AND gate

When you were explaining to me what AND gates did
I thought about what it would be like to find one's self
In the lowest rung of the production line and personally
Make the simple and fewest everyday true/false choices

Like those gates about whom no one any longer has to
worry, which are programmed automatically by other
programs without the need for manual behavior coding
there are now, too, fewer issues with firing and timing


Jan Jansdaad
"This is about software coding, dad. Love, Jan, Jan, 1992"

Reverse menorah

Is when each day a light is doused.

Go down bounce back

whom among the dead would
have him just as dead or dying
? as in a flailing verse, every
line rescues the last by not sur
-rendering. still, he keeps in re
-serve the rain of hailing bullets
such as getting a bunch of cre
-dit cards and using them to pay
for a bankruptcy attorney. bad
boys go down bounce back, bad
boys go down, go down, back.


Mike
"Finally had the pool resurfaced."

Light path

You are the master of the day I am the master of the night
Together we master night and day and rule the entire worl

But in the play between the bad, good, wrong, right ways
We engage in life magnet opposites perpetuating the fight

Tumble, vajra, down the cliff of world's history, bouncing
In your gut a prayer that spins a light path from every hole.


Mkidza Mlaf
"I'm the mom of the Chama." 

I recognize my feelings on your face

you must drink
going through a divorce
or everything's great
except that you hate

i recognize these
broke-ass feelings
from hard times
my pain in your face


Reptily

Fried chicken and sprite

the night the garbanzo beans caught fire
we had fried chicken and sprite

now it amazes me how from far places
of droves of human anonymity

each in other's face throughout the day,
both symbol and active persona


"Can't believe I found you, Mike."
Hoolie

not enough light

I reach the heels of my fists to the heavens and
a rageful power takes hold of my wrists like a
puppeteer to sticks; the room takes on a charge,
and even dogs fled.

Anyone could feel the wave as deaf feel sound:
It's the moment after you should have bounced,
when it was imminent, when the hair'd already
stood up on end.

Black rectangle

Climb back into your body
where it's safe (?) black
rectangle on the eye balls

Floating black rectangle the
negative of a backlit screen
framed in light in the mind

I carry this rectangular iris
shape in my body visually
for a longer or fading time


Jan Jansdaad
"I'm Jan's daughter Jan, and he's my father."

Two foot

Caulk skylights

the east and west

his body is skinny but he has a big head and feet
she gets sore walking her muscle torso on sticks

they face the east and west, wasted to the known
proving those that seek darkness only need sleep


by Donna

kabob

Scared face

As did a forger, I held my face print in my mind and
went to the mirror's afterimage: I saw the scared face
or is it sentiment of fear, of losing my object, mirror

it's the face with which frankly I looked at you with
but more from above, so more sag, an ebbing red now
and I saw there in my own shadow your fear or the

reflection of my face in your face, the fear we share
but now as well a longing hopefulness, melodramatic
twinkle, or was it on my blank face yours printed fear?


Ted
"For you, Phyllis"

Compromised ramrod

this doesn't hang right
too many holes in wall
october's sunset night
sinks into vortex now

i do every bad I can do
exploit days without you
seeking unhealthy meals
because I'll see you soon

i rise to your higher state
or habits, maybe fate can
tell why we get on so well
shack up after two dates


Hoolie
"I'm vulnerable right now."

snot storm

there are protective toxins
that make petty little bitches
of ladies and gentlemen

Story of the Protective Toxin

It was a flower, and it gave off just the right amount of protective toxin, a discourager rather than an exterminator. Then one year there was an exponentially larger aphid swarm, and it had to blast the protective toxin to fight the pestilence, but then it didn't turn off. In subsequent years, essential bugs just died against its fluorescent, amoniac ribs, and then it too withered from lack of pollen or whatever.

Is it one of those morals where you can see the shame rather than the practice as pathological. Can it be cured by the medium of matrimonial gravitas.

I washed ashore here with all my shit

I washed ashore here with all my shit
the beach of autumn's cusp

There's no one who really cares, all gone
taken by winter's dawn

As live man scratches lid of casket,
I hammered my own hull

Spin, vajra-- spin! Tear up the ages.
Clean the rocks of lichen.



Ilyn
"Short for a state in the Great Lakes Region"

The only answer is to be like Jesus

The only answer is to be like Jesus
not dead Jesus, or like live Jesus as
He is represented to live by some,
but like Jesus's red letters in the
eponymous edition, only that, the
red letters in the white, zippered
vinyl embossed with gold letters.

Jesus had the answers, all the an-
swers, not the rest of the Bible.
He lidderly didn't have the rest.
To be like Jesus is forgive above
all and also give, reflect, cleanse.
Other religions are inferior when
you are not sure they have all this.

You hit rock bottom with trendy
ministries preaching catchy sides
but which turn a cheek, and which
Christians? Which let live the
guilty and the innocent, born equal
and fall, not just make bad choices.
He'd say get up and walk, forget it.


