Stephanie Frazee

If you can't build your own guillotine, store bought is fine

Thank you! And same to you ❤️ Such a beautiful issue 😍

Thank you!

If you’re looking for a lil story about a grief stricken cryptid, I’ve got you covered: centaurlit.com/monstrous-by...
Thank you a million times to the lovely @centaurlit.bsky.social 💞

Sundress Publications announces the release of Delicate Machinery: Poems on Survival & Healing, edited by Erin Elizabeth Smith, which you can download for free today!
www.sundresspublications.com/news/2025/07...

Look at this beautiful anthology! I can’t believe I have a poem in here, among all this beauty. www.sundresspublications.com/e-anthologies

Imagine having so much money that you could solve childhood poverty or pay off everyone’s medical debt or fund a cure for cancer and you choose this instead

a stone

"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green."

Happy Lottery day to you and yours.

The maddening thing is that this would have been PAINFULLY OBVIOUS if they had ANY EXPERIENCE AT ALL working with the government! In any way! Or if they had asked a single question!! 😖

Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

On the lack of fraud and spending abuse he saw I did not find the federal government to be rife with waste, fraud and abuse. I was expecting some more easy wins. I was hoping for opportunity to cut waste, fraud and abuse. And I do believe that there is a lot of waste. There's minimal amounts of fraud. And abuse, to me, feels relatively nonexistent. And the reason is — I think we have a bias as people coming from the tech industry where we worked at companies, you know, such as Google, Facebook, these companies that have plenty of money, are funded by investors and have lots of people kind of sitting around doing nothing.

Libertarian tech bros discovering big corporations are less efficient than government www.npr.org/2025/06/02/n...

I Loved You Before I Was Born I loved you before I was born. It doesn't make sense, I know. I saw your eyes before I had eyes to see. And I've lived longing for your every look ever since. That longing entered time as this body. And the longing grew as this body waxed. And the longing grows as the body wanes. That longing will outlive this body. I loved you before I was born. It makes no sense, I know. Long before eternity, I caught a glimpse of your neck and shoulders, your ankles and toes. And I've been lonely for you from that instant. That loneliness appeared on earth as this body. And my share of time has been nothing but your name outrunning my ever saying it clearly. Your face fleeing my ever kissing it firmly once on the mouth. In longing, I am most myself, rapt, my lamp mortal, my light hidden and singing. I give you my blank heart. Please write on it what you wish. -Li-Young Lee

~ Li-Young Lee
I Loved You Before I Was Born
(oof)
—I loved you before I was born.
It doesn't make sense, I know.
I saw your eyes before I had eyes to see.

Midwest Weird | "Flood," Stephanie Frazee Today on Midwest Weird: “Flood," by Stephanie Frazee. Stephanie Frazee's work is forthcoming from Variant Literature and has appeared in Marrow Magazine, Pithead Chapel, The Evergreen Review, Bayou Ma...

I have a story up at Midwest Weird! You can listen to me read it! www.midwestweird.com/post/flood-s...

Midwest Weird | "Flood," Stephanie Frazee Today on Midwest Weird: “Flood," by Stephanie Frazee. Stephanie Frazee's work is forthcoming from Variant Literature and has appeared in Marrow Magazine, Pithead Chapel, The Evergreen Review, Bayou Ma...

I have a story up at Midwest Weird! You can listen to me read it! www.midwestweird.com/post/flood-s...

Oh my gosh a spreadsheet wow

literally woke up like this

Phew, for a Minute There, I Thought the Arts Were Going to Get Too Much Funding “Dozens of US arts organizations have been notified that offers of government grants have been terminated, hours after Donald Trump proposed elimin...

"I mean, what were we thinking, letting children paint murals on underpasses? Handing out grants to novelists with weird names like Marisol or Devin? Some of them were using metaphors. OPENLY."

Omg this should be a thing.

Thank you 😍

I am still stunned to have had a poem in Stone Circle Review. 💕Thank you again to @leepottspoet.bsky.social

Thank you 😊

Nectar by Stephanie Frazee   my friend says never bother slicing a mango eat it like a bee, ass-deep in petals furry with pollen baskets bursting she sways her hips, fleshy, ragged pit in a sticky hand ...

Stone Circle Replay Wednesday poem: "Nectar" by Stephanie Frazee (@stephiosaurus.bsky.social)

stonecirclereview.com/nectar/

Elon Musk's effort to slash government "led to purchasing bottlenecks and increased costs; paralysis in decision-making; longer public wait times; higher-paid civil servants filling in menial jobs, and a brain drain of scientific and technological talent."

www.reuters.com/world/us/100...

A bird’s nest in a neglected Christmas wreath with three small eggs.

Neglecting to take down the Christmas wreath for way too long is not all bad.

Same painting again, different caption. King “I made transgender mice illegal. And saved women. Human women.” “Okay grandpa let’s get you back to the White House.” “Women come up to me crying and say thank you for saving us. And then they lay an egg.”

thank you 🥹🥚

I spoke to an expert in authoritarianism, who explained to me that things like this are extremely meaningful and they help protect democracy, even if there’s not a straight line between this and actual legislating

You know, your own imagination is far more wonderful Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Than any computer could ever be. You know why? Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

You’re a living human being. And a computer is just a machine. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Human beings are far more wonderful than machines. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Mister Rogers never misses

Clutch Visit the post for more.

Enjoy more prose from Issue 20! Here's "Clutch" by @stephiosaurus.bsky.social

"At The Bait Boyz, I asked for their fattest worms and got an offer from every guy there. I bought the wax worms and hand-fed him. I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t heartless." 🥚🪱

variantlit.com/clutch/

They're lying to you about transgender women and girls in sports Michelle R. Martinelli For The Win

They’re lying about transgender people in this world. They’re lying about what LGBTQ+ inclusion in society really means, and they’re lying about trans people in sports. They’re lying about a “transgender cult” and “transgender insanity,” about teachers indoctrinating kids with “transgender ideology” and about “making mice transgender.” Right-wing activists, anti-trans bigots, many politicians, the president — they’re lying to you about many things but especially trans women and girls in sports. They’re lying about transgender athletes supposedly ruining women’s sports, and they’re lying about this being a ubiquitous “problem.”

They are deliberately and strategically lying about trans folks’ lives, about trans athletes and about their own disingenuous motivations for pushing these lies. They don’t care because they keep doing it. Worse, it’s working.

They're lying about trans people, especially trans women and girls in sports, probably, in part, because the actual data doesn't support their arguments. Yet several states have their own bans against trans athletes competing in sports consistent with their gender identity, despite expert estimates of fewer than 100 trans high school athletes nationwide. In 2022, Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox, vetoed an anti-transgender bill - it was eventually overruled by the legislature - and outlined his rationale. Along with the high suicide rates for trans youth, he noted that of 75,000 high school athletes in the state, four identified as trans and just one student was playing girls' sports. A whole state bill targeting four athletes, but really, one.

I can't remember the last time I saw an article just focus on this. Not that they've bent the truth or misrepresented a few facts a little, but that every single solitary thing that the GOP says on the topic is a stone cold lie with absolutely no basis in reality.
ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports...

That is exactly it.