It's ok to write poems and put them here

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Nature Doc on a Loop

I want someone to grip my wrists
and look straight back at me
I want the clock to stop,
so I can take a look and see
that maybe I’ve been wandering
for a while too long,
like a loose broken turnstile,
spinning cleanly, unbound,
though not exactly uninhibited or free.

It’s not a tragedy.
It can be another moment that wasn’t meant to be,
the aftermath becomes the new normal,
the temporary is now the permanent,
a workaround to adjust to the instability,
to help cover up what is still wide open.

Do you see why I need someone to grab hold of my wrists?
Sometimes I need a moment.

It seems like a lot of people want this movie to end,
but I don’t.
The point is moot.
This theater plays films on a loop.
The lead roles shift back and forth
and with time, we all learn each other’s lines.
One of the characters is you.
I don’t remember where our words came from
but as you say them
my lips might move too,
knowing that it can and cannot be true.

I tried to run away from home once
I had internalized their arguments and
believed they were both right.
Missouri without a car is close to impossible
a child walking down a highway with a backpack
knows there is no point
kicks some dust off the shoulder
but isn’t yet ready to be picked up.

Everyone I know is overloaded.
Their clients are falling from the windows
and squeezing back in through the front doors.
Even their ledgers seem to be near their limits.

I feel a kind of total emptiness.
The grass grows back strong when
my weight is lifted off of it.
Turns out the blades are indifferent.

I’m one weird ass bird and you are the trees
Your roots are strong and I’m in the breeze.
I can put my home in your branches
and hide in your leaves.
I have no mouths to feed,
the worms I catch are all for me.

I’m on the tip of a feather, then
I sink heavy, far and deep,
the rush of living distilled into a moment of peace
under your familiar canopy.

I can never be late here.

Karl Malone, Saturday, 1 January 2022 19:45 (three years ago) link

for some reason i've been writing a lot recently, and i really don't want to have to get a MFA and wait to get to be published in a friend's book before i am credentialed to put a poem in a public space. maybe you feel that way too, so please post yr poems if you want. otherwise i'll just keep posting mine, who fucking cares

Karl Malone, Saturday, 1 January 2022 19:47 (three years ago) link

Loose Control

Sometimes I try to put myself in a state,
call it Loose Control, for now,
where expressive results are bent into javelined roads,
temporary paths getting all covered up
and forgotten under relentless waves of new stuff.

Imagine automatic writing but more visual,
thin and slivering lines instead of language,
the brush’s residuals replacing the text.

When I Loosely Control my hand starts to move
on its own, independently,
thickened water sloshingly flying
up and around the edges of a bucket
which is swirling in elliptical orbits,
the inverse of my motions,
the effects of my causes becoming
untethered from their origins,
and yet I know that I am part of it all.
It is from me and yet it doesn’t see me back.

A forgotten mark gets scattered up,
reforms as a ladder and tips
toward new directions,
one of many landing strips,
loud movement then stillness,
a flood and then a covenant.

I make my bed and I sleep on top of it.
My heart beats are uninterrupted.
They make me live so I listen,
five liters of blood in a circuit,
all sustained without a rhythm.
I barely understand but I know I’ll wake up.

Karl Malone, Saturday, 1 January 2022 19:47 (three years ago) link

out of this tape hiss comes some light

i've been dropped off here,
old train running on a fresh sea,
with fingertips all cut up and worn down from
constant use, my newer skin turns rough

I wanted someone to talk to but instead I had a beer or two.
it’s only more water pushing against my barricades.
we build ourselves back up and see each other off at the door.
I wonder who is watching who.
I wonder how long I can keep this up.
I think about what it would be like to see you stop.

I broke your locks but fixed your door sweep.
Your car was fine but I brought it to the shop.
I made your day easier and that was enough.

Tough love, that’s kid stuff.
I’ll clean the dirt off, don’t worry.
Your hands are blistered.
Mine are sweating. My glasses fogged up.
But I still drop them off at school.

Two-step around the room.
The drums and the singing
and I’m feeling warm again.
I’m stretched out and dry.
crushed in, drawn tight
I haven’t touched skin so soft in years,
my knuckles pop like firecrackers,
My hands are stupid bricks.
My WPM is 96.
The words pile up and I keep writing.

There’s a ship that sails back.
I can still see it.
I think about my sense of humanity.
I think I saw my spirit dancing
with the one that brought me,
the thought which took me out on the town and spun me sideways,
our long naps in the evenings,
unwarned,
unearned,
walking on air, enchanted.

Karl Malone, Saturday, 1 January 2022 19:48 (three years ago) link

a moving checkmark has caught my eye
starkly black on blue tinted gray.
2 birds to the left, 6 to the right
1 at the head
a flying nonet
not at all like a Monet
but beautiful all the same

you had to be there I suppose.

Hey look, we’re right on time.
This place has been designated for our recovery.
It’s sponsored by a local charcuterie.

You know I’m only kidding
and the bit is that there’s nothing to get
(everyone’s least favorite)

What do you know, we’re in another line
This place is dedicated to making money
just like pretty much everywhere else
now that anyone or anything can be a market
our dreams got commodified in the bargain

Remember those glow-in-the-dark ceiling star kits?
Did you ever peel them off,
or did someone else do it without your say?
And what happened to that dog we had, anyway?

Some kids recreate the solar system
at a 36 billion to one ratio
“whaaaah bakkken-mah day”, old man me may say, “o kai,
Pluto was still part of the solar system”
as if it disappeared from existence altogether when it lost its place
as the 9th and furthest planet on the way
to waypoints in other galaxies
it’s still there.
It’s still cold.

Karl Malone, Sunday, 2 January 2022 20:30 (three years ago) link

Old man me complains a lot, probably
I used to think about him every day,
trying to avoid becoming him.
The more I think of him the closer he gets,
so I drew a line and put myself on one side of it,
turned 180 degrees and went on autopilot
it means smoking in the sunroom and washing down
pizza crust with another beer on the way to the couch.
When I finally turn around I know what to expect.
Old man me’s shadow will be my own before long,
a long-scheduled appointment well met.
I shake his hand and we walk back into our apartment.
He watches the shows and I hit refresh.

Karl Malone, Sunday, 2 January 2022 20:35 (three years ago) link

That’s a part of our bargain.
It’s about forgiveness.

I have quite a bit to apologize for.
He at least acknowledges that it happened
Then he goes on and on and makes no sense.
I try to listen, but can’t.

That’s when I want to think of something else.

