Psychological
The Silk and the Shrapnel
History is a lazy and superficial artist. It loves straight lines, clear-cut motives, and people who fit neatly into the boxes someone else marked with a thick Sharpie a long time ago. In those boxes, a warrior is a stone-carved archetype: someone who smells of cheap tobacco, wears a low-slung baseball cap, and hasn't taken off a faded camo jacket in the decades since the last howitzers went silent in the distance. There is this unspoken, almost religious dictate that trauma must be visible, abrasive, and unkempt. If you don’t look broken on the outside, the world doesn’t believe you’ve ever seen the abyss on the inside. Society demands that your sacrifice be displayed like an exhibit in a museum of defeat, rather than your triumph in the form of elegance.
By Feliks Karić3 days ago in Fiction
The Substance
I stepped out on my porch, the rays of the sun beating against the window beckoning me to come outside. The warmth from the morning sun felt comforting but there was something off about the air. Like a storm approaching. I looked up. The sky had a strange hue to it. An odd shade of pink and grey coming together to make a color that's hard to describe. A color you didn't think could exist.
By Jasmine Aguilar3 days ago in Fiction
When Silence Was Whole
Flower InBloom writes at the threshold where myth meets nervous system and spirit meets structure. This piece is not a cosmology to believe in, but a remembering to feel into. If something in you softened while reading, that is the field recognizing itself.
By Flower InBloom3 days ago in Fiction
Follow The Rules
One of the things that was always trotted out was: "If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear" That would be fine if the systems worked properly and were transparent and above board. People were told that slight changes were needed to ensure the safety of them and their families, and people generally accepted it.
By Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred 3 days ago in Fiction