Donna Thong
"Still've got the surgery on the patio!"

rock, wall

The spring is a yawning hole

post-apocalyptic situation wherein all that works is a DOS command
they'd call you technologically proficient for engaging a raw prompt

the whole mouth, esophagus to gut, throughout which flora undulate
is the center you carry forward, ever acting on behalf of or to palliate

and as if swallowing yourself you tumble into a hoary spelunkee
and to greet you lie the others who can't turn their choices around



Illyn
"It's a shorter way of saying Illinois."

there is poetry and a dharma of hopelessness

there is poetry and a dharma of hopelessness
there is a reassuring failure of meta-cognition

knowing disaster while viewing affairs clearly 
to how free you feel, even surrender must kneel

this is the base for carrying on, that nothing-to-
lose appeal, a pheromone that attracts rich men


I am Reptily

Donna and peg in prison

DONNA: I'm fed up.

PEG: Enough with your victimization mentality.

DONNA: I agree. If I have to choose between being manager of a taco bell or eating shit on my knees before a corrupt overlord, I'll choose a disability claim.

PEG: What kinda disability?

DONNA: Can't take it.

PEG: Oh uh huh.

DONNA: If you can't take it, you can't make it.

PEG: Yer disabled.

DONNA: Ya.

PEG: But you can turn it around.

DONNA: No.

PEG: Ok.

DONNA: I'm done. I'm not turning it around.

PEG: Ok Donna.

Hernia of restraint

in continents where norms reign
the worst that can happen is the
hernia of restraint/ can't stop it.

like losing hair, unable to cover
slow fate off crown lifts the veil
but it's jabberwocky, mean voice

other decades were a waterfall
beat hopping against the surface
this spins out ones waving arms



Donna Thong

Sermon: Thursday 21 January 2010

in weariness
the Earth's nougat
cast up stronger
her lasso.

in this contest
only a taut heart
against her pistons
can save you.

while listening
as other creatures
die of what we call
bad timing,

in some folks' minds
poverty of movement
was their keeper
from friction.

Ilyn, Brother. Sermon, frag. 11-14

Exploring poverty

Choices, you said. It's all about
choices. Then what choice was it
made you die of a flesh-eating bacteria
one year into retirement, dead guy?

Exploring poverty is one way to
look at the choices splaying their
obscenely self-lubricating labia out in
front of me, every day, no matter why.

This want is like being in an accident
because you realize that you're alive
means you can survive even where
lack of means is the definition of sin.

The second time it comes again is
a roller coaster ride, but strapped in,
and you become well trained in the
work of penury and getting a bone in.


by Peg
"Thank Mthyuh the kids have jobs." 

We feel backwards toward the animals

Even animals feel th' backward attraction to lesser
animals when they are hungry or just want to hunt.

Me and Bradley had the pause of nay a generation
to take a breath from the laws of nature for paper

jobs or test tubes in his case, restless for open air,
but no one, especially not a father, with the trade.

Even to ride or work a beast these days is tacky,
Though I still set them on scavengers in the yard.

Fourth Warning

even tho it started with rain n' hail
and the storm cover kinda langered
we got a fourth warning about fire

she'd written on her knuckle "EXT"
for extinguisher, put it on the calendar
then spent another day wet dreaming

a day or many days in shrouds've
pine cone incense n' flaming tortillas,
seizures of a fan deep in the tower

gave way t' television first responders,
a mistry fanger burn way after dinner,
n' all the stores are closed till morning



by Ted
"I remember, Peg"

Reptily's Song

men are pigs
the body is disgusting
life is meaningless
there is no God
hell never ends


by Reptily

ahmahkanguhthahthanguh

Kang o the Thang

it's hard for a man to subordinate himself to a foreign culture
and it's hard to subordinate a man to your foreign culture

but if you feel alienated from the society, you might likely
try and subordinate everyone to the power of another thing

and that will have warped you into another level of being
and you rule alongside the super predators as a lieutenant


by Reptily
"ahmakangathuhthanguh"

Don't Buy This Jacket

Exostosis

They said I'd have to harden up going this way as if going any way wouldn't be hard though they weren't sure if I was human. My exostosis protects the vital joints and organs but not skin.

As I rise up like a row of corn, I'm lucky for a shaggy loam rebirth medium or granite decomposed. They tried an exorcist but he said it was just a physical deformity coupled with the supernatural.

Shab is always at my side, the dog with an empty saddle, glowing red eyes. He will drag me to the Monster Poinsettia in a square-wheeled barrow for a ritual enactment of the day it bit off my hands.


Illyn
"Begging Raja"

Could you help

could you help me to practice being fake
closing the drapes just now
like i do every night
seemed so final

is it true when you make a stop too late
it could be risky because
you can't get a cab

you should know by now i cannot
will the day or my fate

and that a ghost, to stay, must masquerade



Illyn
"It's short for Illinois"

Monster bachelor

son breaks up through rocks of the ritual grave
he's here a calling, must morbidly stop
the coming to face, wall writing, other's gaze
there were seasons to make another pain layer
of hopscotch players, but this matter is nuclear
return as ant to work through failure as ant
strength to lift interlocked human structures
from their hooks and rafters, catatonia
but he wills upon himself the burden/ yoke
between the thrills and laughter of a singlehood.



by Hoolie
"I'm sorry, Donna."