That’s when I think about what I think a home is
What we’ve all been through, and
Where have we gone, and
what my friends have seen, their new families are growing.
It’s aways the right season for fertility,
I see all their children and I think “what if that was me?”
And in every single case, I would be happy.
My friends mean a lot to me. They keep me going.
I think if I fall on my face they’ll love me all the more for it.
That means everything to me.
That lets me remember my inner child,
cartwheeling straight down the street,
sliding, careening, skinning a knee,
getting all bent out of shape
from anyone or anything I might meet
knowing full well I have a place for recovery.
Not my local Schnucks or wise-ass charcuteries
but with my chosen family, the ones who are really there
(and don’t charge an arm and a leg and a fee,

Happy anniversary to 1 of 365.25 people, on average, we might meet
Soon the shops will open with the year’s first work week.
I’m rooting for you, from the margins.
Unemployed by choice, that’s the jargon
I’ve rarely said “beg your pardon?”
I usually say “I’m sorry?” and regret my decision of words immediately
the theater of the absurd grows stale quickly
let’s break bread and dry it out completely.

Karl Malone, Monday, 3 January 2022 04:53 (three years ago) link

Poetry
like pottery
left me cold
as a pot of tea
in the studio

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2022 10:22 (three years ago) link

Shins

Whose thistle-blistered shin is this?
The other one must surely miss
Its criss-crossed country counterpart
If one is one and two are two how many shins am I to lose
To bracken stumbles cuts and grazes, nettle stings and turns of phrases
Sod this for a barrel of laughs
I'd rather use the underpass

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2022 10:23 (three years ago) link

Borstal sorcerers

Don't grouse on my greasy undergarments with your oleaginous jeremiads
Metastatic angst in the antechamber of Anthea Turner's tanning atelier
Hock your snot into a truffled fist, you sunny-spayed evangelists
Serve my sirloin on a praxis of half-shined rag-and-iron colliders
Billious squalls from the Gorbals bill tables while we celebrate Clark Gable's nasty garlic nails.
Slop a bucket of hot-steam gas on the coalface of the midnight mass
Sick chicks peck at plastic packaging
Dejected ingestion of a pupper's plaything
Rubber throats on the road start to rollick:
"Hen, you've had your fillet!"
You embattled borstal sorcerers

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2022 10:26 (three years ago) link

All mine were written into my phone while deeply hungover

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2022 10:30 (three years ago) link

(no match for KM's work of course, which I'm loving)

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 3 January 2022 13:27 (three years ago) link

i'm just a doof in the wind, dog latin

Slow synth waves wash over 2am
It’s 1994 or 2024, doesn’t matter
I didn’t have Nickelodeon
I’m falling asleep
I might be falling again,
By all signs I am
(Each step is a kind of broken forward motion)
According to Laurie Anderson.
We can’t bothered paying too much attention right now
In the midst of the everpresent competition of the senses
with touches and smells and sounds and visions,
And on and on in bottomless provisions
The brooms grow arms and pick up the buckets
and flood their lair in lemminglike motions

It tastes like wine
It tastes like honey

Let’s dim these lights and turn up their hues
a degree or two warmer then cool daylight
The heat’s on 72
I’m sweating, through the sheets
I see you moving,
Do you see me watching
I hope you do.

We could just go.
We could go to the Blue Lagoon.
There’s a free layover at Reykjavik
On the way to Europe
or at least there used to be.
I haven’t really left this town in a week or three.
You sit in the sulfuric water and smell like eggs.
Weird for a minute but plenty-fine in a daze,
3-feet deep water, half crouch
The low-flying clouds of steam out the mouth
Hot stones on your cheeks against the North Atlantic breeze
For us it might be heaven
For others it’s a Tuesday soak
One to take off work and enjoy a float
facedown for as long as their lungs can handle it
Then flip and spread the arms toward all four directions,
The cardinals, the original sin,
Imagine you’re the tail of a lizard
Feeling left and right and centered
As naturally as our hearts beat and lungs breathe,
We’re so lucky to sit at the top of these complicated systems,
We don’t understand but we benefit from them
To live our lives in a way that honors that gift is to
repay back only part of what we’ve been given
To truly enjoy a sliver of the life
Is to be adrift at sea, at home with the upheaval

I was really sick on a small boat the open sea there, near Iceland.
We had paid a small fee to try to see a whale swim.
Now I’m the boy on the big wide cold open ocean for the first time since
his father drowned himself semi-voluntarily,
probably out of ignorance,
Out of a misplaced faith in his voice of intuition,
One voice out of many in conversation,
A form of improvised unpredictable organization,
Sorted starting with numbers a
Before the letters
I opened my eyes and my stomach went sideways,
I almost threw up but sat my way out of it.
I closed my eyes and leaned back my head
Against the cabin and the shapes inside my lids
Watching some puffins landing near a dark cave lit up
by a tourist captain playing an echoing woodwind
An alto saxophone with an unexpected soulful lilt,
A long quiet note held steady with tremolo flicks
Bouncing off the walls and my own index fingers and wrists
Tapping along to the the perfect story, followed by that solo,
the one I just mentioned.
I was haunted, what’s wrong with me, live.

Karl Malone, Thursday, 6 January 2022 01:58 (three years ago) link

unexpectedly
subtle black cat climbs the fence
leaves night incomplete

Halfway there but for you, Friday, 7 January 2022 18:49 (three years ago) link

Dr. Howl

The moving men just finished
There are two of them, two guys, along with a truck
They’re dancing in the front cabin
and filling it up with vape smoke and laughing
hotboxing at 3pm, done with their shift

One of my neighbors is leaving
but I didn’t see who it was

There’s a beagle next door that I call Dr. Howl
The good doctor documents his agony
When his walker walks off to work
he yooowls to absurd length
caterwauls until no one can stand it

We all struggled with his loneliness
Those of us living within a 200-foot radius, that is
On some mornings it would go on for hours.
He’d clock in early then go back to bed
only to wake up again around 9am
to resume his fit at an even greater volume

I saw the Doctor Howl in his apartment’s side window sometimes
We’d make eye contact while I locked my front door
I loved seeing him in his window frame, looking at me
He single-handedly ruined my sleeping patterns
and I’d give him some more time, I’d give him a treat, if I saw him

Now the truck and the two guys are gone
There’s a large empty space where it was
I haven’t heard a howl all day
now to think of it
I wonder where that sad boy is

I hope he’s running in a big open space
miles away from any other property
barking and huffing and squalling
the doctor in his countryside residence, at peace

