Oregon Trail BY NATE MARSHALL

 Oregon Trail

BY NATE MARSHALL

For my great aunt & Jonathan Hicks

my first venture west was in Windows 98

or Independence, Missouri. class in the computer lab

& we were supposed to be playing some typing game

or another. the one i remember had a haunted theme.

ghosts instructing us on the finer points of where

to put our fingers. these were the last days

before keyboards as appendage, when typing

was not nature. i should’ve been letting an apparition

coach me through QWERTY but rather

i was at the general store deciding between ammo & axles,

considering the merits of being a banker or carpenter.

too young to know what profession

would get me to the Willamette Valley

in the space of a 40-minute period.

i aimed my rifle with the arrow keys, tapped the space

bar with a prayer for meat to haul back to the wagon.

this game came difficult as breathing underwater after

trying to ford a river.

                                        i was no good at survival.

somebody always fell ill or out into the river.

each new day scurvy or a raid was the fate of a character

named for my crush or my baby sister.

this loss i know, how to measure what it means

to die premature before a school period ends.

i can’t understand the game coming to a late end.

an elderly daughter grieving her elderly mother.

reading the expansive obit in a suburban

Detroit church is a confusing newness.

when the old do the thing the world expects

i retreat into my former self. focus on beating

video games I’ve always sucked at, brush up

on Chicago Bulls history, re-memorize

the Backstreet Boys catalog, push

away whatever woman is foolhardy enough

to be on any road with me. i pioneer my way away

from all the known world. i look at homicide rates

& wish we all expired the way i know best. i pray

for a senseless, poetic departure. i pray for my family

to not be around to miss me while i’m still here.

i want a short obituary, a life brief & unfulfilled,

the introductory melody before a beat’s crescendo into song,

the game over somewhere in the Great Plains.

i want to spare my descendants the confusion

of watching a flame flicker slow. keep them from being

at a funeral thumbing the faded family pictures like worn keys,

observing the journey done, the game won, the west

conquered.

There’s something out there — maybe.

 There’s something out there — maybe.

China’s science ministry said this week that it picked up signs of alien life on the world’s largest radio telescope — then appeared to quickly delete a report about the discovery.

The country’s powerful Sky Eye telescope detected electromagnetic signals of possible civilizations on other planets,  according to a report published Tuesday in Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

“[There were] several cases of possible technological traces and extraterrestrial civilizations from outside the earth,” the report said.

The team of researchers, headed by the Beijing Normal University, said the mysterious frequencies were unlike anything they’d previously encountered and were investigating further, according to the report.

Sort of nazi flag

 

Women used to actually exist

 

Men can get pregnant

 👅

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Abortion witness tells Congress men can get pregnant and have abortions

Misty Severi  5/18/2022

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A witness who supports abortion rights during the House Judiciary Committee's abortion hearing Wednesday said she believes a person can choose what gender they identify as and that, therefore, men can get pregnant and have abortions.

Aimee Arrambide, the executive director of the abortion advocacy group Avow Texas, was asked by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) what she believes the definition of a woman is.

DHS PREPARING FOR 'INCREASE' IN VIOLENCE OVER ABORTION RULING: REPORT

“I believe that everyone can identify for themselves," Arrambide said.

When asked if she then believed that men could therefore get pregnant and have abortions, her response was a simple "yes." Bishop did not push the topic any further.

Wednesday's meeting came after a draft opinion that revealed five Supreme Court Justices are prepared to overturn the historic rulings in Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood was leaked at the beginning of May.

The draft, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, said abortion laws belong in the hands of independent states instead of the federal government. However, if the official ruling, expected next month, does revert the power of abortion law back to the states, the procedure would become illegal in multiple states, including Texas, Missouri, and Tennessee.