February 2025 Monthly Roundup
How’s it hanging, Waywards reader? Since February is shorter than most months, this post will be shorter than previous monthly roundups.
Here’s a piece I wrote for commission that was published this month:
INVESTIGATION: How Missouri Handed Prison Healthcare to a Corporation with a History of Violent Neglect & Death / The Kansas City Defender / 2-10-25
I’m working on a piece for another outlet that should be published in April. I’m also running on fumes, holding on by a thread and [insert whatever metaphor you can think of to convey my efforts to persevere despite overwork with insufficient remuneration under hostile circumstances as weariness mounts, Waywards reader].
But we’re still breathing, are we not, Waywards reader? That’s something.
Oh, I also completed one poem in February. You can find it below, beneath this picture of my Buddy taken a few minutes ago.
Fasho
Who’ll care for those in chronic pain?
For youth told they should be ashamed?
For elders who never could catch a break?
For the disfigured, mutilated and maimed?
For those with heartache, yearning in the rain?
Who’ll be there for those emotionally scarred?
For neighbors who’ve only known life as hard?
For the overworked whose stress is others’ gain?
For the rejected forced to bear the bane of Cain?
For the dejected with a maxed out Link Card?
Who’ll show up for those paralyzed by despair?
For thorny wreath wearers with crosses to bear?
For the déclassé subordinated to cruel authority?
For the teachers and service workers treated horribly?
For all humanity denied by the class divide that ain’t fair?
Who’ll have love for those who feel overwhelmed?
For those who feel they’re in hell and ruined?
For folks struggling to pay rent and bills?
For women called ugly and guys mislabeled INCELs?
For tough men sobbing on concrete floors of prison cells?
Who’ll have compassion for those isolated and alone?
For those sleeping on the street with no place to call home?
For those replete with dignity that’s never recognized?
For all the deprived watching the depraved self-aggrandize?
For you scraping by, watching wealthy peers vacation in Rome?
The answer, if you didn’t already know…
Can be found in what always makes society go…
We will be there for each other, some institutions be damned…
We will rely and thrive on mutual aid, persevering, hand in hand…
And who will do that? Ya’ll, we will, fasho. Fasho…Now, Waywards reader, onward we march, into March! Come back to visit next month or really anytime. You know you’re always welcome, Waywards reader. Fasho.