Karl Malone, Friday, 7 January 2022 21:00 (three years ago) link

That's great

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Saturday, 8 January 2022 11:21 (three years ago) link

thank you dog latin! what is very strange is that when i finished that yesterday, i posted a video clip of me reading it, and almost the instant i hit send, i heard Dr. Howl going again and was assured that he's still around. I even saw him in the window looking back at me when i went outside later. it was really nice :)

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 16:54 (three years ago) link

the nice thing is that the poem stands up completely on its own, unaffected by those later facts

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Saturday, 8 January 2022 17:05 (three years ago) link

thank you aimless! you all should post some that you're working on, if you want. i've revised all the ones i posted above, quite a bit in cases, but i think it's sometimes a nice thing to have a place to post work in progress. i'm working on a decent one right now, i think. i really enjoy using my mornings to write poetry. it fits in really well with the rest of my day and it makes me feel very productive. i've never really organized my writing before, but i think maybe part of that was that i assumed i would be best at doing it at night, which is when my creative outlets are usually sparking. but with writing, i think i am a morning/coffee person. anyway, just rambling, back to the notes :)

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 17:58 (three years ago) link

and no joke, just as i post, the same two guys and the moving truck just showed up! i think they're moving someone else in? looool. well, i'm sitting here at the same window, on the same couch. unbelievable

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 18:02 (three years ago) link

The silence of a new apartment
Waving to the one you left behind and closing the door
crying and knees and hands touching the floor
Do I want to be reminded
No, but I wouldn’t want to forget

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 18:34 (three years ago) link

one more, sorry. this is the one i've been working on the last few days

Mary Lou Retton Skips

Look at him, skipping rope
He skipped up and down the full length of his block’s sidewalk
without a single slip or halt, not a moment of hesitation
If anything he seems to be craving a mistake
Not at all like Mary Lou Retton, you remember
a nation held its breath, it was the 1984 Olympics
the sprint to the vault pushes those watching to the edges of their seats
she launches, flips, soars, and of course sticks the landing
She demanded perfection of herself in a life full of limits
Now she’s waiting to see what the judge’ would think
Then we saw the score and she heard it and said Yes!
and we all said it together, Ten!, watching on our analog televisions
Moments like that certainly capture my attention.
One hundred percent of it, the career-defining performance
The tip of a spear dipping ever so slightly into transcendence
That’s the boy who effortlessly skips, in the moment, in this moment,
at the top of his game, when life seems so easy
His kid sister walks behind him and watches and smiles
now she’s spinning and he’s romping down the block again

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 19:45 (three years ago) link

(sorry, that's supposed to go into this:)

I don’t want to be disenchanted, as I sometimes am
As we all are bound to be, lost at sea in the knowledge economy
I try to push back against that drift
because I enjoy being enchanted
In fact, it means pretty much everything to me
When it feels like magic I don’t know what I saw
I know what it felt like, I don’t know it all
I know every spell gets broken, I know where I belong
Every day can’t be like this and this might not happen again
That’s why I hold onto this feeling tightly for as long as I can
when I can find it, when I can hear my voice and change it

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 19:48 (three years ago) link

(and then figuring out if i want to include this or work it into something else i've been working on. it contains many baseball references, which i'm sure will be wonderful for some and horrible for others, haha):

When the bus dropped me off, as a kid, I had a ritual
I would take off my bag and begin the great spin
Wielding my backpack like an Decathlon competitor holds a hammer
Feeling the slack of the Jansport bag’s thin straps tightening
Gaining momentum
A trapper keeper slammed up against polyester lining
Then I’d whip my book bag off into the air as far as I could possibly throw it
Often with a grand arc, as a performance
As the bus pulled off with some kids laughing from the windows
the school day was done, the home was still home

Karl Malone, Saturday, 8 January 2022 19:58 (three years ago) link

i changed the name to Skip to my Lou, and the last part is now part of something else. also revised a lot of things, after reading it out loud a few times and hearing where things needed to be

Skip to my Lou

Look at that kid, skipping rope
He skipped up and down the full length of this block’s sidewalk
without a single misstep, no miscues, no reservations
If anything he seemed to be craving a mistake
One to break the winning streak so he could move on to something else

Not at all like Mary Lou Retton, you remember
a nation held its breath, it’s the 1984 Olympics
Her sprint to the vault pushes those watching to the edges of their seats
she launches, flips, soars, and of course sticks the landing
She demanded perfection of herself in a world of limits
Now it all comes down to what the judges should think
She walks past the NBC cameras and we see
the pressure of theater on the brink of the rink
no one blinks, I think, no one breathes
Then we saw the score and she heard it and said Yes!
and we all shouted the number together, Ten!
the announcer, the audience
everyone at home watching on our analog televisions

Moments like that certainly capture my attention.
One hundred percent of it, the career-defining performance
The tip of a spear dipping ever so slightly into transcendence
That’s the boy who skips, seemingly, without effort
in the moment, in this moment
at the top of his game, when life seems so easy
His kid sister walks behind him and watches and smiles
now she’s spinning and he’s romping down the block again
His streak is still going
He can’t retire while he’s still on top because
he hasn’t worked a job
I hope he doesn’t have to for as long as he can

I don’t want to be disenchanted, as I sometimes am
As we are all bound to be, lost at sea
in the knowledge economy or whatever it is that we call this
I try to push back against that kind of heavy drift
because I enjoy being enchanted
In fact, it means everything to me
When I feel magical I don’t know what I saw
I know what it felt like, I don’t know it all
I know every spell gets broken, I know where I don’t belong
I know most days aren’t like this
That’s why I hold onto this feeling so tightly for as long as I can
when I think about my voice and who is changing it

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 00:32 (three years ago) link

god, things can never be done.

last stanza now starts like this:

I don’t want to be disenchanted, as I sometimes am
As we’re all bound to be, emptied into the sea
in the knowledge economy or whatever it is that we call this
every droplet of water makes its own slow way to the ocean

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 00:34 (three years ago) link

That Dr Howl one is pure late Bukowski, not a bad thing, I love late Bukowski.

Is this thread really for "works in progress"? Cus your standard and workrate is intimidating, and personally my brain doesn't work between October and like March or summat, so when I had a Big Day opening mail/taking a walk/reading the bible I wrote this down in full awareness I will not be fixing the meter and such until the sun hits my corpse:

I love my auntie's handwriting
It is genuinely illegible, but
It swoops and it soars
Long curves, that (to me)
Illustrate: birds in flight
Messi shots at goal
and paths never took
On walks in the forest
IN THE HILLS

Turf Hill
Scare Hill
Boy's Hill
Burnieshag, Gaerlie
These are high points in my life
(geddit?
never mind...)