Let them rot

brain has to figure his housing out
adapt to having a different face
every goddamn time, this puzzle,
definition, reason, holder, fence
is it who i am or what happened
go around asking ultimatums
that stir the pot; let them rot.
all there was to know was known
and forgot and cycled back around
and sold, and owned and sold.


Reptily
"Think I might be low T."

Nightmares Come True, But Not Dreams

As i'm sitting here thinking
about what i'm going thru,
and what it all means, i
ask God why the nightmares
come true, but not dreams?

When i reflect on you i see
a shadow, reft of both of us
on every side, ground falls
toward infinity, pure memory
where we are free floating.



Donna Thong-Cravenly
"I'm sorry, Mike."

This is How it Turned Out

their bodies are built to eat bones
we can stand in wonder and worry

tight ear feeling while no sound
jaws create movement in canal

land stretches for thousands of
miles in every direction from here



by Donna Thong

Fart box

constant strumming summer evening cloud strobe

from early morning, under plaited foam
no screeching cicadas nor shower bristle
only the light damping and constant
strumming summer evening cloud strobe

electricity seeking penetration where any
other weather aspect couldn't go, a home.
we three are swept up, by way of ion, or
waves of dread for coming winter, of day.

Ridiculous situation

Most people are in a ridiculous situation.
The closer you look, nothing matches up.
They betray and contradict themselves
and one another. But there are missing
parts that fit in other places in the best of
worlds and so are right where they belong.

Zoom out and take a look at the mosaic
that appears when all the parts are found
accounted for and understood as a path-
ologist would in following an infection.
Where my part is now the one that fol-
lows you around is where your art is.



by Reptily
for Edgar Cayce

Ovnsstekt Torsk Med Sitron

Tomorrow of the Self

I could have put my arm around you or threw up
my hands on the way down; you could have
clamped onto my arm for a safety, girly feeling,
but the ride is currently sliding into denouement.

Maybe there's no need for action when the place
and what's going on all around are plenty enter-
taining, but then the whole thing closes down.
There's no earned talent over time for pairing off.

You see an infusion of cash and you wonder will
there be the fulfillment of a fantasy of together
or the sudden chance to turn an innocent regret
into Tomorrow of the Self, a triumphant pillage?



by Ted
"I'm reaching into space to get you back, Phyl."

Tittie-clamp chain

Vast store of condoms, all expired.

Tittie-clamp chain now a roach clip,

And sometimes it swings alarmingly.

Two rubber nubs from the one wicked-

Tight alligator jaw are long vacuumed.

The coiled old links weigh in a palm.

The roads-to-Rome breeze of a central 

Air filtration system pulls away odors

Yet also beckons towards the outdoors.

Reptily

Hi

Not tryna take anybody's job
Who's already in one
Don't wanna step on any toes
It's just my nature
I want to fill the opening.


Reptily
"Hi"

Uranus

OMG isn't anyone allowed to have a personality anymore? Not allowed in the workplace unless you are a vocal-frying, nasal talking, Lexapro-taking cyber-prosthetic clone of some fat, de-gendered hipster? Where are the bigger-than-life smokers and drinkers of the Earth's last earnest millennium?

The only reason some men pull back at all on their missions to inseminate is that they can't keep moving the penis forward ad infinitum, and despite the design of the organ, there's no more pleasure in retreat than in breaking a perfectly good line, a straight-on ray, into pathetically iterative fragments.


by Peg

Instead I nursed a burn from the roaster rack on my bird finger

I was staring out a window eating potato salad, and suddenly
we were prepping for a 'nade, securing hallway doors, and
on second glance, there were in fact no storm cells everywhere

instead I nursed a burn from the roaster rack on my bird finger
having stepped into the rain for a fistful of fennel and stuffed it,
sinews of intimacy had grown too tight, thus my careless touch.

the way this one bubbled against nature, bled medical waste
the butchered organism suffers indignity of fate
when with what it is embalmed is the same as what it ate


by Peg

Hot moral core

every heartbeat
is a startle response
at the fact of being

how terror's an actor
in the hot moral core
of every moment

too many ones set
to watch and ring hands
too few safe and warm



Donna Thong
Poetry Support Group
Chapbook Exhibition Day
Big Table C

Middle of the day

Missy felt like she could fall asleep as long as her wing blades were crossed in front of her and she was spouting plenty of burning pus.

But then she had to startle awake and remind herself no even tho she's backed up into a safe stone corner, and she's a real K now, she can die.

So she may fight for a while and back on into the mountainside crease, too tired to climb into the sky, the only way to Cliffe Suites.

But they're coming at her! She must get out this could be the end. It was the middle of the day, plenty of time for them to send new recruits.

Missionaries