Elizebeth Turnquist

health is a cliche

They speak in platitudes

Phrases they don’t try to understand

Declaring that “health is wealth”

Saying, “at least you have your health”

And if we are ill, then “get better soon”

They tell us to “focus on your health”

Like health is a synonym of happy

Dare I suggest a moment of reflection

As I speak in competing cliche

We all know, “getting old is inevitable”

And “illness the companion of old age”

We don’t need to win at health

Health is a changeable part of life

Disability a morally neutral fact

Even if I’m not able to run a mile

I can still wear my stuborn smile.

2026-02-16
money vs medicine

Money doesn’t care about people

Profit has a tangible downside

People think medicine is care

Medical professionals want to be caring

But insurance companies seek money

And drug companies seek money

Human need and money are in conflict

The money side is willing to sacrifice

Money undermines compassion

Requires doctors to reach monetary goals

The money is winning.

2026-02-09
beat them to the punchline

You can’t defeat a bully on their terms

They play a game of likeability

They count on your shame

But you can defy the game they play

Embrace their joke as your own

Not to make them laugh with you

But in deciding you like yourself

Be okay with your awkward and wierd

Make their mocking foolish

Because you know who you are

When you embrace your identity

Your answer becomes, “yes, and…?”

Because you aren’t ashamed

If they can’t get a rise out of you

They’ll likely loose interest

What’s the point of teasing

When no one cares.

2026-02-02
the law only sees explicit bias

You can’t prosecute a lack of aware

The law is aimed at purposeful action

The burden is to show proof of intent

So the law won’t stop implicit bias

It actually encourages bias to hide

Most people have good explicit intent

Offended by suggestions otherwise

Most people are law abiding citizens

Who can’t see their hidden bias

Never realizing how they are wrong

Because implicit bias isn’t illegal.

2026-01-26
sometimes people suck

Most days I don’t hate people

I remember we’re flawed humans

Who rarely intend to harm

And the people in my life

Are mostly kind with intent

But then there are the exception

The loud and ugly minority

That make me doubt humanity

They bully and bluster and pontificate

They find joy in putting others down

And I really hate those people

I feel small in their angry presence

They hurt my feeling with intent

They make me doubt the world

I know memory will fade with time

Distance will bring me perspective

But today I really don’t like them

Still scorched by their recent kiss.

2026-01-19
don't take words from me

Would you like to be spoken over

Have your story told by someone else

Someone that didn’t ask permission

Didn’t even ask for your take

Telling a second hand impression

Speaking to experience they never had

Casting you as a paper cutout

Good or bad or childlike or inspiring

A being without dimensions

They even tell you the words to use

How to describe your own story

This is the disabled experience

Having our stories told by others

Don’t be an advocate in place of us

Nothing about us without us.

2026-01-12
Happy loser

I’m not a winner
my hard work hasn’t lead
to some great reward
I’m just getting by

I haven’t been blessed
by easy chances or ready success
I’m very aware that life is hard

I don’t have lots of friends
and I’m not easy to know
popularity isn’t something I have
or even something I strive for

I’m terrible at meeting new people
experience has taught me that only a few
won’t blanch when they see the real me

I’m not a pretty girl
you could call me big or bold
but never dainty, graceful, or serene

I’m stuborn and prideful
I might know how to play the game
but I can’t stomach it
so I sit on the sidelines

I won’t give everything
so that everyone will like me
I’d rather like myself

Maybe I am to be pittied
I don’t have that much
just my self respect
people I’d trust with my life
and a passion that drives me

measured against the world
I’m not a winner
some might even go so far
as to call me a loser
but at least I’m a happy loser
instead of a depressed sucess.

2026-01-06
Real Men deserve this discomfort

When a man’s ego is fragile

They’re angered by rejection

They resent active consent

They feel owed sexual obedience

“Real men” demand much but offer little

Play acting feigned incompetence

Dismissing well earned distrust

“Real men” often harm women

But a man can defy their gender role

By discouraging harm by other “real men”

By not excusing predatory behavior

By not embracing male violence

Us women learn to live with fear

To protect ourself from male behavior

“Real men” deserve this derision

It’s time they learn to live with disdain

Wisdom comes from reflection

Imagine why a woman could hate men

Take a first step to be a better person.

2026-01-05
Arbitrary rules

Polite society is ridiculous

Assigning arbitrary behaviors

Enforcing made up rules

It may teach some to fit in

But it’s end purpose is exclusion

Polite isn’t kind or compassionate

It’s duplicitous and backhanded

A lack of social knowledge

And it culls you from the herd

There is no survival purpose

Just subtle ways to harm outsiders.