Bellhangie
Shoolbraid
Bogton (fucken BOGTON)
These are apparently individual "woods"
But really
(come bosie up and I'll tell you a secret):
It's actually all one big forest
(also my life is one big forest)

But my auntie's handwriting was NOT ALWAYS THIS WAY
I know
Because of my grandfather's bible
His wife put it in my hands when he died, and
Inside
I found a slip of paper
No more than like 3/4 inch square
With a verse from Luke
Bland, rote, capital letters
I would have never known who wrote it
If it wasn't signed
Hilary White

I just wanted to get for my own records before I forgot 1) my Auntie's baffling handwriting 2) The names I googled of where I was walking, I thought it was just "up the forestry", turns out I traversed multitudes 3) the tiny piece of paper I found in the Bible.

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Sunday, 9 January 2022 02:38 (three years ago) link

Oh also when I woke up today I found this written "chase yirsel son, finish up your compendium of left-handed bassists", I AM COMPILING NO SUCH COMPENDIUM so my only guess is that is meant for song lyrics or poetry

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Sunday, 9 January 2022 02:43 (three years ago) link

wearing a t-shirt says "emo-adjacent", that's also a scribbling I need to put in something

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Sunday, 9 January 2022 02:56 (three years ago) link

i really enjoyed reading that! "also my life is one big forest" is something i will remember, hahaha

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 16:58 (three years ago) link

as far as workrate goes, i'm in a weird temporary thing right now for the next year or two where i don't have a job and i spend my time doing whatever the fuck i want, all the time. it's incredibly self-indulgent and i've only getting to do it by obliterating every dollar i've ever put in any location

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 17:02 (three years ago) link

for example, i have a list of TO DOs that are getting more urgent - your payments are failing, your prescription is ending, your insurance hasn't started, etc. but instead i'm going to spend the rest of this morning drinking my coffee and working on my baseball poem, because fuck you only live once

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 17:03 (three years ago) link

also j h m i appreciate your use of capital letters and you sense of parenthetics (in this thread it is ok and good to make up words)

gonna do a quick test to see if this works, using the formatting...


Jonah was tossed overboard
and Jesus walked upon a sea
of expectations and Kurt Vonnegut’s reminding me
so it goes, it’s overflowing, the need for emptiness
to continue on as your body craves activity
blood vessels carrying oxygen and nutrients

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 17:55 (three years ago) link

A Dead Armed Pitcher is Not Yet a Man


The path of a pitched baseball
can be curv or sl
ing urv
ing
t
narrow or a
l
l
cutt n
ing or k u arc's
ckl the f
ing bends a
the wind l
l
slid
ing or drop
p
ing
like a sick stomach
having just reached the top
of a rollercoaster ride that screams like a rocket until the bottom falls out of it and comes to the most sudden
stop

Instead of throwing the ball like any of that
I throw it right down the middle
as hard as I can
My ass is handed to me in front of an audience

I grunt when I throw because they asked me to
because if I don’t they’ll ask why I didn’t
because they thought it would add a couple miles per hour
to my cartoonishly slow and extremely hittable deliveries
The other kid grunts back as he slaps a loud smack
The crowd roars because our team is away and they are safe at home
We’re 13 years old, I sucked
I got roughed up on the usual
but our team had no reliable bullpen
so they left me in to soak up the remaining innings
until the 10-run rule arrived, the rule of mercy

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 18:55 (three years ago) link

Pool

Movies on black and white tvs in barrooms
Fred Astaire smiles and a man plays a flute
I was watching him dance in a musical on mute

When a coquette with a curly q
sticks three quarters into a table which removes
a stop inside of it and prompts sixteen balls to click
together as they roll down a slope to her waiting hands

If I’ve seen it twenty times here, I’ll see it again
but I’ve never anything resembling this
she takes the 6 ball and puts it in one coat pocket
the 4 ball is flipped up in the air as the 9 ball is
touching the floor and now it seems like everyone’s staring at her

Cue ball in her left hand, 8 ball in her right
the green felt under the hanging billiard light
tinted with oranges and yellows and grime

She wound up like a pitcher in the bottom of the 9th
like an old-timey pitcher with the long-winded wind-up
We all saw where she was aiming and where this was going

He started running toward the door
when she finally launched it
where his body had been only a second before
the mirror exploded and the shattered glass scattered quick
as his shadow was seen down the corridor
She grabbed the coat he left behind and walked outside
with a flick of a cigarette

Later that night as the owner cleaned up
and grumbled about the cost of pool ball replacements
there was something that caught my eye
a clear view to the sky, ripped through the ceiling
the size of a cue ball, when did she make that happen
what else does she make happen
i’ll take a manhattan
she paid less than a dollar to make things plain
that’s a good deal in most centuries

Karl Malone, Sunday, 9 January 2022 22:44 (three years ago) link

You lads <3

Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Sunday, 9 January 2022 23:32 (three years ago) link

Oh you're "on the spectrum"?
We're all on the "spectrum" that's what makes it a spectrum
But some of us use it as a synonym
For "I Act The Dick On The Internet"

Some of us get pennies threwed at our head
In those horrific high school corridors
But (bosie up, I'll give you a callback)
You can feed your family off the subsequent coins

No, we don't use that term
It's ugly, pointed, dismal and tawdry
Don't listen to me, a Doctor will tell you
But that doesn't appear on your 5 year plan

It's like Peel said
on first play of New Puritan
IF YOU THINK IT'S ABOUT YOU... IT'S ABOUT YOU
Let's just go back to bed

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 01:14 (three years ago) link

6 years into my 5 year plan, and I'm not where I said I'd be
So I live my life in Comic Sans, a forced attempt at levity

3 years on this sofa and still haven't got no sleep
But I live my life in Papyrus, cus I'm ~mystical and deep~

Had my eyes closed when you wrote that note, but I took a sneaky peek
Try to live my life in Futura, up to date and somewhat sleek

So next time you need to move your shit just give me a shout
I'm whatever font but Sans Serif, nae fucking about

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 01:35 (three years ago) link

Sorry, that one is pretty bad, closer to a party game than a poem, but this is a safe space, right?

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 01:37 (three years ago) link

I wrote a poem about my REDACTED but then it seemed too TW-ish to post so I replaced every use of the word REDACTED with REDACTED and now it seems creepily sexual? But in a humorous way so here yis go:

There is no honour in this town
But there are a lot of REDACTED
mostly plastic, yellow and black
how can I respect you with that toy in your hand?

