Kern Carter's Blog, page 14
January 5, 2023
January 3, 2023
Call For Submissions — Those Long Days
I know people say life is short, but to me, life can feel really, really long. The days can crawl by and feel repetitive, even pointless.
This is the reason why it’s so important to find purpose. And I think purpose has to evolve past your career. There should be something grounding you that doesn’t depend on your professional output.
For this week’s writing prompt, how do you weather those long days? What is your purpose outside of your profession and how does it keep you going?
Same rules as always:You can submit to this or ANY of our past writing prompts. Just scroll through our previous newsletters. They’ll be marked “Call for Submissions.”If you’re already a writer for CRY, go ahead and submit.Be as creative as you want in your submissions. As long as you stick to the topic, we’ll consider it.Just because you submit doesn’t mean we’ll post. If you haven’t heard back from us in three days, consider that a pass.[image error]Call For Submissions — Those Long Days was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
January 2, 2023
December 27, 2022
Foggy Commute
Image by Alesha BurtonThe sky is shifting colours. Rainbows of artificial lights paint the sky. Above my old high school is a wildfire. When I pass by, the lights are all orange. Above the mosque is a bright white, growing to become its own streetlight. Cars are in the parking lot at 6 in the morning. A car pulls out as I pass by.
A bus comes down the road. Its yellow-orange sign blurs in the distance. My eyes are growing foggy. Condensation is in my mask and my eyelashes indiscriminately. My breath grows beads of sweat across my eyeballs.
The bus picks up a passenger by the bus stop as I pass by. It turns onto another road to continue its route.
The major street up ahead is also burning red. Bright, long buses float along like spirits in a stream. A side road with one streetlight illuminates the wet concrete. My shoes are thinly damp. The bus stop I stand by has many others there. I haven’t missed the bus.
The bus’ glowing blue and yellow lights are bee fur in the darkness. I look up at the sky and the haze that is the moon is surrounded by a field of rainbows. The sky isn’t even close to a sunrise.
The bus leaves and we head to the station, slowly. Most bus stops are shrouded in foggy darkness, a figure stepping out of stage left whenever they wish to board. When we turn into the station, blurs of express buses and buses with too many people whizz by and light up the station.
I walk upstairs to the train platform. It’s filled with people in puffy lavender jackets and suits holding briefcases. There are nurses uniforms and excited little kids with princess-themed backpacks. There is a security guard going to work.
The eastbound terminal station is unseen. A train heading there appears. Its white lights grow and dissipate in the morning fog. At the same time, a train heading westbound appears. Its lights blossom, growing brighter and brighter like ice crystals in the snow.
The scenery outside the train is non-existent. The recycling facility grows to a blur of smoke and cardboard boxes. The signage encouraging the workers to keep recycling is lost against the missing walls of the facility. The lots of unused truck loads, buses, and lots of the same pickup truck with no stickers are melting into blobs of grey and green.
The graffiti is barely visible. The expression of artists years and years on are lost in darkness. From 2008, paint stripped from walls from rain and power washes, to 2022, a Happy Pride message beside letters and names I cannot decipher.
The station is brighter. The sky is waking up nearly an hour after I’ve left my house. The fog doesn’t dissipate. The world simply wakes up to a blue cloud hovering outside their windows. I head downstairs to the subway and get on the train waiting at the station. The off-grey shuttered exterior reflect the edge and the age of the train.
The old NO SMOKING sign is hilarious to look at in the moment. In a few weeks it won’t be.
The train has two early outdoor stops. As we ride by, they remind me of Silent Hill. I sit inside and look out at blocky rendered houses and pure white fog obscuring my vision. At least I don’t have to worry about monsters attacking me from outside of the render distance.
When we get to the bridge, the fog begins to clear. The highway isn’t a mess of colour but rather, individual squares and diamonds of light. The highway sign is very visible. As is the smoke pillar in the distance.
Downtown Yonindale is clear. Two hours after I first left my house, the fog lifts over the city and disappears. The first breath outside reminds me of my soggy mask as I head to my morning class.
