Jay Besemer
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divinetailor.bsky.social
Jay Besemer
@divinetailor.bsky.social
920 followers 450 following 14K posts
poet-artist-fool. aging, tr🔼ns, qu3️⃣3️⃣r, sick/disabled, autistic. he/they. i do not often follow back, so don’t follow me with that expectation.🚨DO NOT ADD TO STARTER PACKS WITHOUT CONSENT!🚨
http://www.jaybesemer.net
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divinetailor.bsky.social
this is sonny!
sonny peeks out from within a cardboard box, open at both ends, where he is lying on his back trying to grab a ping pong ball with his extended paw. sonny lying atop me, stretched out asleep, as i lie in bed under my red wool blanket. he’s in extreme front-on foreshortening. sonny being a pretzel on the bed with his front & back halves aligned in different planes and his face in a silly gremlin look, upside down. sonny in an empty 24-pak pop carton, one hind leg poking out, on his back. he’s looking at the camera as if to say, “so?”
January 20, 2026 at 3:41 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
or
simple graphic labeled “poetry” consisting of a green circle containing the words “early life,” “education” and “career-death”
January 19, 2026 at 1:38 AM
divinetailor.bsky.social
r.’s sitting there reading ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY behind me as i putter around in the kitchen. i guess it’s time to trot one of these out…
silly promotional “card” showing my book ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY held by my favorite blue and silver dalek in “dalek alley” at @chicagotardis.bsky.social. the dalek says “i laughed, i cried, it was better than CATS” in a daleky way. a caption with an arrow points to a QR code, asking “is the dalek right? find out today!”
January 18, 2026 at 7:12 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
yes, we are all professionals here.
r. is wearing a tarnished silver plated mellophone as a hat, while sonny looks on somewhat disbelievingly from his perch along the top molding of the sideboard. in the background our fridge, chandelier, kitchen cabinet and a hanging light enclosed in a paper lantern are visible. r. looks up into sonny’s face. sonny carefully engages in a thorough olfactory inspection of the rim of the mellophone bell while r. stabilizes it on his head. r., playing the mellophone, while sonny remains skeptical. nevertheless the scene is suggestive of the iconic rca dog-and-gramophone image.
January 16, 2026 at 7:36 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
here is derek jarman’s A FINGER IN THE FISHES MOUTH, a poetry collection with selected postcard reprints from jarman’s collection. this is a facsimile edition from house sparrow press with a forewordish by @suchmayer.bsky.social. a few of yous may be interested…
the book identified in the post above, held in my hand. what’s not described in the post is the cover image: a slim young person in a big straw hat, grinning coyly in 3/4 view to the camera, holding a finger to the mouth of a flying fish propped in their other hand.
January 16, 2026 at 6:22 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
looking a little flattened (& like i suddenly forgot my lines) in this mirror selfie…i’m wearing my black vest from the cover of ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY & the beret featured in many images inside the book. they’re moth-eaten, i have old-man arms…but we are still here!!
i seem none too sure of this bathroom mirror selfie as described above, but the odd facial expression is more an attempt to somehow look both in the mirror and at the phone so i can find the camera button. just goes to show how bad i am at multitasking. that’s one of r.’s round paintings in the background there, with its candy-colored vertical stripes.
January 16, 2026 at 4:10 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
i gave sonny the packing paper from a book delivery to play with, & he made this habitat-nest-installation
low floor-level shot of a sheet of brown paper, partly uncrumpled and formed into a cat-sized tunnel-dome shape. other lengths of crumpled brown paper are partially visible behind this form, including a scoop-shaped nest.
January 15, 2026 at 3:17 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
when i was little i had the fisher price castl, & i admit, the dragon that lived in the dungeon was a role model
hot pink fisher-price dragon with painted yellow spots and turquoise blue neck and tail ridges
January 14, 2026 at 7:32 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
monday…
sonny in motion engaged in removing an unseen ping pong ball from an empty 24-pak of diet coke. he has a fierce and manic facial expression with wide eyes and fangs partly bared, his head and most of his paws are inside the box—which is vertical and open—and he’s on his back with his rear and undertail facing the camera.
January 12, 2026 at 6:16 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
i’ve had this black wool turtleneck sweater for over 35 years. it had been left in the scene/prop/puppet shop of the theatre department on campus & i adopted it one chilly day. it used to have a big wodge of white paint on the sleeve, but now it’s dwindled to a trace. my ex & i used to speculate
a properly middle-aged rib-knit black wool turtleneck sweater with specks of lint, lying open-armed on a red couch and yellow pillow.
January 11, 2026 at 2:51 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
meanwhile: the game is afoot
sonny is barely contained in a cardboard box open at both ends. at front, an ear and extended front paw. at rear, a telltale tail. the box bears a label in black marker: “royal canin digestive number 5090 4 boxes.” he awaits delivery of a ping pong ball in this football variant.
January 10, 2026 at 1:30 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
i certainly did not expect to see this old red-orange LUV truck with white/orange check upholstery parked down the street today😻
somewhat battered and rust-gnawed, with worn but vibrant original paint, a chevy LUV compact pickup sits bathed in bold shadows and bright morning sunlight on a quiet street. two brick residences are in the background.
January 6, 2026 at 11:50 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
ah, ok—he’s having one of these kinds of days.
sonny blurred in mid-step as he negotiates the slim edges of the utility sink in the laundry room. it’s full of water and some garments soaking for hand-wash. all kinds of mops and scrub stuff surround the sink.
January 1, 2026 at 6:57 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
i am cooking. he is…i don’t really know what he’s doing.
sonny stands on a countertop crowded with ingredients (rice, vegetable oil, a big box of baki g soda) and rests his front paws on the lower frame of the wooden pantry cabinet whose door latch he stretches to sniff.