My REDACTED was my father's REDACTED
Maybe his father's REDACTED before?
I dunno, we don't speak
The REDACTED is my father now

Stanley 99E, for whatever that's worth
One side half decayed, but then increasingly shiny
At the top end, rubbed by my fingers
As I grasp it in my pocket

The other side, only the tip is burnished
Where my thumb resides
The knife hides secretly as I listen to your tiresome anecdote
Waiting for the bigoted punchline

My brother visited my mother
Whipped out his REDACTED, to prove he's a big man
I just stood back, smirked
Knowing I had the superior REDACTED

And when I sleep tonight
I shall hold the cat against my chest
But the REDACTED will be in reach
Just in case

It resides on the other side of the bed
Vacant, except for the REDACTED
But the REDACTED's presence reassures me
Because I live in REDACTEDTOWN

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 03:03 (three years ago) link

Fuck I missed one

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 03:05 (three years ago) link

Better:

There is no honour in this town
But there are a lot of REDACTED
mostly plastic, yellow and black
how can I respect you with that toy in your hand?

My REDACTED was my father's REDACTED
Maybe his father's REDACTED before?
I dunno, we don't speak
The REDACTED is my father now

Stanley 99E, for whatever that's worth
One side half decayed, but then increasingly shiny
At the top end, rubbed by my fingers
As I grasp it in my pocket

The other side, only the tip is burnished
Where my thumb resides
The REDACTED hides secretly as I listen to your tiresome anecdote
Waiting for the bigoted punchline

My brother visited my mother
Whipped out his REDACTED, to prove he's a big man
I just stood back, smirked
Knowing I had the superior REDACTED
And when I sleep tonight
I shall hold the cat against my chest
But the REDACTED will be in reach
Just in case

It resides on the other side of the bed
Vacant, except for the REDACTED
But the REDACTED's presence reassures me
Because I live in REDACTEDTOWN

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 03:07 (three years ago) link

And that time somehow I deleted a verse break, but I'm not pasting it thirdwise

Aberdeen Thugs Kiss All Visiting Fans (Jonathan Hellion Mumble), Monday, 10 January 2022 03:09 (three years ago) link

I’m out of milk, out of butter, and eggs
But I don’t think I’ll be headed to the supermarket today
I‘ve eaten and smoked, I’m partly dressed
I haven’t washed the dishes yet
I’ll be broke soon if I can’t sell something
and I just broke another french press
it fell with a cracking splash into the sink
as I closed a kitchen cabinet
My pointy elbows poked it off the ledge
I’ve been making a lot of clumsy accidents
and it all started after I started wearing glasses
now I have three plastic plungers and zero carafes

Karl Malone, Friday, 14 January 2022 17:05 (three years ago) link

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (371 of them)
Can someone tell Batman why not?!?
Reply to: pers-164487✧✧✧@craigsl✧✧✧.o✧✧
Date: 2006-05-25, 8:25AM EDT

can someone tell Batman why not?!?

Why he can't luv Batgurl? Why can't he luv Batgurl? What's wrong with luving Batgurl?

Thanks! kisst plus kisses for Batgurl

* this is in or around manhattan
* yes -- it's ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

164487171

The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Monday, 17 January 2022 02:09 (three years ago) link

There was a quiet family in a crooked land
and a series of bad hands which came to surround them
They lived within a kind of bewilderment
but thought they were outside of it
One day the heavy fog fell on their porch at dusk

They were watching the oranges and blues
and noting the range of lavender hues on view
but mostly they were listening
to cicada waves piling up on each other
picking up the patterns in their rhythms and
getting their whole story and then some
the decayed phrases phasing and fading in and out
papering over the seams of the loop
so there are no beginnings and
no endings

only an old dog’s tail which keeps wagging
every which way smelling like wet grass shavings
Come and get it while it’s still hot
A person that never really was
Their family lives on the corner of a block
You might find near the end of the book
as a form of epilogue
when the rising tension has been resolved
when the plot no longer thickens
They see their friends and warmly thank them
It’s as cold as the dickens out there, isn’t it
I guess some things never change, do they
These are the ones we come home to
the ones who have been missing us
That’s the story we like to tell ourselves
not how it really was

The quiet part has been said quite loudly
Can we roll the credits now?
Can we hear an old favorite in a new arrangement?
We know something’s wrong
but we don’t have the same explanation for it
but do we have to have the same explanation?
I remember when we did
Do we at least agree that the sun has gone down
Nobody says anything
We could all use a breather

When we step outside the shadows are detached
from the objects they used to represent
they fill the valleys with a sense of dread
and grow strongest where there is no light at all
I think they’re leading us to the bottom of a well
and I’m strangely compelled to go along with their plan
to put a lid on me
to be covered up and let it sink in
that I don’t have the faintest sense of what I’m dealing with
the window is closing
Purple and black and darker still until
the chill of my breath is the only thing that’s moving
Something small to take full account of

I’ll speak to you in the morning
the rustling wind under your door, whispering
that something inevitable is approaching

Karl Malone, Friday, 21 January 2022 05:16 (three years ago) link

King’s Highway

I saw a dog at a bus stop
but she wasn’t waiting and neither was anyone else
she ran through the repair shop’s lot
and everyone was moving away or staring
She worked her way a bit down the block
And was soon back in the traffic
all the tires squeaked but no one honked
she weaved through the cars like
water through a sieve and
wound up west of the King’s Highway

I watched all of this in horror from the driver’s seat of my car
from the very center of the same King’s Highway
traffic rushing toward me from the left and away from the right
trapped from all sides in a left hand turn lane, waiting, having to wait,
how long could it stay green
she was running out in front of my wheels

some of the cars began to come to a stop
I looked for anyone who was running toward the dog
and found someone holding a leash
her hands were in the air, frozen like me it seemed

The dog was back out in the street
tire squeaks and still no honking
I put on my right-turn signal
and felt the seat belt sting against my neck
as my right hand gripped the passenger headrest

like thin rice noodles squeezing through a colander
I couldn’t believe I made it through
the moving automobile lines and off of it
to a taco bell parking spot
and immediately leapt out of my car like a fool
who still remembers to lock the door with a
remote key while scanning the periphery

I ran down the street to the person with the leash
Are you the owner
Yes, her name’s Nala
Which way did she go
I knew the answer before she answered
I saw it
Nala had turned off the King’s Highway down an alley

