Claire Kroening
Cara Morgan
For You Page (Part 1)
@jillfrompolyanna performs a heavy metal cover of Judas by Lady Gaga.
A woman tells the story of a male obgyn keeping her on Depo Provera for 10 consecutive years.
Barbie dogs dance to Nine Inch Nails.
“Day 51 of making clockvids until my family is safe from houselessness.”
Hank Hill really wants a picture of a hot dog.
Yalda Hakim reports for the BBC. Afghan girls mourn their education.
The New York Times publishes a crossword swastika…again.
A strikingly beautiful poem by fartsmcbutts69420.
Gentle parents get their kids to take naps with bets.
The Missouri House of Representatives debates an appropriate dress code for the floor. In
order to vote, women will have to wear a second layer over their clothes that opens in the front.
They discuss acceptable fabric blends and the number of buttons. The men just vote.
Representative Raychel Proudie says: “I spent $1,200 on a suit, and I can’t wear it in the
People’s House because someone who doesn’t have the range tells me it’s inappropriate.”
Kevin McCarthy loses another vote.
A fat model responds to criticism of their work and says: “one of us is getting paid for our looks
and it’s not you.” His name is Jordan Underwood and they’re gorgeous.
Miley releases a self-love anthem on Liam’s birthday.
Darla tells me why it’s worth it to recover from an eating disorder. She says because if you
don’t, you die. Because one day your rock bottom will break and you will fall even further. One
day the consequences will be permanent. She says: “if I could change one thing in my life, it
would be to get my health back. It would not be to hurt me so I have to suffer for the rest of my
life.” She chokes up on the words: “get better so you don’t hurt anymore.”
@tired_and_pissed fills a big painting with tiny things, today a tangerine slice.
People show themselves before the pandemic and now. They all grew up too fast.
Mother Moon reads me a bedtime story.
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An emergency responder teaches me how to use Narcan.
Someone with POTS celebrates their first mobility aid. The comments say they’re faking.
A father watches his paralyzed daughter learn to walk again and says “it’s even better the
second time.”
Someone points out how ableist the horror genre is.
Dr. Roy Guerrero testifies before Congress. He plays audio of children pleading for police in
Uvalde. He says some of them were missing limbs: “There is no peace in the death of a child by
a weapon of war.” They all sit in their suits and do nothing.
Stevie Nicks casts a spell on her ex lover.
Handmade Mothman socks. Propagating plants. People sentenced to be hanged from a crane
in the public square. Espresso pucks. Pink sauce. Missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Bouncing Squishmallows. A game of drunk Jenga. Fan edits of Katniss Everdeen. Another room
full of men in suits doing nothing. Another parent mourns their child. Another vote doesn’t pass.
For You Page (Part 2)
@kaitgrange makes an espresso tonic. “It’s been a little over 3 years since my mom was
murdered by my dad and I have been consumed by the grief. So welcome to day 11 of Let’s Not
Rot: where I make small choices each day to not rot away the life I’ve been given because my
mom would be pissed if I did.” I watch days 1-10 & the latest from 18 hours ago: “12 things I
adored about my mom.” I cry. I feel Bobette in the room with me. I wish I could hear her laugh. I
wish she was still alive.
3 and 4 year olds in preschool are trained in the case of an active shooter but can’t attend story
time with a drag queen. They can be taught to use battlefield bleeding kits on their friends. They
can be killed in their classroom. At least they weren’t aborted.
A mother counts down the precious days until she sends her daughter to public school in
America.
Those who were kept from testifying against anti-trans legislation march through the halls of the
Texas capitol building, chanting “Protect trans kids!”
A Native woman cuts her hair in grief: “The new growth will represent healing and time passed.”
To grieve is to grow.
A tumblr screencap of a Stephi Wagner quote. “Pain travels through families until someone is
ready to feel it.” The pain I feel does not belong to me but I have no choice but to feel it. I am the
deliverer of a lineage of needless suffering. A cycle breaker. A useless champion.
Lady Speech discusses how white supremacy “made up the concept of The Devil, became that
for itself and the rest of the world, and then proceeded to rob white people of their place, their
culture & their history.” They erased us before they moved on to the world. We joke that our
culture is fireworks and the 4th of July, but what are we without our whiteness? Who were our
ancestors before they were assimilated? What stories did they tell? What songs did they sing?
How many bold, curious, creative people did we lose to the vacuum of the colonizer? How many
vivacious queers, sexy cripples, brilliant fat women? Who can I thank for the resistance in me?
Where do I come from if not the vacuum?
@crutches_and_spice says “Once you become disabled, death will be the figment chasing you
every single day. And everyone around you will root for it.” Joe Biden ends the national
emergency, says it’s over. Just this week, someone died of COVID every 3 minutes. Thousands
are disabled with no conceivable treatment plan. Brain damage, vascular disease, chronic
fatigue, long COVID. No one has the answers.
A teacher shares books you can read to your elementary aged child about school shootings: A
Kid’s Book About School Shootings by Crystal Woodman Miller. I’m Not Scared…I’m Prepared!
Because I Know All About Alice published by the National Center for Youth Issues. (ALICE
stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) Will It Be Okay? By Crescent
Dragonwagon. A slumberkins guide on How to Talk to Children About School Shootings. She
says “Hopefully they [a kindergartner] can be absolutely silent when the time comes.” The
caption: dead kids can’t read.
Trans people raise $2 million for trans healthcare in 30 hours. Money that will help 12,000
people. If no one will take care of us, we will do it ourselves.
There have been more mass shootings than days this year.
A PSA teaches me how to hide from and combat an active shooter. An actor says his line
before charging the man with a gun: “I will not be a victim.” Like it’s a choice to die by a weapon
of war.
Toni Morrison is asked how to survive in a world where we’re all a victim of something. She
says: “Sometimes you don’t survive whole, you just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is in
that attempt. It’s not about that solution. It’s about being as fearless as one can, and behaving
as beautifully as one can under completely impossible circumstances.”
We survive in pieces, painfully. We tear our feet from the sludge of life and keep moving.
Through the portal of a smartphone we feel less alone. We are witness to someone’s first
sewing project, an abundant summer harvest, the journey to a diagnosis, fat folks feeling
liberated in their bodies, trans people recovering from top surgery, students in ceramics class,
bubbly autists trying out fidget toys, queer kids cutting their hair. All kinds of beautiful people
living in pieces. I want to say I’m so proud of you, I love you, please stay. Instead, I type three
yellow hearts, tap the arrow, and keep scrolling.
Cara Morgan is a nonbinary, queer, disabled, and neurodivergent poet and artist from Exeter, Maine. They host a Spotify podcast called the sunshine lounge and virtual poetry workshops for traditionally marginalized voices to make art. They are passionate about their cats, cool rocks, making playlists, funky earrings, and the color yellow.