Saturday, September 23, 2023

Stories from Many Realms





Cool art projects done by insufferable people
Indecipherable verse written by meticulous people
Bad song lyrics about opulence
Trance-inducing TV shows about cops, firemen, lawyers, doctors
Podcasts about podcasts about other podcasts done in
dim light with energy drinks, weed sometimes
Panicked dreams about inability, inaction

Losers


we lose jobs
we can't sleep
the moon expands and contracts
like a baseball hit by a bat
flying into the stands
then played in reverse
hurtling back toward the plate
medications quell mental storms
and produce new symptoms
weed is smoked or chewed
we feel anxious
a night caterpillar crawls on a branch
we see it beneath a flood light
calmly eating a leaf
water in the potholes
vaguely reflecting stars

Love in Late Capitalism

 

I love you unproductively
In sloth
In slack
For no reason
For no purpose
Loving you will not
Make us richer
Or more important
I love you the sun rises
Grasshoppers hop
Sea lions roar
(Do sea lions roar?)
The shadow of the clock
In the city square
Expands and recedes
Throughout the day
Not here
(I must picture a De Chirico painting
To see this)
We do not have
City squares or plazas
But lines of cars
That project no shadows
Only waves of heat & sound
As they move toward
Something distant


Painting by Anni Albers

Belly-Propelled

 


The revolution will be quiet & slow
Happens in decay & coalescing
A guitar string breaking
New instrument is formed
New songs are played
The revolution is slow & quiet
Beach waves breaking on the sand
People crying in the switchgrass
On the dunes among the lost creatures
The revolution is abandonment
Wildflowers overtaking
Derelict parking lots
The harvest moon seen through
The windmill blades On a mini-golf course
A baby snake swivels
Out of the tin cup hole
A crease on his belly Where it attached
To his mother
Inside her he was egg-held
He came out of her
Moving already, belly-propelled
Swiftly upon the fake grass

A Good Truck to Spit On

 




Donkey shit blue
Tinted windows
Size of a tug boat
Sticker on the back window -
Outline of the US
Written across the 48
FUCK OFF
WE'RE FULL
The saliva shone opaque
Across the hood
Like the nickel-colored eyes
Of a dying god
In the sun setting
Over Roosevelt Ave.