My black jacket made rapid plastic swishing noises
I was wearing gray mesh allbirds shoes
with gray pants and a gray shirt
my hair was lavender and yellow and orange and brown
I’m a complete mess, I know it
I took off, completely

She was looking at me, she kept looking back at me
while still barreling down the alley
I turned the corner and ran like the T-1000
that I used to be, for about a minute
probably closer to thirty seconds
it was a longer sprint then I can remember
since the pandemic
BC AD BCE CE
before and after
when meeting people was easy
Nala was on a leash and now we can’t find her
but I’m on her tracks, the only one with the sensor

I couldn’t catch my breath, I was panting
I went over the fence and through the back gate
there are no woods
the alley was grass, then dirt, then concrete
Nala stands at a pass and looks both ways
She instinctively manuevers t-bones at top speed

Somehow I’m at the main street,
the person holding the leash
says to me, Her name’s Nala
I’m Emma
She won’t come to me
She knows we’re putting her away
A postal worker overhears us
and is filled with disgust
We are one of the obstacles in her day
and I see the leashholder’s face is filled with bruised spots
Emma, she’s laughing and her eyes are empty
Nala’s running toward the trainyard
I keep chasing

the same landscape, again and again
the gas station, the restaurant, the intersection
the tire change chain, the telephone lines hanging over
the cars, everywhere cars, starting the cars
starting the story in a car, gradually exiting a car
everyone else is in a car, or otherwise waiting for something
This is a Thursday afternoon, this is a thousand places
this is a hero with a thousand faces
sitting in a car

I almost caught her
I was out of breath
she was down the block
about 200 feet off and I called
Nala! Nala, please!
The same words from before but with a different texture
now I was down and Nala was the young pup
more than ready to run for another hour
Nala, please, Nala
and she came to me with her leash dragging
on the ground behind her
I could see the whites of her eyes
in the prime of her prime of her prime
and no discipline
she came within 5 feet and I jumped the gun
with no discipline, I missed

I reached for the leash but it was beyond my capabilities
and I saw it disappear down another alley
there was a girl watching and she asked
is that your dog?
and i said it’s not my pooch but I’m helping
and felt so silly and I sprinted again, off

I never did find her
I was eight blocks away from my car
I walked back. to my car.
the car, the car.

I ordered 2 cheesy bean burritos
I was out of breath and
forgot to wear my mask
and the man at the window hated me
I think
I never found her, I ran out of breath

Karl Malone, Saturday, 29 January 2022 23:32 (three years ago) link

The street is cold the dawn is gray my heart says no but my head says stay

calstars, Saturday, 29 January 2022 23:45 (three years ago) link

What a mess.
What a horrible mess.

The rest of it, shortly to follow.

Where to begin?

The ending started as a walk
with talk of the “immediate future”.

It started in the garden of Eden.
Adam dreamed of an Eve
and was relieved of some of his burdens.
He needed help and they felt no shame.

Dead end street.

The people in the steeple are dying to meet
the one-winged angel with mangy hair and sores on his feet
to be blinded, to be brought to their knees
once and then twice again.

Dead end street.
Dead end street.

People are dying here on Dead End Street.

Here is the rest:

It’s a mess and we’re out of time.
An archeologist digging through our wreck
might be disappointed with what they find.

They won’t find these words
long since windswept
the way we were
the way you are
cannot be captured
I wonder what I have left
and when to leave

I am starting to believe in some things
that didn’t make much sense before

Karl Malone, Thursday, 3 February 2022 01:23 (three years ago) link

I love your poems Ztbd

assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 3 February 2022 01:44 (three years ago) link

limbo is a container for time
where one waits for godot
and knows how low one can go
how long one can hold onto
a breath before it hurts in the chest
with pinprick moments of silence
hanging in the upper halves of windows
like potted plants watching gardens
glow in the twilight, wanting to know

https://i.imgur.com/1J4OtLS.gif

z_tbd, Wednesday, 29 November 2023 18:22 (one year ago) link

my elbow flicks the light switch
because my fingers and forearms
are covered with paint, i said
what a mess of a mixup
to overlay the mediums
the message is in the tedium
replay what you heard
and see how it’s different

from what came before
send me a postcard
you’re halfway to the end
then halfway to the end

I’m noticing more people smoking recently saw

footage of Joni Mitchell singing coyote backstage on the rolling thunder

tour and is there a correlation between the populace quitting and obesity

calstars, Saturday, 16 December 2023 13:41 (one year ago) link

yeah, I'm a poem
(not a syllable wasted)
I convey meaning

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 18 December 2023 15:34 (one year ago) link

Part-Time Rapper by Scott Seward

I rock rhymes.

Sometimes.

scott seward, Monday, 18 December 2023 15:41 (one year ago) link

i woke up in the middle of the night the other night and thought that. and then i went back to sleep. thank you. thank you very much.

scott seward, Monday, 18 December 2023 15:42 (one year ago) link

with the right beat, i think you just wrote your first #1 single!

z_tbd, Monday, 18 December 2023 15:48 (one year ago) link

three weeks pass...

under the fence
you crawl on all fours
the lock to open the gate
from the inside

i heard your stomach scrape
along blades of grass
split in half along the stems
lift the hinges
to let our friends in

we light soft candles reminiscent
of the end of a sunset
projected wide onto wrinkled fabric
pulled taut from clips in the corners

z_tbd, Wednesday, 10 January 2024 16:58 (one year ago) link

three weeks pass...

the double u is spoken
the double v is chiseled
w reflects the
soft m in the center of the back
yes, I’d like my heart back
x marks the spot I can wait
what time does the sun set
don’t let the dust get wet

z_tbd, Monday, 5 February 2024 16:57 (one year ago) link

two weeks pass...

new game plus
starts with all the items but none of the progress
or all of the progress but none of the items
or with everything you can remember
or with nothing at all

but a new body and internal clock
settling into a walking pace
might mean time might
sturdy the fall
fresh sets of rules will unfold
as peculiar rhythms that become your own

z_tbd, Thursday, 22 February 2024 16:26 (eleven months ago) link

two weeks pass...

shaded blades next to
lit blades lit green
warm my toes
blue and yellow
hope I won’t bring my
giant foot in the sky
swinging down hard
to divide my yard into two
discrete zones
of careless trampling
of careful misunderstanding

z_tbd, Sunday, 10 March 2024 05:21 (eleven months ago) link

he hit me hard
he felt bad
-hit me back
come on, get me back-
no, not now
not when you’re expecting it
wait until you’ve forgotten
when i finally hit back
we will both laugh

z_tbd, Thursday, 21 March 2024 20:32 (ten months ago) link

two weeks pass...