January 1, 2026 at 6:04 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
misty, rainy, thundery woods walk. my camera didn’t quite get the mist, but r.’s did when the rain escalated!
where we had been: view down the path in the direction we came from. wet leaves and moderate mud on the ground between bare trees and scrub. it’s not really obvious from this photo, but this path goes along the top of a ridge. at the bottom is a river reduced to a small stream in places, due to beaver activity and overtaking reeds. ahead on the path: rupert fastens his waxed duck raincoat, his umbrella at the ready, as the thunder gets closer. the rain is gentle at this point, so his umbrella is furled. again it’s not possible to see that the path skirts the edge of a ridge. close up of a patch of small shelf fungi (perhaps turkey tail?) growing on a slender tree. one very soggy badger: r. got a shot of me fastening my very unwaxed black cotton poncho in the downpour. it’s already saturated and shiny-wet. my walking stick leans against my body as i button the poncho over the bump made by my camera zipped beneath my wool jackshirt. i seem to be saying something. maybe it’s “it sounds like a tent under this hood,” because it did. you can see the rain pouring off the edge of the hood on the left side.
December 28, 2025 at 6:32 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
[reverb] DRAMATIC UNDERLIGHTING [/reverb]
sonny in a favorite lurking spot in the gap between the ceiling and the molding on top of our freestanding bedroom wall. strongly lit from below, his shadow looms on the ceiling above him. his eyes are closed. the torn top edge of a mixed-media-on-paper painting is visible on the wall beneath the dark finish of the wood molding.
December 24, 2025 at 12:06 AM
divinetailor.bsky.social
i love this label—just noticed the mise en abîme in the middle!

(need to replace the stuff itself, tho—losing its oomph)
a yellow, red and blue section cut from the label of a tin of “royal” brand baking powder. in the center of the label there’s an oval vignette of a tin of royal brand baking powder, in the center of whose label is an oval vignette of a tin…etc.
December 23, 2025 at 8:17 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
“so whaddya think…should we get the band together again or what?”
an aged, weathered, oxidized small bronze sculpture of a triceratops, a t-rex and (anachronistically) a wooly mammoth or even a modern elephant atop a globe. this is part of a series of small bronzes lining the roosevelt ave. bridge. the series is meant to connect to the field museum, part of the “museum campus” into which roosevelt ave. feeds.
December 23, 2025 at 7:50 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
my source for this is this volume of bonus discs from the big dvd box set. unfortunately i don’t recall off the top just which featurette has the story, but that’s just an excuse for a rewatch!
dvd case with THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. DEBRIEFING BONUS DISCS specified on the cover.
December 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
so i’ve been obsessed with this collage by @allisonanne.com, which i received as a postcard print, part of my subscription to their TINDERBOX POST series of monthly collage mini-zines, fun ephemera & other treats made available on real paper & in your actual mailbox. my photo is bad but may suffice:
torn paper collage image combines beige, red and black fragments layered over one another into a roughly pyramidal shape against white ground. the main feature for me is a pair of photographed butterfly wings, laid over one another in a way that emphasizes shape and color instead of naturalism. i find it very exciting and beautiful to look at.
December 21, 2025 at 6:16 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
solstice ramble: finally got to the woods after more than a month without. we found a path we could never access before, leading to places we’ve always wanted to reach. a day of surprises.
on a path through thw reeds surrounding a wetland on the other side of the levee from the river, a crisp blue sky hangs poised above a frozen pond. r. is on the ice out of frame, taking his own photographs. i can’t go out onto the ice. sun limns a fluffy seed head on a tall reed at the upper left corner, turning the sky a paler blue in this photo. it’s from a vantage more protected beneath a great sleeping oak that we’ve photographed repeatedly over the years, but in leaf and from the levee. here the frozen pond stretches out directly in front of me, clearly leading to a treeline on a near horizon. more reeds surround the ice. fallen branches would hold birds if there were any active close by. here’s a surprise: a toddler’s plastic toy riding car of the sort that gets pushed along by their feet on the pavement. it’s on the incline leading to the top of the levee, and many toothmarks on the back carry-handle make one think that it was not brought to that spot by a toddler.
December 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
i will never disavow my delight in silly hats.
looking completely “bananacakes,” as a friend of mine says, i lean toward the camera with a silly look on my face, looking askance through my glasses toward the viewer. i am wearing a sleeveless black t-shirt, gray pinstripe wool vest (“western” style), black-framed glasses and a deeply silly black earflap hat, flaps down.
December 20, 2025 at 10:57 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
recreation of an old sartorial joke from my teens
an olive green cotton flak jacket (czech) sleeve with a curved yellow felt/white embroidery british army “army catering corps” patch sewn on the shoulder
December 19, 2025 at 5:10 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
moons & pine trees, because they’re in the middle of the pagan-zen venn 🌲🌕
on a turquoise fake-fiestaware plate, several layers of gingerbread cookies struggle to fit on the plate. they are not iced and are thin, cut in circles and two types of pine-tree shapes.
December 17, 2025 at 6:56 PM
divinetailor.bsky.social
turtle hanging out in waterfall pool watching humans; big glorious hanging pitcher plants
in the fern room of the garfield park conservatory a colorful medium-size turtle casually hangs out on the rim of a human-made waterfall pool traversing the length of the room. a vivid pink stripe above each eye is one of the notable features of this turtle. green, fleshy, pendulous pitcher plant “fruits” hang from a shiny-leafed plant. each pitcher is topped with a sort of cowl in a vague diamond shape. in the background one of the pitchers is dented.
December 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM