Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brennan Bestwick

@yrfrenbren.bsky.social

1.2K followers 2.6K following 670 posts

Poet. Birder. Prom king. He/Him. https://awetheater.substack.com/

awetheater.substack.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Nov 9

Spending more time here, so a brief reintroduction. I’m a poet, reader, hobby photographer, proud Kansan. Albums I love from this year are mui zyu’s “nothing or something to die for” And Brittany Howard’s “What Now”

Here’s some of my #poetry from an issue of Prairie Schooner a few years back.

The poem is entitled “Let Us Pray” it reads: I find a possum playing dead in the garage / and it seems a good time to reevaluate / my mortality. Death is a marsupial trick // The path to becoming unappetizing prey / ends in puddles of drool. I elude death / similarly. I spot my pillow in shallow pools. //
The possum wakes when all sign of danger / has passed. A switch is flipped in the body / instinctively. Self-care is an animal invention. // I developed a habit early in adolescence / of pretending to be asleep when I annoyed / my mother. Most of the time this worked. // Our language conflates sleep and death / so comfortably. Jesus told his disciples / that Lazarus was sleeping. And why not? // I recite a bedtime prayer for children / on nights when my breathing is strained. / I ask the Lord to keep my soul safe until I wake. //

With clinical precision, some spirit deftly slips / my being out through the nostril with heavenly forceps. /
My soul swims in a jar on a shelf in a sterile God lab. // There is a saint for every ugly taxidermy. / Of course, the possum's anal glands secrete / a foul warning. No science is without practicality. // I have still been kissed despite morning breath. / We are both needed and unbecoming. / Our better natures fed and hungry. // I rise from the garage passed over in my dusty pelt. / I am current in every disaster that promises to kill / the world around us. What trick is better than living?

3 2 29

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

very funny that JD Vance has so little to do with his time that he goes on podcasts to defend 30-year-old men for saying how much they love Hitler

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19h

JD Vance dismisses Young Republicans who in a group chat said "I love Hitler" and joked about slavery and rape as "a bunch of kids" who "told stupid jokes" and adds that "most of the stupid things I did when I was a teenager and young adult, they're not on the internet."

190 1.4K 6.8K

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 5d

“Just go outside!” No, I want the protector and close quarters sitting cross cross applesauce amongst my peers.

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 5d

I’ve tired of social media, I yearn for the the inflatable star lab of old, that mysteriously appeared for one fleeting morning in the grade school gymnasium.

1 2

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 5d

Imagining a social media app with no AI, only real humans picking berries, baking a delicious pie, showing you a binoculars view of their favorite bird

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 8d

A distinct memory I have from being a chronically ill child is my mother driving me home from school early on Halloween, sitting in the passenger’s seat dressed as a vampire.

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 9d

I don’t want ai TikTok videos, I want the basketball highlights set to Midwest emo videos and the Mario kart edits scored by Geese

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 10d

Saw a cyber truck with a custom camo paint job pull into the big church parking lot this morning. A little heavy handed image, but seems to sum everything up

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 18d

If ever there was a time not to normalize Trump’s authoritarian fever dreams, this is it.

This should be impeachable. ‘War ravaged’ Portland? He’s insane - & insanely power hungry. The script is set - call an imaginary group a terror group and then send in the troops.

520 2.6K 8.3K

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 21d

A joy of getting older is a deepening appreciation for simple watches and nice umbrellas

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 23d

Pretty high on my list!

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 23d

Deal!

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 23d

It’s not a poetry bit, I’ve been real into plums lately. A truly under-appreciated fruit.

2 3

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

404 Media @404media.co · 23d

NEW: 404 Media is suing ICE. We have filed a lawsuit demanding the agency release its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware to break into phones and read messages from encrypted chat apps www.404media.co/were-suing-i...