The old arm
Of a new love

calstars, Sunday, 7 April 2024 18:40 (ten months ago) link

God is a bouncer
Who keeps me out of bars
And pushes me home
When I’ve had too few

calstars, Friday, 19 April 2024 22:47 (nine months ago) link

Put on a pair of pants
Put on one more
Put on another and you’re falling on the floor
You won’t get to the door
Put on another pair of pants

brimstead, Friday, 19 April 2024 23:14 (nine months ago) link

i’m so hungry
i could eat a horse
of course, of course not really
really i’m so hungry i could lick
kirk cameron’s perfect banana, sorry
how many licks does it take
to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop
i’m not 1 2 say
WHOOoooo 8 all the D, 3,
vitamin, gummies?
how i wanted it to be me
CaRUNCHing mr. ed bobbing for apples
on halloween

z_tbd, Monday, 22 April 2024 15:49 (nine months ago) link

New crush is old crush

“His weakness was his fondness for intoxication, which had similarly fascinated primitive man”

If “I gotta cut you off” is something you’ve had said to you at the bar, and also you’re into Pina coladas

calstars, Saturday, 27 April 2024 20:56 (nine months ago) link

eventually
an old shoe will wear out
and be discarded

it isn't just the inevitability age

it was just tired
of feeling feet on top of it
All day
All night

it wasn't so bad when it was new
it was good to be useful
but its utility was its downfall
depleted until it was of no use to anybody
not even itself

RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 02:15 (nine months ago) link

*of age

RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 02:15 (nine months ago) link

we're deepening into May spring, and,
the sun stays out a little longer in the evenings
I consider you in all things as the warmth of the sun fades and the sky blooms neon oranges and pinks
I miss you
whoever you are now
where ever you are

sns if this is too " girly"

stwahberrymilkgirlll, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 01:37 (nine months ago) link

by the way - I am not into mentioning anyone specific but marvelous haiku and extended poems on this thread

stwahberrymilkgirlll, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 01:39 (nine months ago) link

by the way - I am not into mentioning anyone specific but marvelous haiku and extended poems on this thread

stwahberrymilkgirlll, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 01:39 (nine months ago) link

welcome stwahberry

z_tbd, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 22:25 (nine months ago) link

hi. z
thank you. happy to be here

stwahberrymilkgirlll, Thursday, 9 May 2024 03:12 (nine months ago) link

No one could ever crack the code
Of my new one

fibonacci zero one

one
dumb
son

taps drums
cracks toms
bread crumbs

glitter bombs
souvenirs
nothing’s wrong

nothing missing here
metal hooks hanging
plastic chandeliers

every time i look it’s changing
colors melting into one light
my neck’s warm and now it’s raining

this ceiling will disappear when the music is right
on time would be an odd way to start a performance
do sheep dream of electricity, the key, string, kite

sky was alive now it’s dormant
the bottom fell out of the air
from the green streams crawls the tortoise

to tell a tall tale
of golden ratios
and beach ball sized hail

hell windblown
closed drive thru
missed free throws

who knew
what when
did you

reach
the
end

z_tbd, Thursday, 9 May 2024 04:12 (nine months ago) link

I was just thinking about impermanence and how something/one is forever changing. we go through nfinite metamorphosis - all the time everywhere collectively, though not at the same frequencies is what I've come to

stwahberrymilkgirlll, Sunday, 12 May 2024 23:05 (nine months ago) link

Searching for Sarah
Enhanced includes real
They’re not even days

calstars, Friday, 17 May 2024 22:59 (eight months ago) link

When has there ever been something so lovely as you
In silhouette in the light
Coming in at 559

calstars, Sunday, 26 May 2024 21:58 (eight months ago) link

Omg that’s a horrible poem lol

calstars, Sunday, 26 May 2024 22:02 (eight months ago) link

Old actor, just starting out
Surprise placement
Bit part in Ghostbusters VI

calstars, Thursday, 30 May 2024 22:53 (eight months ago) link

Got my arm out on the windowsill at the bar
like a cars open window
Stationary rollin as people walk by

calstars, Saturday, 1 June 2024 19:20 (eight months ago) link

I have decided
that doing nothing
is better
than doing anything

I’d tell you why

but

Halfway there but for you, Friday, 7 June 2024 14:36 (eight months ago) link

So gone
So list
He is

calstars, Saturday, 8 June 2024 03:30 (eight months ago) link

At the court house
Waking down the hall
“Your backpack is open”
“Can you close it?”
*closes it and pats backpacker on the shoulder*

calstars, Wednesday, 12 June 2024 22:57 (eight months ago) link

Dark ages of attraction
Year long crush
She keeps cutting her hair

calstars, Saturday, 22 June 2024 00:10 (seven months ago) link

two weeks pass...

the rider of the electric scooter
gliding like a still life coasting up
a hill of beans meant more to me
than the limbs of arcing delivery
loose and sinewy
it was all we wanted
in the sandlot heat
to hang a crooked number
in the fifth frame, throw it
somewhere near the middle
uncut fields hides a cat nap
but my left leg’s gone numb
so i’ll see you in the groupchat

z_tbd, Thursday, 11 July 2024 18:00 (seven months ago) link

three weeks pass...

At the bar , I ordered a beer and went to the bathroom
I had been here five years ago
Someone had painted over my tiniest of graffiti

calstars, Friday, 2 August 2024 03:11 (six months ago) link

A Song

A song for the outstretched fields of France and the endless games of chance and the needles on the blackboard and the skin razor flute bagpipe jollies and the tight pants naked folly and the syrup-laden sled across hippie homestead quickenings and the stew of my mind corn thickening and your fragrant oily dreadclumps and the self-help spine-bound entreaties and the last of the self-made Mohicans and the first of the metaphysical swallows and the third of the post-structuralist waitresses and the ninth resurrected magician and a song, a song, a song.

keen reverberations of twee (collardio gelatinous), Tuesday, 6 August 2024 02:56 (six months ago) link

two months pass...

The toothy grin
Of the man driving the ice cream truck
As he drove into the Macy's storefront
Is not an American tragedy

Because

Only mannequins died

But

I'm still jealous of the mannequin
In a way

smears for fears (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 22 October 2024 04:02 (three months ago) link

two weeks pass...