2025-12-29
bootstraps don't fly

Don’t talk to me about bootstraps

I was raised in sneakers

And my laces won’t hold my weight

But that’s kinda the point

“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps”

Is the dismissive shorthand of apathy

The saying is a posture of priveledge

As if misfortune is a personal problem

As if an independent spirit is the cure

Even those born with boots

Can’t pull themselves up by straps

The fortunate prescribe a magic trick

An absurd act of impossibility

Knowing that boots don’t trickle down

Knowing that straps cant make us fly

We are held down by our own feet

Our absurdity is asking for help

Some extra hands to lift us up.

2025-12-22
don’t hate your job

This is harder than it sounds

Work is presented as not plesant

The social contract doesn’t suggest joy

Work is a pain we must endure

But life is too short to hate

You give a job so much time

Aim find a job you don’t hate

Aim for minor annoyance

Or find a way to be grateful

Find a way to settle into acceptance

The gamble against misery is worth it

Be warry of monetizing your joy

Turning passion into a job is risky

Demands can smother passion

Requirement can dilute expression

Find compromise through choice

You deserve some comfort

Make money to support your passion

Find a way to be less miserable.

2025-12-15
inspiration isnt respect

My survival of this trauma

Isn’t a teachable moment for you

Why do you insist I inspire?

What lesson have you learned?

Cause it feels like you othered me

Hidden behind a performative smile

Those pretty words distance us

Words to make you feel less akward

Because you can’t imagine my life

You can’t see surviving my reality

And by putting me on a pedestal

By saying such empty pleasantries

You get to walk away from this

Without a second thought

But your inspiration isn’t respect

It’s a wall between you and I.

2025-12-08
closer to men's power

Youth, beauty, and health,

With a touch of subservience

Gets some ladies closer to power

If you align with the patriarchy

You get some of the benefits

By enforcing their rules

Make sure others fall in line

Compete for the limited resources

Men are stingy with their affection

And fickle with devotion

And there’s a time clock

Once youth, beauty, or health fade

You become one with the many

Just another discarded lady.

2025-12-01
Honey not vinegar

You can stun flies with fumes

Your vinegar may be fragrant

But it isn’t exactly attractive

It only captivates other stinkers

Honey is sweet and lasting

It sparkles in the sun

If you dont want enemies

Try to be less mean or cruel

Consider a different fuel

Try fake it til you make it

Even if the cake is inedible

You can still layer it with frosting

It’s not that flies are smart

But they don’t return to bitter.

2025-11-24
We don’t owe health

I don’t owe corporate greed

My sick days are owed to me

They are a part of my liberty

I deserve to rest and recoperate

I’m not stealing from billionaires

By having the common cold

Or needing a mental health day

Or taking care of family

The news tries to spin it

Like sick days are theft

That any lack of productivity

Is a corporate loss

From their mountains of wealth

But that’s pure gasslighting

A spin and twist of the truth

Eugenics and abelist rhetoric

I see past their con

And wonder how anyone buys it.

2025-11-17
Old girl

Let me be the one you respect

Not the one you’d sext

Because I’m past the age

Of being a piece of ass

I’m old enough to be a friend

Glad to let the shine wane

I don’t want the polish of new

I need to be a colloquial term

Deem me your “Ol’ girl”

A term of sexless endearment

Removed from sex appeal.

2025-11-10
wide ass

Men don’t want wide ass attitude

They want skinny ass subservience

They might find defiance interesting

A passing delight but not a wife

In a plump woman who isn’t starving

Fat she can keep some happiness

Instead of pursuing a tinyer self

Not trying to trap a mediocre man

But deny the path of accepted beauty

Not to starve for acceptance

That is iconoclastic.

2025-11-03
Eat shit too

I’m supposed to be gracious

Understanding and forgiving

Of my oppressors

Because they are human

Because they don’t know better

And me questioning their actions

Doesn’t fit their narrative

I’m supposed to be nice

And play the game silently

While they demean me

While they ignore my needs

Because speaking up is rude

Being loud is unseemly

And when they pile my plate full

I’m supposed to smile at the shit

The steaming pile they give to me

And act like I’m eager to eat it.

2025-10-27
cause and effect

Forgiveness isn’t for the other person

It’s about what we carry around

Do we live in anger and frustration

Do we let resentment run our life

Do we let pain stain our everyday

Or do we find a way to let it go

A boundary isn’t a rule you set

It’s an action taken in responce

When a request is actively ignored

A rule is asking for for respect

But when someone refuses to comply

A boundary is consequences

Anger is a fierce fleeting feeling

We can give the flame a purpose

Or choose to let the fire die

When we’re intentional with that heat

We’re less likely to get burnt.

2025-10-20

Poem, poetry
I don't choose this

There are two types of hypochondriac

Doctor seeking and doctor avoidant

They claim I am the later

Since they can’t find a diagnosis

They tell me I’m too aware of my body

They say my symptoms are somatic

They suggest I think myself better

I see their microagression bullshit

They’re gaslighting and victim blaming

I don’t trust doctors, so I’m avoidant

I wait until my symptoms are actute

I wont invite their incompetence

This is the social model of disability

If I’m an avoidant hypochondriac

It’s not that I imagine my symptoms

It’s that doctors are agents of trauma

My diagnosis a product of the system

My PTSD is based in reality

They gave me this mental illness

I don’t choose to suffer their abuse

I won’t seek out their advise

Unless I have a compelling reason

Until they can’t ignore my pain.

2025-10-13
habit of happy

Being miserable is normal

It takes courage to break the mold

A positive outlook takes persistence

It’s a hard won habit of seeing good

Toxic positivity is gaslighting

Suggesting you ignore the bad

But authentic positivity is a habit

Choosing to see the breadcrumbs

On an seemingly empty plate.

Even thought the everyday misery.

2025-10-06
Invisible illness

I pass as able-bodied

I’m judged as lazy and malingering

I tried to believe what I was told

I really tried to think myself better

Forcing my body past it’s limitations

And doubting my lived experience

I bought into a very convincing lie

Until I learned to trust myself

Willpower didn’t cure my illness

Acceptance made my life easier

Its a blessing and curse

Because I’m not seen as disabled

I’m seen as a flawed human

My experience is not common

But I’m not going to convince them.

2025-09-29
Authenticity is a privilege

Be yourself isn’t always good advice

What if your self inspires bias

And we aren’t judged on character

It sets the tone of likeability

Even before our authentic self

Being disenfranchised isn’t a choice

And the advise to stop being a victim

Of circumstances out of our control

Is the worst advise to be given.

2025-09-22
You told on yourself

The stories you tell of your life

Don’t leave you in a good light

You think I should agree with you

That the villain was the other party

Maybe they aren’t appealing cohorts

But the part you played was worse

Investing into a narrative of revenge

As if bad behavior deserves more

Stories of malice are a red flag

A warning I should protect myself

You had the option to walk away

Not to return their tit for your tat

At least now I know the future to come

One day I’ll be a villain in your story

Unless I’ve earned that title already.

2025-09-15

Poem, poetry
The chronic illness

Maybe I’m asking too much

I’m not just asking for compassion

But trust in my words

Taking my truth at face value

The whole is greater than the parts

You may have had my symptoms before

But living with them everyday

Is a different experience

When you break a bone

Eventually the cast comes off

When you get a cold

Eventually you get better

I live in a world where better is relative

There is no perfect health to have

When living in a broken body.

2025-09-08

disability, Poem, poetry
Burden on the victim

The law doesn’t prosecute implicit bias

A legal case requires explicit proof

In the case of discrimination

The burden is on the victim

To prove intent of wrongdoing

In a world of at will employment

They are allowed to discard us

An employer doesn’t have to have cause

They just have to disprove intent

At will firing is unethical

But it isn’t illegal.

2025-09-01
you don’t wish murder

You don’t think you want to kill me

You believe in survival of the fittest

You fight for individual freedom

Apathetic to laws that’d sterilize me

You wish me to silence

As I remind you of mortality

You wish me to be invisible

You can’t imagine what you can’t see

You wish me to be magically healed

But you deny to wishing me dead

You believe yourself sympathetic

Long as I don’t turn a mirror on reality.

2025-08-25

disability, Poem, poetry
ready for old age

Old age doesn’t scare me

It feels like a long lost friend

We don’t even have to reacquaint

Been training since I was young

The aches and pains of old age

Are symptoms of my chronic illness

I grieved my lost youth in youth

This is the only bright side I find

From all the bad days I lived through

My body was already in disrepair

Old age is just another milestone.

2025-08-18
Crazy eyes

I was awesome in bed

And rarely respected by men

A female iconoclast

Easier to label me as crazy

Perceived crazy is female power

More than actual mental illness

Didn’t fit in to the social standard

Or forced gender roles

My crazy eyes were just wide

Full of my ability to think

Eyes full of true to myself

Instead of complicit in servitude.

