This was the text of my Tinder profile for a while

| Steve

It not a banner nor the space it spun
It not the ripple of it there not-there nor there
Hedidhe heleftit
Inverstead you pale comparison,
None you live in like man-o-war thread
Shot-through shutterings collaptiscopic
Hedidhe he drop it
Hedidhe he shuff it
He it-edges
He simpid limp it
Allwanting you lack
All one thing she share
’s not there it
went where it
was last when
Hedidhe he brick spin
It go in
All not-scene
Hid seen soft
Nose downwinter keep
Rattlescreed, rundeep
She notyou,
Hedidhe

Just Housing – Move Along

Video | | Steve

The City of Olympia invites you to Move Along!
This is Orion Canning and Just Housing’s project. Steve Bakker as The Cop.
From Just Housing:

The city of Olympia, as well as cities all over the United States, have ordinances that make it illegal to sit, lie, or camp on city property. These ordinances target homeless populations, giving police the ability to harass or arrest the most vulnerable members of the community just for resting, a basic human need. They are tantamount to making it illegal to be too poor to afford housing.

This month, the US 9th Circuit Court has ruled such laws unconstitutional, violating the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the 8th Amendment, but they remain on the books in Olympia.

Update: The City of Olympia demanded our video be removed by YouTube. We think we have fair use grounds to satirize Olympia tourism ads, but we’ve chosen not to fight it.

The Tiger’s Lament

| Steve

You appear suddenly from the grasses,
Up close and already prying the person
Open at the tongue.
This is a hunt without injury;
It is a gift you give, getting right in
With a wild wedge
Of all kinds of language.

Then I hear you pry
yourself apart.

When you growl and wail
About the countless injuries
Settled in your bones
Against the love of life,
It sounds to me like you’re taking them
In your jaws and shaking them.

Then you’re off,
Back into the grasses,
Bounding away in the ripples
Of a coat of arson,
Caught again by life
In the next burnishing
Liquid gold lunge at it

Joannah on Wire

| Steve

Half stiff and stuttering,
Half fluid half routed, half splash

Half flailing and laughing “I’m Sorry!”
Half planted, half practicing poise

Half lilty, stilty, pigeon toes,
Half-cocked head and cockatoo crest

All work and all play
All happen at once
Is whimsy halfway
To learning itself
as charm,
Half tripping,
Half dancing
on wire,
Half preening
on a single stilt,
Half snipping
at a stem

The unknown variable

| Steve

You said the practical man asked you
To take the time to carefully consider
If you need him.

You do not need him.
You know this.
You’ve demonstrated it
Before and during your time with him,
In living day to day well
Over the broad foundation of years.

In this you are more practical than him.
What is practical about the pragmatic man
Needing you
To need him,
And asking you to decide
If he need not need you anymore?

Continue reading →