It’s ok to lose
And not say anything
at the bar
It’s somewhat expected
And better than being coked up
and chatty

calstars, Sunday, 10 November 2024 23:29 (three months ago) link

“The promise of the night”
Is nothing
But it’s nice to pretend

calstars, Friday, 15 November 2024 22:49 (two months ago) link

1, 2, 3 and to the 4
Stefan from UPS is at your door
He's been here for ten minutes, so open up
Or he'll rip your fuckin package up

Joe Boudin (Neanderthal), Saturday, 16 November 2024 17:00 (two months ago) link

Will you ever learn?
toaster waffles are no good
they're too thin to keep their shape
and in the heat they burn

sugar syrup scorches
on the nichrome wires
they may smell nice
but the taste leave much
to be desired

you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Saturday, 16 November 2024 17:10 (two months ago) link

You appeared / you didn’t
She’s stocking the fridge?
Been downstairs for a minute

calstars, Saturday, 30 November 2024 02:42 (two months ago) link

climbing the curtains
covered in flies
wiling the hours away
drawn to the air
pulled to the screen

look through the window of opportunity

is the world happening
is god so gracious
is god so sweetly
turning over the soil
working all the time
on juniata street

z_tbd, Sunday, 1 December 2024 22:29 (two months ago) link

please don’t leave my virtual hellscape

but you took my loot
yes you did!
you yanked it out from under me
while i was trying to help you
i used my last magic points
to cast respawn and save your ass
the trouble of the long journey
you appeared as if out of thin air
the next dimension slicing through

again you lived
and then you immediately took my loot
even though your inventory was full
so you had no space for the the stolen items
i watched you drop your common boots
and your starting short sword
and a torch, unlit

i watched you pick up the legendary axe
a legendary, two-handed axe
which you are not permitted to use
given your singled-minded focus on luck and charisma
and frankly game-breaking ignorance of
strength and endurance

the legendary two-handed axe
rightfully mine but a burden to you
your movement is minus two
the party is only as fast as the slowest mover
(you. you. you!)
—i didn’t mean to criticize
no, i think
the way you loot
breaks all of my rules
please don’t leave my virtual hellscape

z_tbd, Sunday, 15 December 2024 22:12 (one month ago) link

artly because
the spotted circle shirt
thick mustache drooping down
and talking of leaves, missing leaves
double sharpened pencil
twirls on the thumb

his seat is a waterslide
with five legs in 2.3d

teetering notetaker brings his knees
close to the nose
way up on the workstation
posture strictly aligned
along the y-axis
and an expressionless stare

fish eye lens warps
the negative space
when asked to speak
… tapestry

z_tbd, Monday, 23 December 2024 19:04 (one month ago) link

No more bullshit
Not here for what I’m here for

calstars, Sunday, 5 January 2025 20:43 (one month ago) link

leave your dreams

as of this late era date, [current date],

writing complete sentences felt impossible, but it had to be done. compromises were to be expected. we understood them to be necessary to create documents of submission, a submission to a zine which demanded conformity to a certain set of written and electronic standards. we say to ourselves that we don’t have any rules…no rules except for these. the rules for submitting to A Moment Zine. 2025. winter 2025, a time of great–

ding—my bullshit photoshop monthly subscription is going from 10 dollars to 15–
creative cloud my ass–

sorry, i forgot what i was doing, it’s a good thing, because i need to focus! starting here:

in the tortoise and the hare, i am the hare. down to the ears. on a tarot card, i am the fool. but the fool’s not bad at all! proud fools! they get where they’re going fast and take a nap.
and do they take it slow? and is that where they wanna go?
and way down in kokomo, yes we all know, but no! the tortoise goes as slow as it wants, and i can sprint down the path if i want, and i can take a nap if i want, and i probably will.

the beginning of the journey is often the best. nice and fresh.
well rested. hometown theme music plays on a mini-kalimba.

please, join me in reciting “I am a Little Painter”: 🎶

(open book to near the beginning)

…though who is to say i could not try writing in complete sentences, or at least make moves in that direction? And while I’m at it, I could think about doing some capitalizing and modestly punctuating, too. I should pick a tense and stick with it. “Perhaps the past”, he said, “no, let us be present”, I said, “and while we’re at it, let’s use a consistent perspective as well”, we said.

“Not ‘we said’, ‘I said’”, I said. “And I say.”

Surely these inconsistencies can be ironed out by the editing team before it hits the zine press: Imagine my punctuation, this very sentence, perfect, more or less! And my grammar as well! Imagine I kept up the good punctuation and grammar until its quality, the lack of cracks in its tall and long walls, came to be expected and unnotable.
Dependability. Reliability.
This is how truck commercial narratives get written.
And then, on top of that, if my words were reliably introducing new and interesting points, little things to think about, morsels, and dishing them out at a good pace - nice and steady but with enough space left between each fresh tidbit to cause audible deviations in the septum, the one with the whistling nasal passages, the
hmph!

(close book)
I wish I could share more, but that was a limited, exclusive excerpt from the introduction of my sensorial memoir, Sounds from the Big Nose: Early Years. However, I can share some of the early reactions that I’ve received, which will be printed on the back of the book:

(slowly skimming through the blurbs with a pained expression)

a lot of these are rather indirect. but i like this one:

–the written word, spoken out loud, there’s nothing like it!
Right? *long sip of beverage* Ahhh!
(refreshed seltzer lips)
And what a lovely crowd!
And what an excellent ceiling. Or maybe there is no ceiling, here.
It really depends on where this is read, and if this is read.
In one version, one of many possibilities
You say “what…?”, in this one I say
What…an excellent area to look at, up there!

(While your eyes search for an area of excellence to look at up there, I introduce the theme from the thrilling soap opera “Kitchen Situations: Justice Hour”, where every episode must end on a cliffhanger)

now that the dishes are all clean
nest of four pans
elephant on its side might be
plastic figuring
the reflections of a mirror
closer than they appear
wonder who watches who
is inside the negative
space which shows the
way into the kitchen
where the dishes
are never done
and can anything ever be
finished in an all night diner
in this all night diner?
find out next time on:

Kitchen Situations : Justice Hour :: Leave Your Dreams: Invitation to Love

You had to be there, but you almost always have to be there. And now we can’t, even if we once were there, even if we once did. I write as if you were here, I speak as if there is a you or you all there, listening, but it starts as a voice speaking to itself in the place others can’t hear. Who was it for, if for none of the above. All for none, none for all! and plenty of time and patience left over for this evening, or morning

z_tbd, Thursday, 9 January 2025 18:53 (one month ago) link

two weeks pass...

The day I bought Katy lied
Dogs were humping my leg
And children were running around the bar

calstars, Saturday, 25 January 2025 19:44 (two weeks ago) link


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