We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract

404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.

www.404media.co

21 570 1.8K

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 23d

Hell yea, brother

Nathan Edwards @grackle.space · 23d

dudes rock

Tumblr post from every-lemon
Sep 8

so my spouse is part of a weirdly intense but mostly benign men's workout group that meets at like, 5:30am outside every day, even in winter. they do a lot of burpees and lugging cinder blocks up hills and stuff.
they take turns leading the workouts and tomorrow is his turn. I asked what he was planning. he handed me a sheet of William Carlos William poems from a large stack he'd printed.
I said "what" and he explained, helpfully, "it's a William Carlos William themed workout." I asked what inspired it and he said "l've been planning this for months."

Follow up tumblr post
every-lemon
Sep 9
it was a smash hit.
a dozen guys showed up (more than usual). spouse brought a red wheelbarrow and they took turns bringing cinder blocks up the hill with it. then they broke up in teams and did a relay with an "icebox" (cooler filled with 40lbs of ice). at the end he opened the cooler to reveal it was full of beach plum lacroix and all the guys cheered. they drank sparkling water as he read 'approach of winter' out loud.
he was home by 6:30am.

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 23d

Looking at RFK's recent moves, including an attack on the hepatitis B vaccine and on painkillers for pregnant women.

The common theme: That all children's health problems are due to "bad" mothers.

This isn't about making kids healthy. It's misogyny.

www.salon.com/2025/09/22/r...

RFK Jr's war on vaccines is about shaming women, not helping kids

The MAHA movement regards all childhood ailments as a sign that moms are failing

www.salon.com

71 870 2.5K

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · 23d

Critics not liking Ocean Vuong’s latest novel is fine (maybe less weird vitriol?), but his poetry is so dear to me that I will forever ride for Team Vuong and no one can stop me.

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Sep 5

a plum from the icebox is pretty good, the poets are right, you really gotta try these!

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

It's ME(Jaime) @exceedhergrasp1.bsky.social · Sep 3

Holy hell, more like this:

“This bill harms me in an unforgivable way. This is a line you don’t cross with me. If you cross it today you’re staying on other side of it, because you have done irreparable harm. You’re doing harm to the body and Nebraska as well. Don’t say hi to me in the hall. Don’t ask me how my weekend was. Don’t walk my desk and ask me anything. Don’t send me Christmas cards. Take me off the list. You don’t know me. We have no relationship. And if you don’t believe me, if you think I’m going to cool down and change my mind? You should believe me. No one in the world holds a grudge like me. And no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don’t care. I don’t like you. You aren’t welcome in my space. You aren’t’ a safe person for my child to be around or any child frankly. Don’t believe me? You should.” -- State Sen. Megan Hunt (D)

12 440 1.2K

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Aug 22

The absence of Tim Gunn is very loud in this contentious season of Runway.

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Aug 17

The D&D group doesn’t have figures specific to the campaign, but we make do.

A mat composed of small squares with random cat gashapon, Goku and a hello kitty figure

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Aug 16

This new Dijon record is exactly what I needed

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · Aug 14

This fits pretty squarely in the classic definition of assault in that it a) is unlawfully directed at constitutionally protected activity and (b) causes the victim to reasonably fear imminent physically harmful contact

Simon Fondrie-Teitler @simon.overgrown.garden · Aug 14

US Park Police now doing traffic stops in DC, and charged at me with a baton for filming closer than they liked

210 2K 6.3K

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Aug 14

Bleating heart

cruelty as spectacle, a crude surgery

open.substack.com

Brennan Bestwick @yrfrenbren.bsky.social · Aug 13

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Assistant

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 13

Slightly diminish a band: Huey Lewis and the Social Media

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 13

Slightly diminish a band: The Only Mostly Dead Kennedys

Reposted by Brennan Bestwick

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Aug 12

i think they're handing this medal out to dipshits *because* it's gone to people like rosa parks and MLK

The Daily Beast @thedailybeast.bsky.social · Aug 12

The ex-DOGE staffer “Big Balls” may receive the highest civilian honor in the U.S., placing him in the company of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa.

White House May Award ‘Big Balls’ Same Medal as Rosa Parks

The move would appeal to Trump’s MAGA base.

trib.al

240 830 5.1K