The Penhead Diaries
@penheaddiaries.bsky.social
The writings and ramblings of a returning writer.
All original works © me
For non-writing content and thoughts, follow me @itspakustime.bsky.social
All original works © me
For non-writing content and thoughts, follow me @itspakustime.bsky.social
Pinned
“ #chivalry & White-Knighting is a bit like the difference between knowledge & wisdom: one needs just holding a door or helping one over a puddle; the other insists on a Kool-aid burst through a wall or becoming a human raft to cross the wide Missouri.”
He had never been good at metaphors.
#vss365
He had never been good at metaphors.
#vss365
December 4, 2025 at 6:55 AM
The years pass
And with each going
I can see
The screen’s false light
Shining bright to distract
From the #aphotic void behind it
The vaunted font of knowledge
Dried by a cynical desert
And disguised as a desperate oasis.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
And with each going
I can see
The screen’s false light
Shining bright to distract
From the #aphotic void behind it
The vaunted font of knowledge
Dried by a cynical desert
And disguised as a desperate oasis.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
December 3, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The years pass
And with each going
I can see
The screen’s false light
Shining bright to distract
From the #aphotic void behind it
The vaunted font of knowledge
Dried by a cynical desert
And disguised as a desperate oasis.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
And with each going
I can see
The screen’s false light
Shining bright to distract
From the #aphotic void behind it
The vaunted font of knowledge
Dried by a cynical desert
And disguised as a desperate oasis.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
In a narrow hallway
Under blue light
Staring at the writing on the wall
A thousand quotes from ghosts of a hundred shows
Spaces bare where I could have laid mine down but didn’t
Is now the time?
Each step out the door is the #last to make that mark
The last, until the next moment comes.
#vss365
Under blue light
Staring at the writing on the wall
A thousand quotes from ghosts of a hundred shows
Spaces bare where I could have laid mine down but didn’t
Is now the time?
Each step out the door is the #last to make that mark
The last, until the next moment comes.
#vss365
December 1, 2025 at 3:01 AM
There is a strange, beautiful connection to be found in a subway’s #exhausted collective, an understanding where words are unnecessary but the meaning clearly known; that though we may never meet again, still we’re all in this together.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
September 11, 2025 at 11:31 AM
There is a strange, beautiful connection to be found in a subway’s #exhausted collective, an understanding where words are unnecessary but the meaning clearly known; that though we may never meet again, still we’re all in this together.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Wading into the flowing river of days.
Each mapped. Planned. Prepared.
Eager dawns & exhausted dusks marking the passage.
But my understanding of where I’m going capitulates each morn & a dull fear asks: When I arrive, will I even recognize the world that awaits me?
#poem #poetry #writing #freeform
Each mapped. Planned. Prepared.
Eager dawns & exhausted dusks marking the passage.
But my understanding of where I’m going capitulates each morn & a dull fear asks: When I arrive, will I even recognize the world that awaits me?
#poem #poetry #writing #freeform
September 11, 2025 at 4:30 AM
It was in the wretched excuse of an afterglow that she realized that sex with him was the #cummerbund of physical relationships: a need only really called for under very specific circumstances; at all other times, a cause to wonder what purpose it actually served?
#vss365 #writing
#vss365 #writing
July 8, 2025 at 3:21 AM
It was in the wretched excuse of an afterglow that she realized that sex with him was the #cummerbund of physical relationships: a need only really called for under very specific circumstances; at all other times, a cause to wonder what purpose it actually served?
#vss365 #writing
#vss365 #writing
Was hope worth having when this #liminal life continues to twist and stretch it from our grasp, the stick lengthening while the carrot fades past the horizon
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
June 22, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Was hope worth having when this #liminal life continues to twist and stretch it from our grasp, the stick lengthening while the carrot fades past the horizon
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Yearning to “return to a simpler time” means the #primordial soup at the dawn of existence, an unburdening of consciousness where the only thing to worry about is the threat of heat death, with none of that pesky empathy to get in the way of one basking in id.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
June 18, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Yearning to “return to a simpler time” means the #primordial soup at the dawn of existence, an unburdening of consciousness where the only thing to worry about is the threat of heat death, with none of that pesky empathy to get in the way of one basking in id.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
There is a drive, oft derailed by the intimate details, to be a part of something bigger than one’s #self, the goal quickly abandoned when scale back will do. For a tree doesn’t grow full straight from seed, but gradually fills the space it is destined to occupy.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
June 16, 2025 at 1:22 AM
There is a drive, oft derailed by the intimate details, to be a part of something bigger than one’s #self, the goal quickly abandoned when scale back will do. For a tree doesn’t grow full straight from seed, but gradually fills the space it is destined to occupy.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Against the winds of the world, my wants seem #small and delicate. Those nights, when knees come close to buckle, I wonder why I spent so much time on flitting, fragile things. But I know, down deep, that they made me who I am - a man far stronger than seeming.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
June 10, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Against the winds of the world, my wants seem #small and delicate. Those nights, when knees come close to buckle, I wonder why I spent so much time on flitting, fragile things. But I know, down deep, that they made me who I am - a man far stronger than seeming.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Why did he seek the risk? Why leave the ocean and aim for life’s #strait? Threading that line, to become the wreck his family already thought him to be, yet ripping them from their comfortable assumption by emerging on the other side - was just too tantalizing.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
June 4, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Why did he seek the risk? Why leave the ocean and aim for life’s #strait? Threading that line, to become the wreck his family already thought him to be, yet ripping them from their comfortable assumption by emerging on the other side - was just too tantalizing.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#splinter in the mood
Breaking a day into night
Splitting flesh of dreams.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Breaking a day into night
Splitting flesh of dreams.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
June 3, 2025 at 12:58 AM
#splinter in the mood
Breaking a day into night
Splitting flesh of dreams.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Breaking a day into night
Splitting flesh of dreams.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
If her eyes were an endless ocean - as he had so often crooned - then in his betrayal she would not given him the pleasure of drowning, with no drop or drop of #brine to spare.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
May 30, 2025 at 1:09 AM
If her eyes were an endless ocean - as he had so often crooned - then in his betrayal she would not given him the pleasure of drowning, with no drop or drop of #brine to spare.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
Due to the silent stares from his new coworkers, it didn’t take Daniel long to realize that his previous excitement at being transferred to the #nudibranch division of the marine biology department had been based on a gross misunderstanding.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
May 29, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Due to the silent stares from his new coworkers, it didn’t take Daniel long to realize that his previous excitement at being transferred to the #nudibranch division of the marine biology department had been based on a gross misunderstanding.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
“Ooo, watch out…”
“Stop it.”
“You’re in dangerous waters. I hear there’s a #narwhal about-“
“-cut it out, I’m serious-“
“-if you’re not careful, he might poke you-“
“-MOM! I’m 35. Please just give me flu shot already!”
“Oh, you’re no fun. Now hold still, little sailor!”
#vss365 #toxic
“Stop it.”
“You’re in dangerous waters. I hear there’s a #narwhal about-“
“-cut it out, I’m serious-“
“-if you’re not careful, he might poke you-“
“-MOM! I’m 35. Please just give me flu shot already!”
“Oh, you’re no fun. Now hold still, little sailor!”
#vss365 #toxic
May 26, 2025 at 7:10 AM
At #selkie elementary school, teaching the English alphabet has always proven difficult, as all students get stuck with a stutter on the letter “R”.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
May 22, 2025 at 12:37 PM
At #selkie elementary school, teaching the English alphabet has always proven difficult, as all students get stuck with a stutter on the letter “R”.
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
#vss365 #writing #writingcommunity
In #defense of the #anglerfish,
it may look vicious, but I have to imagine that he’s really just a friendly little chap lighting the way for weary ocean travelers. Much like a Motel 6, he’ll leave the light on for you.
#vss365 #writing #writingcomminity #iknowexactlyonefactaboutanglerfish
it may look vicious, but I have to imagine that he’s really just a friendly little chap lighting the way for weary ocean travelers. Much like a Motel 6, he’ll leave the light on for you.
#vss365 #writing #writingcomminity #iknowexactlyonefactaboutanglerfish
May 21, 2025 at 2:03 AM
In #defense of the #anglerfish,
it may look vicious, but I have to imagine that he’s really just a friendly little chap lighting the way for weary ocean travelers. Much like a Motel 6, he’ll leave the light on for you.
#vss365 #writing #writingcomminity #iknowexactlyonefactaboutanglerfish
it may look vicious, but I have to imagine that he’s really just a friendly little chap lighting the way for weary ocean travelers. Much like a Motel 6, he’ll leave the light on for you.
#vss365 #writing #writingcomminity #iknowexactlyonefactaboutanglerfish
We need #clarity
When the homonym #matrix
Complicates language.
Ever can a wrath-filled #wraith
Know more than a piece of peace?
#vss365 #poem #poetry #tanka #writing #writingcommunity #catchingup
When the homonym #matrix
Complicates language.
Ever can a wrath-filled #wraith
Know more than a piece of peace?
#vss365 #poem #poetry #tanka #writing #writingcommunity #catchingup
May 19, 2025 at 5:03 AM
We need #clarity
When the homonym #matrix
Complicates language.
Ever can a wrath-filled #wraith
Know more than a piece of peace?
#vss365 #poem #poetry #tanka #writing #writingcommunity #catchingup
When the homonym #matrix
Complicates language.
Ever can a wrath-filled #wraith
Know more than a piece of peace?
#vss365 #poem #poetry #tanka #writing #writingcommunity #catchingup