Establishing my negative credentials.
I curse at work, to myself, but loud enough
for everyone to notice. I make fun of ridiculous
rules and sneer at the company dogs I'm
surrounded by.
By implication I mean everyone, because when
I make enemies, I do it whole. And there's something in me
that needs to flush everything...
14,000 energy drinks can't be wrong
the taste is mutant fruit
by the 14,000th one today it's like drinking a flat soda
can't think
bumbling down the highway
heart attacks in my chest
weak without food
caffeine crapped waterfall
on the sunoco bathroom floor
everything sticks out more than usual
like the discount store owner statue's front teeth biting...
The fret’s returned
soon the windows
will need
to be cleaned again
to wash off
all the limescale
and bird shit
We’ve ended up
flicking from channel
to channel
avoiding
the Third Reich’s
home movies
and a programme
about some thespian
on the hunt
for a brand new cock
On one channel
a strumpet
with her right hand
pleasures a gaoler
while the inmates giggle
to themselves
the harlot sighs
with resigned desperation
a...
this woman on the radio
was just talking about the glory of God
she said heaven opened up and she could hear music playing
today the sink smells like puke
and the lighting is worse
I'm not doing anything about it either
and I'm too sick and broke to get outta here
why can't I reach...
Always live in regret.
The past is ever present.
There are no new days; you are the same person you were before.
Believe that today will be no better than yesterday. It’s about looking down with despair
and looking backward.
Don't look for new opportunities
that the Almighty has planned for you.
Hardship disheartens,
and does not...
I am ashamed of my schism,
my contortionist brain and tongue.
Told status is a ticket to love.
Take hurried notes on how
to be righteous.
Worship Satan at my school.
Eat full-metal propaganda.
I should be enough–one day.
I am a contradiction.
Confess on knee through a beehive
covering your honeycomb profile,
tell the truth
about wearing the Devil's cotton...
Lance, I'd like you to meet Dick Dick.
Ah...pleasure to meet you, Mr. Dick.
The pleasure is mine. Call me Dick.
Dick...yes, of course...Dick.
I understand you're a writer.
Well, I dabble.
I see, most impressive. I'm a dick.
Pardon?
A private eye, a gumshoe: a dick.
Oh! Interesting job!
It pays the bills. Ah...here comes Mrs. Dick...
Dick darling,...
Wife smoked and drank hard cider
while I got another headache on a
smoggy sunday afternoon with the
neighbors’ children screaming and
banging on the wall. And the tape
recorder had to be returned for
warranty work because it was fucked
up and wife’s Smith Corona typewriter
was fucked up also again because
everything we buy turns out...
https://soundcloud.com/user-673577468-435000874/fitbitch
Come on we both know that's not sweat, they sprayed you down to make it look like it. Yes it is, yes it is...I just got done working out. I just left the gym. No...now come on. Yeah alright. I'm sorry, you look good, you look like you were...
I
a good talking to
a man sees his reflection
in the still water
this is how you look
to others
a fish jumps
this is how you look
when you talk
to yourself
you crazy motherfucker
II
comeuppance
a man takes himself out
behind the woodshed
cuts a switch
from the peach tree
that he planted
to attract the girls
& shouts, so you think
you are so smart
III
a...
reading Leonard Cohen
by candlelight,
visualizing
bonfire night,
your birthday
were you still alive
under that streetlamp,
we could walk together
to your bench
and talk awhile
it’s what we always did best—
just talk, just care
I’ll print this poem
in a lonely font
and burn it
in a bowl,
set the ashes facing east
next time it storms
the neighbors are setting off fireworks
the sky is farting national pride
only it’s like the civil war
it looks and feels like they’re firing them at each other
my cat is scared under the couch
the air tastes like sulfur
the trees are blocking any view that might be pretty
and they just keep going...
Ten minutes into this interview, and my frayed sleeve
is on full display,
but not in a good way
definitely not a hey, sailor-ish way,
more, she has to stretch 50 dollars over 10 days.
you raise your eyes and give a
soft clearing of your throat,
and if I were a New Orleans seagull,
I would...