2025-08-11
ugly is power

Ugly is liberatings

If we must be perceived

Let it be without constraints

As beauty is a trap

If we don’t conform

We can speak our minds

Live free in our truth

It’s not that beauty doesn’t think

Beauty defers to the system

Deference supports the power

The physically unattractive

Don’t have to defer

Ugly can be power.

2025-08-04

feminist, Poem, poetry
transitory health

Health is fluid, it isn’t permanent

But most get more good health

While I get more bad health

My good days are the exception

While their good days are the rule

So I know why you ask silly questions

Like when I will get better

Or why can’t a doctor fix me

Because you don’t get this is good

You can’t comprehend my bad

So I try not to be mad

At your limited understanding

I wouldn’t wish my reality on anyone.

2025-07-28

disability, Poem, poetry
My anger goes into my art

I may seem calm

Because I don’t engage

And I don’t aim for rage

But I still feel my anger

Annoyance at silly stuff

I just don’t hold onto it

I funnel it into art

Creating a pithy phrase

A scrap of loose poetry

Because anger is a weight

And I won’t haul it around

I farm it out into words

Make it useful for my art.

2025-07-21
men don't want to be women

Any aceptance of trans women

Suggests that womanhood is enviable

It is not manly to be like a woman

Even the suggestion is an insult

Men utilize the offerings of women

While scoffing at feminine worth

They don’t want to be like women

And violently oppose the suggestion

Under their very narrow definition

Femininity contradicts masculinity

They reject choosing womanhood

As women are owned, not emulated.

2025-07-14

feminist, Poem, poetry
my cats and me

Crazy cat ladies don’t seek approval

Because we don’t care what you think

That’s the reason you mock us

You’re trying to break our resolve

Cajole us into adopting convention

You call us crazy instead of defiant

You won’t acknowledge our rebellion

Our true sin isn’t having feline friends

That’s just a quirky side to our offense

You object to our feminine treason

Some of us choose not to be wife

Some of us choose not to be mother

Most of us believe in female power

It’s our independance and strength

And our choice not to be subservient

Fueling your derogatory tone

But I refuse to concede your point

I curl up with my pile of cats

Calmed by their reassuring purrs

Self-satisfied in my flagrant deviance.

2025-07-07
forgo the villian

Talking is my love language

Friendship my group therapy

I seek any excuse for verbal bonding

I’m eager to talk about my feelings

But I cringe at collective hate

We don’t need to assign a villain

The chaos of life can take the blame

Existential dread is heavy enough

Ganging up on others is petty

And distacts from authenticity

I don’t need a scapegoat in life

I need a companion to actively listen

A partner for intense conversation.

2025-06-30
not comparable

I can be uniquely me

but still not be the best

You can be better than me

And that doesn’t make me less

You can be better than everyone

I can still feel good about myself

Apples and oranges can coexist

They don’t have to compete

Both can be bitter or sweet

Both still fruit nonetheless

So let’s stop comparing ourselves

Like one of us has to be better

The urge to achieve perfection

Will only make us bitter.

2025-06-23
not murdered today

Some consider me expendable

No one is trying to kill me today

Even if they were, it’d be passive

Because my genetics are a blight

My mental health is faulty

I’ve aged out of breeding stock

Skills I have aren’t enough

For my perceived burden

But if there was an emergency

I’m the heard that will be thinned

My story isn’t compelling enough

To be on the priority list.

2025-06-16

disability, Poem, poetry
my mom is gay

This isn’t really my story

but I have permission to tell it

My mom came out at 40

To my sister and myself

We didn’t think it was a big deal

But it was a big deal for her

In her youth, queer was a bad word

In our youth, queer was a catch-all

I’d dabled in alternative relationships

So I was out as queer before my mom

She said she never asked the question

Of herself, until she was in love,

And the answer was “I love this woman.”

I got to see her happy

I learned that life can start at any age

Happiness comes when you least expect

And now I say it bluntly, “my mom is gay”

Because it’s a fact to me

A fact I want to share

It’s something I’m proud of.

2025-06-09
health is a beauty standard

The expectation of health

It more than just surface

We are supposed be perfect

To aim to be Olympic

Eugenics is selection of the fittest

Trying to erradicate bad genes

Forgetting that we are all human

Lack of health is a social sin

Akin to failed beauty

The flawed are shamed

Blamed for their imperfection

When we didn’t ask to be born

We survive what birth gave us.

