{"id":312836,"date":"2026-02-09T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=312836"},"modified":"2026-02-03T05:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:36:52","slug":"shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/02\/shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Shine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

By Caitlin Johnstone (public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

2 Feb 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Smoke and sky spiders fill the air
\nas missiles smash into Gaza
\nand powerful men drive needles
\ninto the flesh of young girls.<\/p>\n

Turns out Chomsky partied with Epstein,
\nso now I have to take up vaping
\nand go fill a shoebox with polaroid photos
\nof dead birds in car parks.
\nI\u2019ll pretend I\u2019m doing it ironically
\nso no one mocks my prayer cards
\nfor a dying world.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the Buddha looks like the Buddha.
\nSometimes he looks like bleached coral reefs,
\nor rapefinger plutocrats with pointy teeth.
\nSometimes he looks like a woman in her early fifties
\nsobbing snot-nosed and red-faced
\nat the cruelty of it all
\nin pajama bottoms
\nand a Pink Floyd t-shirt.<\/p>\n

The war drums are getting louder,
\nand the bank boys are getting horny again,
\nand the flesh of the innocent is so soft
\nand so easy to digest,
\nand the darkness hides so much,
\nand the light makes so little difference.<\/p>\n

But we shine it anyway.<\/p>\n

We shine it anyway.<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper<\/em>. Contact: <\/em>admin@caitlinjohnstone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – caitlinjohnstone.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoke and sky spiders fill the air
\nas missiles smash into Gaza
\nand powerful men drive needles
\ninto the flesh of young girls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":312837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-312836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312838,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312836\/revisions\/312838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}