Ben Kline
@benkline.bsky.social
Writer, tall, clumsy, wired, Gemini.
IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE from Variant Lit.
TWANG from ELJ Editions.
STIFF WRIST from 14 Poems.
Some of my work: https://benklineonline.wordpress.com/publications/
Podcaster at https://www.youtube.com/@mlvcpodcast
IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE from Variant Lit.
TWANG from ELJ Editions.
STIFF WRIST from 14 Poems.
Some of my work: https://benklineonline.wordpress.com/publications/
Podcaster at https://www.youtube.com/@mlvcpodcast
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Heartattack
Beetlejuice
Heartattack
January 19, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Heartattack
Beetlejuice
Heartattack
I dunno...I watch 30 secs of Miller on NewsMax or Fox and am convinced he doesn't care if anyone supports what he's orchestrating. He simply wants to do it and get off on it.
That video of him in high school, bemoaning the janitors, shows you everything you need to understand someone like that.
That video of him in high school, bemoaning the janitors, shows you everything you need to understand someone like that.
Yes. My theory of the moment is Miller/Vance thought their view that immigrants threaten social solidarity would be widely shared. But ICE raids are driving native-born Americans to show solidarity with immigrants quite courageously. Now Miller is trying to disrupt that alliance with state violence.
Insightful point here: Even if you take Trump seriously - he does not like the optics - they rested on an assumption that communities would welcome ICE as heroes, rather than showing the type of solidarity that Trump inherently cannot understand.
January 19, 2026 at 5:16 PM
I dunno...I watch 30 secs of Miller on NewsMax or Fox and am convinced he doesn't care if anyone supports what he's orchestrating. He simply wants to do it and get off on it.
That video of him in high school, bemoaning the janitors, shows you everything you need to understand someone like that.
That video of him in high school, bemoaning the janitors, shows you everything you need to understand someone like that.
Reposted by Ben Kline
Just remember, the people who want you to be afraid of them run away at the first whistle.
January 18, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Just remember, the people who want you to be afraid of them run away at the first whistle.
First acceptance of 2026 yesterday and it's...not for poetry!
Here's to doing old things new while the world burns.
Here's to doing old things new while the world burns.
January 19, 2026 at 3:38 PM
First acceptance of 2026 yesterday and it's...not for poetry!
Here's to doing old things new while the world burns.
Here's to doing old things new while the world burns.
Is that letter a sign of mental incapacity and diplomatic institutional collapse...or is the kompromat (both Russian and Epstein) just that nasty? That they're floating the army going into MN suggests panic not surety.
January 19, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Is that letter a sign of mental incapacity and diplomatic institutional collapse...or is the kompromat (both Russian and Epstein) just that nasty? That they're floating the army going into MN suggests panic not surety.
Reposted by Ben Kline
Pew Research Institute (2023):
• Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants
• Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants
• Blue State Minnesota has 130,000.
And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration."
It's *not* about immigration.
• Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants
• Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants
• Blue State Minnesota has 130,000.
And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration."
It's *not* about immigration.
January 18, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Pew Research Institute (2023):
• Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants
• Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants
• Blue State Minnesota has 130,000.
And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration."
It's *not* about immigration.
• Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants
• Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants
• Blue State Minnesota has 130,000.
And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration."
It's *not* about immigration.
Currently trying this for the first time.
January 18, 2026 at 10:18 PM
Currently trying this for the first time.
my contribution to small poem sunday kids!
so sticks and stones
neither turned nor thrown
leave room for words
to break ICE bones
neither turned nor thrown
leave room for words
to break ICE bones
"We've seen over a thousand percent increase in assaults on ICE officers, 8,000 verbal assaults on them...."
January 18, 2026 at 10:14 PM
my contribution to small poem sunday kids!
so sticks and stones
neither turned nor thrown
leave room for words
to break ICE bones
neither turned nor thrown
leave room for words
to break ICE bones
"We've seen over a thousand percent increase in assaults on ICE officers, 8,000 verbal assaults on them...."