— Heleza
[image error]Foggy Commute was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
December 20, 2022
The Prayer Of Lamentation
Photo by Luis Quintero: https://www.pexels.com/photo/women-wearing-brown-dress-close-up-photography-2774546/Here I am on my knees,
Hands clamped together,
Tears overflowing
Songs of praise leave my lips,
My heart filled with sorrow,
Everywhere I go, darkness follows,
I wonder if my sins have finally caught up,
If that is so,
Father, I ask for forgiveness,
The pain within is way too much to bear,
Too heavy to keep carrying around,
Ease me of this burden, oh Lord!!!
Answer your daughter, dear Lord!!!
Let my prayers not go to voice mail!!
Father, have mercy upon me!
Give me salvation,
Please take me to the promised land,
Make my efforts not be in vain Lord!!
The Prayer Of Lamentation was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
December 19, 2022
We’ll be back in the new year
Hello my lovely CRY family, just a quick message to say that we will be taking a short break and get back to it in the new year. That means we won’t be publishing any new submissions.
Hope you all have an amazing holiday and stay happy and healthy.
CRY
[image error]We’ll be back in the new year was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
The Genius Of Darling Hair’s #FindYourBeautiful Campaign
Photo by Godisable Jacob: https://www.pexels.com/photo/shallow-focus-photography-of-woman-with-braided-hair-and-wearing-red-spaghetti-strap-top-1276574/Nothing screams Black excellence like some good braids and the one brand that champions this cause is none other than Darling Hair. I started using the product to braid my hair last year. I first wanted to try other options since Xpression is the first synthetic hair brand that comes to mind for many.
However, the salon I went to had Darling Hair, so I used it. It was all thanks to this commercial I saw on YouTube. Said commercial also popped up on TV, especially if you watch MTV Base a lot.
I did not pay that much attention to that ad until recently. I came across Darling Hair’s YouTube channel and saw their other ads. The ones that resonated with me the most were the ones that fell under the #FindYourBeautiful campaign.
It is an absolutely genius move of theirs as there are a lot of women, Black women in particular, who struggle to see the beauty in their rich melanin skin. All it took was films like Black Panther for Black women to embrace their culture and celebrate their beauty.
I struggled to appreciate and embrace my looks for years because of bullying from childhood. Other kids made fun of how I looked and dressed, not considering that I have a strong uncanny resemblance to my late father.
But now, everything has changed. Marriage has made me appreciate a lot of things. I remember getting nervous on my wedding day because of how I looked and what people might say. My bridesmaids, husband, sisters, and mum all asked me to calm down and enjoy everything. They also advised me to just focus on what I could control and leave everything else aside.
Best advice ever because I lit up the moment I saw my husband despite how uncomfortable my outfits were. It also helped that there was this huge outpouring of love and support from the guests, especially the elders that attended the wedding.
I felt the same love from social media as the comments were 99% positive, plus everyone kept commenting on my beauty and my resemblance to dad. I felt so beautiful for the first time in years and have begun to embrace and love my body. If anyone has a problem with my looks, they better pray my father’s spirit does not haunt them in their sleep because insult me and they are also insulting him. Period!!
That is what #FindYourBeautful is all about. It is not what society dictates. Ignore what society demands and focus on yourself. Embrace your imperfections and love yourself because you are a Queen, my sister. That is the message Darling is trying to pass across, and I absolutely love it to bits. The theme song for the campaign, which everyone is trying to find on social media to no avail, has the lines “Imma keep winning till the world stops spinning.”
That line has stuck with me, and hell yes to that. I am a born winner. I feel so positive and wish to be a beacon of positivity to the world. That is the energy I want to bring to all of you. Keep winning and keep staying true to yourself.
Like Angela Bassett said in her viral Black Girl Rock acceptance speech— when anyone dares to question your beauty, tell them, “I am a Queen and I am a descendant of royalty.”
[image error]The Genius Of Darling Hair’s #FindYourBeautiful Campaign was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
December 18, 2022
One Year
People always saythat time heals all wounds,but it’s been difficult to let you go.
