we lay down because they can’t.

this was a die-in. healthcare workers, gathered in the middle of the city, bodies on the ground for gaza. we were there not just as clinicians, not just as queers, not just as people trained to care— but as witnesses to a system that pretends to be neutral while choosing a side. we already knew that silence wasn’t an accident. we’ve seen it before—in the wards, in the media, in the funding reports. but still, there’s something about laying your body down on cold ground that makes the grief feel sharper. and makes the refusal feel real.

my keffiyeh wasn’t a symbol. it was a practice. a reminder. a commitment to name genocide where others equivocate. to be present when presence costs something.

the pink triangle on my chest traced a line back to act up, to queer resistance in the face of state abandonment. but this wasn’t about metaphor. this was about gaza. about children buried under rubble. about medics killed in white coats. about naming what we know, and what our institutions refuse to say.

i didn’t speak. i didn’t need to. sometimes protest is not what you say but what you don’t move to stop.

#tiohtiàke #refusals #holdings #blackness #queerness #traces #surfaces

we stood still when the sun disappeared. a crowd without urgency. no one tried to name it.

the air changed first— cold, metallic, like something was watching. then the sky, folding into dusk as if the day had given up early.

i didn’t feel awe. not exactly. more like a shared breath held too long.

some people clapped when the light came back.

but most just stood there. under bare trees. on stolen land. watching a hole in the sky remind us how small we are.

#tiohtiàke #walks #holdings #surfaces #fragments

after the burnout.   after the heart palpitations.   after the kind of anxiety that makes your body forget itself—   i left.

no email.   no calendar.   just this.   water on my thighs.   sun on my shoulder.   a queer resort where no one needed me   to explain why i came.

i didn’t heal.   not fully.   but i stopped bracing.

and for now,   that’s enough.

#cayoguillermo #drift #holdings #surfaces #fragments #queerness

sometimes being above it all isn’t about distance. it’s about breath.

the snow kept everything quiet. even the city below. as if the cold had pressed pause.

i wasn’t looking for anything. just letting the light reflect off the ice and the railing hold my weight for a minute longer than usual.

#tiohtiàke #holdings #surfaces #fragments #drift

a counter. a cortado. a book that doesn’t let you look away.

the sugar on the pastry barely held. like the light outside—thin, unsure.

i wasn’t reading to learn. not exactly. more like remembering with someone who already knew.

there are days when survival is this: coffee warm, pages open, grief in the margins.

#tiohtiàke #holdings #surfaces #fragments #blackness #drift

i wasn’t here for this.   just passing through—   a few hours between panels across town,   a few steps off schedule.

but the building held something.   not promise exactly.   just presence.   age without apology.   history without invitation.

i looked up   and thought:   maybe.

#glasgow #drift #fragments #traces #surfaces

the symmetry felt like a question   no one was answering.

no one else on the platform.   just the hum of something approaching   but not yet here.

sometimes the wait stretches   longer than the journey.   sometimes the quiet   is what stays with you.

#washingtondc #drift #surfaces #fragments #traces

i sat and cried.   not loudly.   just enough to feel it leave my body   a little at a time.

an older woman beside me   was crying too.   i passed her a tissue.   we didn’t speak.

above us: the water fell,   the light held.   a circle that didn’t ask anything from us.

grief moved between strangers.   not for explanation.   not for closure.   just to be felt   together.

#washingtondc #drift #holdings #blackness #fragments #surfaces

not a burden. not a task. just the feel of small arms around your shoulders and the weight of someone who trusts you without question.

we walked like this for a while. no rush. no reason to explain it.

sometimes care is this simple— a body held steady, a sidewalk warming in the sun, and the quiet joy of being leaned on without breaking.

#kjipuktuk #holdings #blackness #surfaces #fragments #drift

no sirens. no slogans. just fabric, thread, and a sentence that refuses.

it didn’t need to shout. it just held its place. between shadow and sunlight, between the kids and the street.

not everything needs to escalate. sometimes you hang the banner and let it breathe.

#tiohtiàke #refusals #fragments #blackness #surfaces #drift