Colorful specks dance as penetrating light is split in hundreds of directions, all because, at some point, pressure occurred to this carbon substance whose internal structure and compositional breakdown differs far too greatly from my own.
We are not opposites, just different.
You have the ability to reflect and refract as my structure absorbs and digests.
You are a gem, known for your unmatched beauty and atomic arrangement; a natural occurrence that makes you the hardest to come by.
This bag of water and bones is fragile and unlike your pressured, yet unpressured self, I need to be loved for more than what is seen.
I need to be loved inside and out.
Even if I am a carbon-based life form, all that I reflect is stored within soft tissue, tucked in between white and gray matter.
I need to be loved differently than you.
To be understood in ways hard to understand and for as much as you elevate me, your heaviness is something I wish not to have wrapped around my finger, for as beautiful as you are, you weigh me down.
Lani Hankins is a former Army female engagement team member and a veteran of Afghanistan. Follow her here. Listen to the Savage Wonder episode with her here.
She blogs and podcasts at Kruse Corner.
Bunny: Poems About Surviving Military Life by Lani Hankins
Bottled Away: Confessions of a Struggling Veteran by Lani Hankins
The Gaslit Heart: A Story of Service and Survival by Lani Hankins
Eased Pain: Poems About Surviving Domestic Violence by Lani Hankins
Folks - the Parlor is back!
Starting this Saturday night, downtown Cornwall is once again the place to see great theater with Joshua Harmon’s 2018 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award winning dramady Admissions. Drinks, dessert, a hilarious live performance, professional actors, an intimate unforgettable space, pay-what-you-can tickets…it simply does not get better than this.
I’m not going to lie, we’re poking the bear a little with Admissions. It’s not a traditional comedy. It’s a provocative yet even-handed look at the college admissions process and the hypocrisies, gaffes, primal screams, and noble intentions behind race-based admissions. Issues of race, class, and privilege are confronted head-on with Joshua Harmon’s straightforward, unsparing, blunt dialogue. It’s a night of satire, drama and social commentary that will leave you questioning, laughing, and shaking your head.
As always, you’re welcome to show up and hope for a cancellation. But if you really want to see the show, why not book now and save yourself the uncertainty?
This week on the Savage Wonder podcast…
Matt Rendar is an Army combat veteran, current NYPD officer and wildly popular artist. His Etsy shop BattleTribe features evocative, colorful, playful, memorable images that pay homage to both his military past and his pop culture influences.