After waking up from a four
day binge of alcohol, hash,
pills, I found myself lying
next to a woman I didn’t
love, though she said that
she loved me,
the woman I loved had
marched out of my world:
beside the bed, the floor
was cluttered with empty
wine bottles, over-flowing
ashtrays, take-out-food
cartons, plates of
rotting food and the
interest of...
it’s 5.00 pm
still no luck
out in the cold
the apartment dreary
teenage boys cutting in front of me
to do their laundry
and smoke hash
on the dryer
i have a supermarket list
but no money
my stomach is growling
but i can’t think about food
baby, it’s cold
but i can see a moth
a little orb of yellow light
floating...
I once tried to kick in the screen
of a 21” color tv wearing
my Tony Lama shit kickers.
The boot’s heel & slick sole
slid off the smooth glass
like I was dancing a one legged
boot scootin’ shuffle.
I was drunk on my ass
on the Saltillo tile floor.
He was Loathing in Las Vegas.
Elvis, the undercover,...
the thin film of my mouth
on your cunt
in a half-mile high toilet
just to keep us going
through an invisible
security corridor from west to east
notes of golden brown
play easily
as we fuck each other
over
and land in Berlin Templehof
1986
the airport border guards check
that i'm some
Persian-Irish renegade
and you're
my Meinhof-Dansk trophy
halfway between Mujāhid-IRA
and Danish Anarcho-Syndicalist
that's...
I can't take this
stuck, covid 19
not a store open
to buy something
inessential
(which are the best things to buy)
I've gone to corona hell and I don't even have the virus
which could be my next circle of covid hades
the gas station slot machine
keeps taking my money because it's the only thing to...
I’m gonna tell everyone
my Facebook got hacked.
It isn’t true. It’s easier
when trying to surgically remove
family members and fake friends
like fake news.
Social media has been to me
like a dermoid cyst, with its teeth
and nails and lanugo-like fine hairs,
no heartbeat or facial features.
A deformed doll
I should have discarded years ago.
The truth
is...
so anyway
the students were hoping
the prof would be stoned
he was
julie waznowski?
“here”
julie, do you write poetry
while smoking pot?
“I don’t know what to say”
pass your sample poems
to the front
mark wimple!
“here”
mark, does your mother
shave her pussy?
“I don’t know what to say
either”
pass your poems
to the front
but I doubt you will be
admitted
sandra beach!
“here”
sandra, could...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9MH6c3h2k4
Worrying about doing a poetry reading at Barnes & Noble
I don't know if the guy sitting next to me
heard me try to apologize for accidentally
moving his car magazines and taking his spot
obnoxious hrrr of the espresso machine
I had to talk over one at the books a million reading
with Dennis who showed...
“So how do we get their attention?” said Eduardo.
“I’m not sure,” said Darrius. “We tacked up fliers at the university, and I told everyone in my creative writing class. You did, too—right?”
“I did.”
Eduardo and Darrius sat for some time in silence, passing a joint back and forth.
“Why do you...
Today I found them
by chance and re-read them:
he tells me
it’s because of the drink that
he is in jail and that he is
going to stop when he gets
released and he is never
going to drink again and
that he misses me and asks
me to look after ma:
he writes
he is sorry and regretful
and...
"yeah, i don't know why they don't
legalize this stuff," karsten said.
i watched the thick plume of smoke
snake up out of his joint
and collect at the top of the ceiling
"yeah," i said
"it's like, can you imagine
if they made alcohol illegal
again
like they should, cuz the stuff is
way more lethal
than weed"
"it is,"...
‘Number three all over my friend’
for which he’ll charge me £9.50
It’s been a few months
since the last haircut
One of the other barbers says
‘Oh fuck look at this!
He’s put his knob in a cow’s mouth’
Some film on his phone
‘Honestly’
says the chap
cutting my hair
‘He showed me a woman
blowing a horse’s cock...
while I waited for a
connecting flight
in the Lisbon airport
I found myself seated opposite
an elderly man in a red hat
bearing, in bold script
Hot Stuff
he looked a bit timid
air puffs
foot shuffles
the man’s eyes
widened
his lady returned
from the loo
she smiled coyishly
at seated onlookers
eyebrow raised
yes, it’s true
blue jays build a nest in the pine,
swallows migrate overhead,
wren in and out of the compost,
centipede in beak
behind the fence
children screech,
entitled neighbours
don’t distance from friends,
posture, to sear game meat
drink, smoke, snort
we sip coffee
in the comfort of
inverse snobbery,
snicker
that their RV is worth more
than our house and contents,
exchange snide
whispers,
our quiet, spoiled
from...
