darker shade
that speaks of truth

and oh, how we believe
the whispered words

and hate ourselves

and fear the Rorschachs

#emoetry

#Investiture

I blame our genes

they did this, really
(well, and f-ing evolution)

making such a big deal
out of survival

placing worry in such
high esteem

I mean

come on now

were predators
really such a threat?

#vss365

my plan
on how not to die
involves a kind of
chronic worry
interspersed with
intense, lively
self hatred

you may say to me
that doesn't seem
a very good plan

but listen

listen

so far?

it's worked

#poetry

Listen

please, friend

close your eyes

listen to how your heart

reads each word

like it's searching for oxygen

like each syllable bonds

to its essence

and spreads to liver and bone

like meaning suffuses red

when cruelty leaves us blue

take a moment

listen

live

live

live

#poetry

ICE And The Absence Of Accountability Earlier this month, at the notorious state-run immigration detention facility in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by state officials, there was another incident.

In Maine, ICE brazenly called their operation “catch of the day.” The banal inhumanity of it all is overwhelming. The deaths, the injuries, the conditions in detention, the brazen disregard for people’s rights, including American citizens. And it’s still happening.
open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

#Justified

I told shame
it had no basis
for its petty, cruel opinion

and shame paused,
stared at me a moment

and said it felt the same

#emoetry

#Seafoam

my screen
didn't want that

kept changing it
to "seafood"

which i don't want either

I mean
what is it

in the bitter, oily
shifting forms

that makes us think
of love?

#vss365

Still

still
the young inside
scream dirges into canyon

pause

wait a single beat
for echoes insisting
on a distant wall

a promise
of boundary
laid in marrow

and a heart's reply
a softened scream

#poetry

#Hammer

she sits
across the table
at an Applebee's
because loss is best begun
over bargain bin nachos

looks calmly
announces that
she doesn't think
we should stay together
after fifteen years

and then shatters me
with impenetrable silence
as I stare
at the menu

#vss365

#Hammer

she sits
across the table
at an Applebee's
because loss is best begun
over bargain bin nachos

looks calmly
announces that
she doesn't think
we should stay together
after fifteen years

and then shatters me
with impenetrable silence
as I stare
at the menu

#vss365

#Incensed

the ashes
of how once
you kissed me
with empty stare
and I traced
patterns named
responsibility
over chilled stone
as the priest
spread scented smoke
and the papers
changed our names

#emoetry

#Herculean

the stories speak of strength
but, really,
mostly lifting shit

so I meant to write:
about how
at age 12
the mighty hero learned
softness

how he listened
as rage screamed
and held it gently

so the wisest saw

his path to stars

#emoetry

#Loop

they know
somehow
the way your core trembles

like worms in soil

the very dark
unwanted
essence

that must be hidden

and so:

hide behind
the practiced phrase
the knowing nod
the false facade

because

otherwise

they'll know

#vss365

#Greed

what I want is
the press of your fingers
on my cheek
soft-eyed
when winter storms
of reasoned thought
pierce through
these walls
of shattered sticks

#emoetry

#Letters

when calls cost,
I put pen to yearning

dipped it in the ink
of hope beyond hope

and mailed my soul
with postage stamp

praying that
truths ripped

from gut and heart
might somehow

make you mine

#vss365

#Emotional

it's as if
this other person
steps into the room

whispers orders
to my pulse

somehow
constricting my heart

and yet they say
I should listen

as my gut recoils

at what experts name as
growth

#emoetry

#Sink

is it because
we're wired to connect?

or is it like breathing
so long suppressed
in pooled despair?

we open our eyes
take in softened glances
turned our way

and we are swept away,
driven to discover

what a kiss unlocks

#vss365

#Dejected

dejection steps up,
says, look:

I know
I'm not fun

but come closer
let me tell you
my deepest secret

I can't stop thinking
about that terrible moment

and I'd rather shut things down

than risk feeling

#emoetry

#Sing

I wonder if
emotion sings

if only we lean in
closer, closer

hear the sound
beneath the screaming

or the fury
or the desperate sadness

a soft, steady melody
and insistent words

live

live

live

live

#vss365