Homesick-Eye, Issue 2.2
Before we start this issue in a regular fashion, I have a few announcements(ish)!
Firstly, in preparation for Napowrimo 2025, I am doing #TowardsNapowrimo, where I strive to write at least 2 poems each week. It’s far from a poem a day, but I hope to get warmed up enough to see Napowrimo’25 to the end. If you’d like to join me on Instagram at homesickvoid, feel free to use the tag and connect. 2025 for me is the year of growing in poetry, and I’d love to grow with you all.
Secondly, I am selling some mint condition books I bought a couple of months ago in Bengaluru. Simply saying, I have outgrown these books and there is regrettably no space in my house to keep them.
Find the list here. They’re all at 25% off because I barely opened them since they were bought. I would love for these books to find new homes. You can reach out to me on my social medias for any further information!
And now, on to our regularly scheduled programming.
The (In)convenience of Things
a rant
As people, we like convenience. It’s an unconscious human urge to lean towards that which is convenient. But this convenience demands a price we seldom rethink.
In a conversation at Headcanon Magazine’s Bollywood issue launch, we talked about cultural convenience. The convenience of Hinduism for me, is inconvenient to someone else. The convenience of a Sari for me is not the same as the convenience of a Burkha or an Abaya for someone else.
Cultural convenience goes beyond the performativity of attire. It’s in language, in what constitutes the arbitrary connections of languages. What makes a table not a chair, a man not a woman, if not for the convenience of language?
But I think we should be more interested in inconvenience of things. We should be interested in what is inconvenient to us and why. What makes an inconvenience? Why is open sexuality inconvenient? Why is empathy inconvenient? Why are things like feminism, equality, socialism inconvenient?
The answer is in the status quo. We as people are drenched in societies with different status quos. Our ideas of inconvenience are learned behavior. Anything threatening the status quo of our lives is inconvenient.
And like all learned behavior, we can unlearn it. Once we take an interest in the inconvenient, and learn why it is so, we can accept it as a reluctant convenience.
I’m not sure how much sense I am making in these words, but I am reminded of how rebellion is inconvenient. As common protests are today, they’re inconvenient to institutions of power and authority. It’s the biggest example of how important cultural inconvenience is to the improvement of society as a whole, not just the top 1%.
So as uncomfortable as it is, learn inconvenience. Perform it, live it. Be so inconvenient that you’re never accused of supporting the status quo.
Be proudly inconvenient.
Self-Affirmations for the average homesick
i. Sometimes, it’s enough to try.
ii. You could suck at the thing you love to do, but as long as you love it, you’re doing great.
iii. Listen to yourself more.
iv. There are multiple versions of you that exist, and you should love them all.
v. You have many valuable things to contribute. If not at home, then in the world. Choose that which values you.
vi. It’s okay to hate yourself some days, as long as you remember to love yourself on others.
vii. Everything you like has a place in the world and none of it is inferior in any way.
viii. You don’t owe anyone anything, not even your own mind.
ix. As dark as the inside of your mind might be, the outside is always brighter. On days you’re stuck, open a window.
x. Everyday, wake up and choose the version of yourself you want to be. Sullen, happy, sulky, angry, there’s space for them all.
sidenote: You don’t have to like everything about yourself to love yourself.
In Honor of Meeting Another Stucky Fan
i. “Somebody that I Used To Know” - Click the link to see this beautiful and melancholy gifset art by muensterfucker on Tumblr.
ii. We’re All in the Gutter, but Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars by chipofftheoldblock:
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ he said, and Maria looked a little appeased, though now she was gesturing for him to get off stage. And then he smiled real big and wide and sincere and said, ‘Guess I’m just real fuckin’ tired of everyone treating me like an idiot. To answer your question, ain’t a lot I really miss. Polio was pretty fuckin’ awful, and so was the food, and the racism and homophobia and hatred so many folks had for one another for dumb-as-shit differences was so goddamn stupid -’
Maria was suddenly on stage beside him, pulling his microphone away and grabbing his arm with a steel grip. Steve just leaned over to Nat’s mic with a shit-eating grin on his face and said, ‘Thank you so much for your time.’
Steve's tired of the world treating him like he doesn't know a damn thing about the future. Bucky's tired of not knowing a damn thing about the past.
They meet somewhere in the middle.
iii. “I wonder for how long, after steve crashed that airplane into the arctic, bucky was still clinging to the memory of him” by renif
Mag Calls/Hiring Alerts/Events alerts
My top 7 selections for this month!
Accepting self-portrait submissions for the upcoming issue
Deadline: Within the next 18 days
Unpaid
Accepting all year round submissions
Paid!!
Ayaskala’s Poetry Writing Retreat
Check out their Instagram for more details
Open position: Desk Editor
Apply via their LinkedIn
Open position: Research Integrity Editor
Apply via their LinkedIn
Deadline: Till May 31st
Paid!!
Deadline: Till May 1st
Paid!!
This issue is early because I felt compelled to write it. I would love to hear your thoughts on everything, and I’d love to include new fandom art that you’d like to see. Always, always reach out.
(P.S. I am totally serious about selling those books. Hit me up, folks. I need to make space for new ones)
All my warmth.