January 18, 2026 at 10:14 PM
so sticks and stones
neither turned nor thrown
leave room for words
to break ICE bones
neither turned nor thrown
leave room for words
to break ICE bones
Afternoon reading @dapowell.bsky.social and Richard Siken
January 18, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Afternoon reading @dapowell.bsky.social and Richard Siken
January 18, 2026 at 2:51 PM
This! The NYT is still wasting "pages" on Trump voters continuing support and minor disappointment in his meanness.
Like, more delusion!
Like, more delusion!
hard not to notice that as trump's polls crater and gop gets crushed in election after election, news orgs are not racing around hiring progressive commenters and boasting about how they're reaching out to real americans by following the will of the volk.
January 18, 2026 at 2:42 PM
This! The NYT is still wasting "pages" on Trump voters continuing support and minor disappointment in his meanness.
Like, more delusion!
Like, more delusion!
What do we call this form of delusion?
Bessent on Greenland: "Peace through strength. Make it part of the US and there will not be a conflict because the US right now, we're the hottest country in the world, we're the strongest country in the world. Europeans project weakness. The US projects strength."
January 18, 2026 at 2:37 PM
What do we call this form of delusion?
These "conservative" leaders/thinkers/provocateurs always believe they're bigger than they are.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/u...
Conservative Influencer Chased From Minneapolis Streets by Counterprotesters
www.nytimes.com
January 18, 2026 at 1:34 PM
These "conservative" leaders/thinkers/provocateurs always believe they're bigger than they are.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/u...
same vibes as the Vanity Fair photos....high on their own supply (of noxious fumes/ideas)
omg the Ten Commandments "poster" that Louisiana intends to send to schools (which are required to display them in every public classroom, including at universities) includes images of Moses and Mike Johnson share.google/eoRiDvHsshEg...
January 17, 2026 at 5:58 PM
same vibes as the Vanity Fair photos....high on their own supply (of noxious fumes/ideas)
Bringing this back to the timeline while I'm working on .... some new nose-growing questions and answers this morning/afternoon!
www.palettepoetry.com/2025/12/22/e...
www.palettepoetry.com/2025/12/22/e...
Excerpts from the Pinocchio Interviews - Palette Poetry
"And that magic's smell—vernix and blood / and sweat and earth—I didn't register it / as life. I sensed it and saw my decay."
www.palettepoetry.com
January 17, 2026 at 5:47 PM
Bringing this back to the timeline while I'm working on .... some new nose-growing questions and answers this morning/afternoon!
www.palettepoetry.com/2025/12/22/e...
www.palettepoetry.com/2025/12/22/e...
Wait, crazy bigot lil Stevie Miller is a Trekkie?
So weird how all these MAGA types watched Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar, etc., and managed to ....take the dark side? But maybe not, given their clearly stunted development.
So weird how all these MAGA types watched Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar, etc., and managed to ....take the dark side? But maybe not, given their clearly stunted development.
January 16, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Wait, crazy bigot lil Stevie Miller is a Trekkie?
So weird how all these MAGA types watched Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar, etc., and managed to ....take the dark side? But maybe not, given their clearly stunted development.
So weird how all these MAGA types watched Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar, etc., and managed to ....take the dark side? But maybe not, given their clearly stunted development.
I went back to look for 2016 photos and they bummed me out --I looked younger, more joyous, definitely less stressed, and realized they were all taken before OrangePoo got elected.
January 16, 2026 at 6:19 PM
I went back to look for 2016 photos and they bummed me out --I looked younger, more joyous, definitely less stressed, and realized they were all taken before OrangePoo got elected.
This fact. It can and should be abolished, dissolved, sunset, whatever the legal government term is.
I'm just going to point out that ICE is about 23 years old. It was formed as part of the response to 9/11 and was reactionary, performative, and racist from the start.
Its not eternal. This is not a thousand-year Reich.
Its not eternal. This is not a thousand-year Reich.
January 16, 2026 at 5:20 PM
This fact. It can and should be abolished, dissolved, sunset, whatever the legal government term is.
yeesh, what is up with gmail today? It just keeps spinning and saying it's offline!
January 16, 2026 at 4:21 PM
yeesh, what is up with gmail today? It just keeps spinning and saying it's offline!
