PocoBrat
A Daily Self-indulgent Postcolonial/Feminist/Poetry-in-Progress/Culture Blog
Saturday, August 02, 2025
I keep the yesterdays
Friday, August 01, 2025
"Michiterreanean"
Seeing how "the third coast" is a thing, we wonder if we can make "Michiterranean" happen.
Pic: Beach selfie. I know I'l be thankful for this reminder of sand, sunset, lake breeze, and book time in a few months.
Thursday, July 31, 2025
tripping
before you leave, I fix your smile in my mind
the scent of your forehead from babyhood
any other time it would be just my love
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
late-July thoughts
I shouldn't have said it was nearing the end of summer yesterday... What I meant was that it was the end of summer break... for me.
Our D.C. trip is in a week, and I'll be in a full-day workshop (8-5) the day after we return. That's soon.
I can't believe I'm whining--what an incredible privilege it is to take a break as an adult. I always wish everyone got mandated time off. In my family, how nice it would be if At and Big A had at least a couple of weeks off to read, lounge, and turn off their alarms... How much better their health and wellbeing would be.
To someone's text enquiring after me, I responded "I’m good… waking up to the reality that one way or another it’s almost August…" And then on reconsideration: "I mean it’s August THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW 😂ðŸ˜"
Pic: Still summer in flower time, clearly.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
the times
Don't ask why I'm up at 3:27 a.m., but now I'm worried for friends and family in Hawaii and on the West Coast as tsunami waves from the Russian earthquake make their way across the Pacific ocean.
I was just thinking yesterday that this has been a beautiful summer--not too hot, just enough rain to keep everything lush, NO mosquitoes, a record-breaking number of fireflies and butterflies...
It has also been a month since At's ex SLE died, and this was the month of my mom's heart attack and Big A's mysterious illness. And suddenly--or so it seems--we're nearing the end of summer.
Pic: Nu is filling out health information forms, and Max thinks he can help. Huck milling around (under Max), is thinking about joining in, because she knows stuff too. I can't believe Nu will be off and living in the dorms in a few weeks!
Monday, July 28, 2025
What I'm looking at
One of my summer tasks was to do a closet cull. It hasn't happened yet. Could still happen, I suppose!
Another one was to put together a chapbook of poetry. I have been working on that a bit. I started wondering today... if that should be two chapbooks.
Instead of trying to force the nature pieces and the family/politics pieces into the same space, perhaps they should each have a separate volume? It might be easier to articulate a theme that way.
A lot of the time, the nature compositions are untethered--they matter to me at the moment of writing, but may not be interesting to anyone else because they don't tell a story. I'd be sad to lose all of them though.
Pic: purple flowers by the river, reflection of trees and sky. When I looked at my post-walk photos, I didn't know what I was looking at at first.Sunday, July 27, 2025
this familiar walk
the hope or hurt you choose
to keep you company
in places many-sided by trees, air, & earth
the living, rooted prairie becomes
everything you love
so that trees take the shape of your parents
and grass spreads like the sweep
of family sharing news
you wear it on your breast, this belonging
feeling to the same song
___________________
I keep the yesterdays
for the sake of this photo every moment is surrender for I am eager and take too many--yet each avid echo ...

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Friends and old neighbors shutting it down in honor of John Crawford. _
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I have the feeling that I’m going to succumb to the season and put out a list of resolutions soon. Just wanted to establish this heads up th...