2025-06-02

disability, Poem, poetry
multiple faces

You act like we’re two faced

Like it’s a manipulative choice

To mask or code switch

You act like we have a choice

But we’re trained from infancy

There’s a right and a wrong way

And our natural way is wrong

We don’t want to lie or hide

We’d choose authenticity

If there wasn’t external shame

Stop telling us to act normal

You taught us to have these faces

You’re just mad we said it

Mad we admit our fake isn’t real.

2025-05-26

Poem, poetry
not perpetual children

Needing help isn’t childish

I can be competent and struggle

My survival isn’t perfect

My health may not match yours

My gender may not be male

Neither deserve to be patronized

You don’t get to infantilize me

Don’t have to be a genius to think

Don’t be obsessed with hierarky

Learn compassion and do better.

2025-05-19

disability, Poem, poetry
not prey or predator

I abhore the chase

The idea that we must court

Faking a beautiful plume

Hiding our humanity

It’s easy to fall in lust

But love is vulnerable

And falling hurts

It takes time and trust

I’m not looking to hunt

And I refuse to be captured

If alone is the only equal option

Then I will make the best of it

I will be by myself.

2025-05-12

Poem, poetry
avoiding hypocrisy

If others want to judge me

I can always walk away

I don’t have to put up with them

But I have to put up with myself

I don’t need an external compass

I live by my own set of ethics

If I do something I might regret

I’m the one that knows what I did

I choose internal consistency

Because I have to live with me

My ethics are horizontal

I care about those around me

I pay attention to harm done

I don’t rely on prescribed rules

Because I live in this world.

2025-05-05
death isn’t a compliment

Don’t suggest my life is unlivable

At best a backhanded compliment

At worst you’re saying I unalive

Your eugenic viewpoint is sad

Because age comes for us all

And good health isn’t guaranteed

Whatever struggle I may live with

My existence is worthwhile

I refuse to let you speak ill of me

Only I get to lament my disability

Sometimes it isn’t about better

But about not choosing bitter

Being grateful for this life.

2025-04-28

disability, Poem, poetry
feminist cliche

The joke is so cliche

Because it rings so true

Men want a woman like mom

A wife to take care of them

Women want to be loved

Like their dad loved their mom

I don’t want to be a man’s mother

And I won’t be a subservient wife

No husband’s adoration

Will make up for that inequity.

2025-04-21

feminist, Poem, poetry
I choose my attitude

Grandma was angry and bitter

Spreading around misery

Sharing her ongoing pain

My Mother broke the cycle

She defied the bitter

She chose authentic kindness

So I emulate mom’s choice

I may live in pain

But I don’t have to spread it

I don’t have to infect others

Sharing my pain isn’t caring

I don’t choose bitter or angry

I choose to sappy sweet

I choose to infect my joy.

2025-02-03
Ole rocking chair

I wanna be a rocking chair

Creaking away on a front porch

Don’t wanna be a bicycle

Chasing the next destination

My life is more like ice skates

On hot pavement, not a frozen rink

So, I’d give up shiny or fast

If I could just get some comfort

Like a thrifted sweater

Or an overused metaphor.

2025-01-27
Keeping it to myself

Don’t ask me for advice

I’m not looking to influence you

Certainly not a guru

Or a psychic or telepathic

I know my choices

And how to live with them

My knowledge stops in myself

I don’t have your lived experience

Or know how you will feel

I don’t have a model of you

To reference in my opinions

So I keep them to myself

Let us not confuse each other

Or confound our perspectives

I restrict my words

On purpose.

2025-01-20
No control

I have no control

It would help if I could let go

The things that happened

Are now sealed in the past

My mind spinning over mistakes

Just makes the now miserable

But I can’t change my past

I may have some control

Of how my future self acts

But mistakes are human

And I’m prone to be flawed

So I’m stewing in my juices

These ruminations eat at me

But produce nothing of value

Here I am trying to let go

As my anxious mind clings.

2025-01-13
wrong attention

The accusation that I seek attention

Tells me that you want me to hide

I shouldn’t share my trauma

Or be honest about my quirks

Or tell any kind of unique truth

Because I challenges the norm

You don’t want my authentic self

You want me to hide the real me

You want me to not be seen

Because you think wierdos are bad

You claim I want negative attention

Like anyone would seek rejection

If they had an alternative option

So I reject your premise of me

You can keep your shame for you.

2025-01-06