Reposted by Ben Kline
His ex-wives crawl from the glove box like scorpions as Marie Macri and her fiancé drive to Vegas. What could go wrong? Today at Villain Era! 🖤🔪
Two Poems by Marie Macri
With this ring, I see red No A/C, driving from L.A. to Vegas——desert heat, a crimson-coil hairdryer.His ex-wives crawl from the glove boxlike scorpions,fodder for arguments about coins,about air-conditioning.He isn’t my exes. He isn’t.I see red.Courthouse line——long, ragged—almost-newlyweds:show a passport, get a spouse.the DMV of matrimony——take a number, please!
villaineralit.com
January 16, 2026 at 4:18 PM
His ex-wives crawl from the glove box like scorpions as Marie Macri and her fiancé drive to Vegas. What could go wrong? Today at Villain Era! 🖤🔪
Reposted by Ben Kline
We are in fact DESPERATE for winter coats, waterproof gloves, and good boots. We get so many wonderful donations but it is so cold and the numbers of unhoused unsheltered people are going up at the absolute worst time for it, and we run out of coats weekly.
The frigid Twin Cities temperatures will hurt the homeless; so do not gloat about the impact on ICE without also stepping up here:
If you're still able to help Minnesota, @supplydepotmpls.bsky.social is always accepting donations. $10 buys a pack of handwarmers. If you were given Amazon gift cards this year for Christmas, you can shop their Amazon wishlist: linktr.ee/sanctuarysup...
January 14, 2026 at 7:29 PM
We are in fact DESPERATE for winter coats, waterproof gloves, and good boots. We get so many wonderful donations but it is so cold and the numbers of unhoused unsheltered people are going up at the absolute worst time for it, and we run out of coats weekly.
Reposted by Ben Kline
I'm tired of hearing about AI all the fucking time. And it's really starting to feel like less and less companies are actually going to listen to us.
Libby decided they're fine with AI books on their platform. You know. A fucking LIBRARY APP.
Uninstall Libby. Fuck AI.
Libby decided they're fine with AI books on their platform. You know. A fucking LIBRARY APP.
Uninstall Libby. Fuck AI.
January 15, 2026 at 3:13 AM
I'm tired of hearing about AI all the fucking time. And it's really starting to feel like less and less companies are actually going to listen to us.
Libby decided they're fine with AI books on their platform. You know. A fucking LIBRARY APP.
Uninstall Libby. Fuck AI.
Libby decided they're fine with AI books on their platform. You know. A fucking LIBRARY APP.
Uninstall Libby. Fuck AI.
Do you think we could reverse psych Elon to go to Mars now?
Could we convince Theil that the antichrist is there already?
Oh, oh, let's get OrangePoolonge (have you seen the dispatches from the Ford plant workers on his odor?) to rename Mars - call is Prospera so all the billionaire wackos go.
Could we convince Theil that the antichrist is there already?
Oh, oh, let's get OrangePoolonge (have you seen the dispatches from the Ford plant workers on his odor?) to rename Mars - call is Prospera so all the billionaire wackos go.
January 15, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Do you think we could reverse psych Elon to go to Mars now?
Could we convince Theil that the antichrist is there already?
Oh, oh, let's get OrangePoolonge (have you seen the dispatches from the Ford plant workers on his odor?) to rename Mars - call is Prospera so all the billionaire wackos go.
Could we convince Theil that the antichrist is there already?
Oh, oh, let's get OrangePoolonge (have you seen the dispatches from the Ford plant workers on his odor?) to rename Mars - call is Prospera so all the billionaire wackos go.
Reposted by Ben Kline
Issue No. 11 is here!! All subscriptions and preorders were dropped off at the post office this morning and should be in your mailboxes very soon!!
Didn’t order your copy yet? Get one here: andchangepoetry.com/issues/p/no-11
Didn’t order your copy yet? Get one here: andchangepoetry.com/issues/p/no-11
January 15, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Issue No. 11 is here!! All subscriptions and preorders were dropped off at the post office this morning and should be in your mailboxes very soon!!
Didn’t order your copy yet? Get one here: andchangepoetry.com/issues/p/no-11
Didn’t order your copy yet? Get one here: andchangepoetry.com/issues/p/no-11