Darby Lyons
@darbylyons.bsky.social
1.6K followers 950 following 3.7K posts
Retired English teacher, poet. Book and music lover. Midwesterner, kind of (Army brat, IYKYK), with Appalachian roots. MFA, Sewanee School of Letters. Senior editorial assistant, Cincinnati Review.
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Reposted by Darby Lyons
rabihalameddine.bsky.social
I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag.
-Molly Ivins
Reposted by Darby Lyons
janezwart.bsky.social
It broke my heart to write this poem, and I would give it back if I could reverse my brother's death or my mom's diagnosis. But it doesn't work like that. So I'm trying to open my hands to the joy of having a poem in @thenation.com. Thank you, Kaveh Akbar, et al.
www.thenation.com/article/cult...
What We Talk About When We Talk About Cancer
www.thenation.com
darbylyons.bsky.social
Hahaha!!! What a freak.
oregonian.com
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson calls Sunday's naked bike ride in protest of the Portland ICE facility and and Trump troop deployment "the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet"

www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...
darbylyons.bsky.social
Wait, are you telling me they weren't just discussing small government and lower taxes?
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
Reposted by Darby Lyons
gbrockell.bsky.social
Turns out "Democracy Dies in Darkness" was a statement of intent.
darbylyons.bsky.social
There are few sounds as maddening as a leaf blower.
Reposted by Darby Lyons
matthewjdowd.bsky.social
on this day in 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne is first published.

“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.”

“Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”

“The things that make me different are the things that make me.”
darbylyons.bsky.social
The House passed a resolution last month that October 14 would be Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day, so I resolved to donate to an organization that supports LGBTQ+ youth on October 14. There are so many worthy organizations, I hope others will consider a similar form of "remembrance."
Trevor Project logo above text that says "Dear Darby, Your generous support makes a life-saving difference for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis..."
Reposted by Darby Lyons
erininthemorning.com
9. Mamdani’s unapologetic embrace of marginalized communities shows what real leadership looks like: a politics that doesn’t ask whom to abandon to win, but whom to lift up to build something worth winning for.
Reposted by Darby Lyons
thetnholler.bsky.social
“Peace” update: “5 killed by IDF in Gaza despite ceasefire…”

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
Reposted by Darby Lyons
radleybalko.bsky.social
This was once the kind of shit we cited to differentiate ourselves from authoritarian countries. It’s just who we are now.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.
royalpratt.bsky.social
NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
darbylyons.bsky.social
Sometimes I think about how many phone numbers I carried around in my head, and it boggles my mind, especially since I barely remember my current phone number now!
Reposted by Darby Lyons
bleary.off-the-records.com
If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.
Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?
darbylyons.bsky.social
Sally still hasn't responded?
darbylyons.bsky.social
Experiment results are in.
bsky.app/profile/bran...
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
Promoting the editor-in-chief's personal side project. Zero named sources in a story that promotes the editor-in-chief's personal political position. Misspelling the subject's name. It took one day for CBS News to become a conservative blog.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...
CBS News: Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming NYC mayor the Free Press reports.
darbylyons.bsky.social
I misread this as "vote on a new U.S. map" at first, and honestly...it didn't surprise me given how things have been going lately.
Reposted by Darby Lyons
audilocus.bsky.social
This seems a great time to pipe up with a #Conrad4Congress! There's a working-class guy running against Mike Johnson in Louisiana (@conrad4congress.bsky.social). ✊💞
darbylyons.bsky.social
😂 I'm definitely going to start calling all my friends Conrad.
darbylyons.bsky.social
...this security guy, an off-duty cop, apparently thinks that smoking in a non-smoking building is...a right guaranteed by the first amendment. Why oh why are people so stunningly ignorant?
darbylyons.bsky.social
I live in a non-smoking apartment building. Everyone who signs a lease agrees not to smoke inside the building or on their balconies. Simple. A neighbor with some serious health issues called security about someone smoking near her, and the security guy said, "Well, you know, first amendment."😳...
Reposted by Darby Lyons
hanvanderhart.bsky.social
October humidity
Like a heart-red tower light,
now bright, now not so bright.

Autumn night at the end of the world.

Charles Wright, from The Sestets

We Hope That Love Calls Us, but Sometimes We're Not So Sure

No wind-sighs. And rain-splatter heaves up over the mountains, and dies out.
October humidity
Like a heart-red tower light,
now bright, now not so bright.
Autumn night at the end of the world.
In its innermost corridors,
all damp and all light are gone, and love, too.
Amber does not remember the pine.
darbylyons.bsky.social
I just binged the first 4 seasons and am so .ad I have to wait a week between episodes now. I was trying to describe the show to a friend, and all I could come up with is "spies with a The Wire meets Line of Duty vibe...and a very flatulent boss with extra greasy hair."
Reposted by Darby Lyons
espiers.bsky.social
The thought police are people who tell you what to think and demand you think it, not people who tell you what you think is shallow or stupid or thoughtless