ratty charm bracelet

tho the lunar light is at 2/3
looking in the water, it is
the clearest night: circles in
a pool become nervous lie
detector/ earthquake met-
er/ voice graph checkerbo-
ard, the bottom being solid
bright with these lines: for
today we dragged a hangar
loop across the top after a
wind and collected a hum-
mer nest of dog hair and
cobweb, a witchy pod with
triangular black seeds, wa-
sps and bees, human oils
and peel, the clear wrapp-
er off a tongue depressor,
and leaves, bracts of bou-
ganvilla rotted clear into
skeleton and transparency.

Mike's Swimming Blog, Day 66: I am Keeping this House Alive

try locking your ankles together in the deep end;
see what you naturally do to survive. dancing yor
way out of a situation can save your life if it is sw-
imming. notice also that as you merman yor way
to safety, you swim like a fish, but flap yor arms
like a bony bird-reptile. preservation society helic-
opters could mistake you for a flying reptilian bird
entering our space from a watery third dimension.

A Watched Bitch is Free

If you go out with them the dogs will romp and play-- there's plenty of space in the back yard.
If you are inside though inside they'll stay-- you'll be walking on them and them on each other.
If you come in and lock them out they'll just sit and stand around by the door and cry and fight.
If they stay inside too long by the same token they get restless and too rowdy with each other.
So to them freedom is two things: not any enclosed space and mostly free when you are there.

crap of paper

entered voluntarily, but then they
tles all say Pharm-Supply. Whut??
f here! If the Legend of Pegyuh is
ed box shd do it.

Four HMen of W.D.

Pippi: noble, sensitive
La La: loud girl
M'Lady: soft as Charmin
Juniper: pill-like berries

Raspberry Gale

The Winds Tavern
18 Idylwilde Wy
Sawkitu, ME
69696-9000

a month, a year

Devil,

I hope you'll understand that when I first saw your freckly face and that one eye that's half blue I just knew that I'd have to make you my boy in a bubble. We scooted you along thru the Underground Subway from safe house to safe house to safe house. You didn't get no other kinds a house.

Got it! Just snagged me one o' them funny purple birds-- comin right at me. Just 'cause I said Devil. You save my life, baby: every time I say your name.

Now, don't get me started!
Peg

Devil

So you see, Hoolie: for westerners having something, someone around you can call "Devil" is a good thing because whenever you say the name you must also, at some level of consciousness, consider all the ways that evil might exist right then and there, in that time and place, so that you can take measures to banish any trace of it. Sometimes it is everywhere except inside its namesake. Your mother named you "Devil" so that you could help her: by being so precious that any bad nearby would flush immediately to the surface in boldly contrasting relief throughout her realm of senses whenever she called your name. Additionally, you weren't supposed to turn out ignorant.

Christ Never Got Duped

Someone who knew all along,
or just good at accepting?

He knew 'cause his Father knew,
and They was like One even

tho the Father made the Plans.
Son always had to check in.

There was no way to lead but
to humiliate Himself

before a tired Public.
Disciples often said hey,

take it easy Pal. At least
we all know how this one ends.

Peggy: Notes on an Encarn-ceration

I stick around only out of spite for the world. It's done pushed me back, forth, and around all these years. It's prodded me out onto a limb just to watch me dance off a precipice; fool that I am, proud flaming nar-sistuhs. It's told me to take a hike or soak my head a while-- it didn't care. It led me to believe, and then to doubt-- doubting, hating, exploiting, contemptifying; I learned them all from you, indifferent planet!

Now I must be your surrogate to the masses. Each of my hands hypnotizes while cupping a fresh shape o' misery. All of the symbols dipping and changing course all at once compel in a fashion dance, writhing. Heads bob with the undulations of my arms as eyes follow one, then the other, and another, and another, and so on like musical notes striking a bar. My devotees writhe because they watch and dance because they see all of their miseries safely cradled each in a different one of my palms. They cannot take away their eyes.

Notes: a) when I run into them later on, they seem resentful; and b) just because someone is in jail doesn't mean they can't run into folks.

Grrl, I Wanna Dance with You! [the Mp3]

Grrl, I Wanna Dance with You!

This desmadre has been removed by the Mthyuh Preservation Society.

Mike's Swimming Blog, Day 7: Disaster Hits Smalltown America

I imagine that I have to swim across a river a few times a week; it keeps me fit, for it's all I do with my body, to grievingly admit.

There are floating varieties of orchid and snapdragon caps
I shimmy across the surface or arc deep, but my sinus
in those instances could be affected.

I pass back and forth with the virility of water
and I pump this life to the bone.

I imagine I am something like the boatman
on the Styx river: a conning Jim or Heather
who can no longer get a loan.

Grrl, I Wanna Dance with You!

grrl, I wanna dance with you!

summertime is here and you have
had your operation; your thighs and
tits are just where they belong.

staples are coming out, soon!
you'll have some extra vico-
dan, chile!

step out with me, girl! woma-
baby chile luvah! let's step
to the music naow...

dittle deat! deat!
oo-mah.... mah-ooh...
babah da dahnt

duh... duh duh duh
step to the mew-zak
chile!

Manual Agent

Sylvia sometimes felt like nothing more than a manual agent. She had no connections with the higher ups at Pharm-Supply. She only had contact with a member, so to speak. She wondered, as she was meeting his most basic needs, if she would ever become a distributor. Tom held onto his stash with remarkable determination, however, so Sylvia strained priuslong and only wanted sleep.

Assphault Mau-ng

All wannabe Makers will undergo an extensive and sometimes admittedly fatal skin graft with their Partner Maker. You must sign over your rights to privacy and to any resulting chiles. Get your head stamp now to avoid more white tape. You will then be hauled up on an assphalt mau-ng an' showed off as a normality. Others, summa whom will be non-eligibles, might try to shout their praises or dissent or even kill. This will prove your luckiness.

Time is a Liar

Tom thought he might have mono [nucleosis]. His emotions seemed to have escaped from his nervous system/soul/whatever into the physical organ. "Everyone's trapped in a capsule," he theorized. It's comforting when you think the odds are against you. To remember that we are all the unhatched eggs of Mthyuh. Everyone has to see out their eyes and hear with their ears and digest their own food. Everyone has to dread getting in the shower some days because you don't know what you'll see next.

Wish I was Sinning Now

if a graft's so important
then we should certainly be
allowed to go through with the
vaows.

and if it's not so import-
ant then all the more reason
for whats the big deal after
all?

Do you think I should be gel-
ded or walk the earth without
any balls? If you were me,
wha..?

tell me celibacy is
a grand gift from our maker;
to spit in His face is too
raw.

The only exception would
be life as a sinner, but
that takes a lot out of you,
ah...

cut me slack on this one; I
just want some fun 'fore I go!
I wish I was sinning right
naow!

Mike's Dogs

Three are quietly going mad for
lack of purpose.
One is so needy and questioning;
Four are hurdling forward
on our planet's surface
in Ted's back yard.

I Saw my Own Wretched Shadow

on a wall,
in a head-
light und-
er an arc,
it seemed
clawed n'
scragglin.

gas baby

do you see this
stomach which
is relatively flat
right now? will
you please rem-
ember it tomor-
row when it's dis-
tended and bloat-
ed?

Disturbing, Naughty, Charming

c. to show the governess that he can be “bad.”

__6. The governess, upon hearing Miles’s confession, calls what he has done

a. “disturbing.”

b. “naughty.”

c. “charming.”

5 Significant Quotations

Explain the importance of each of these quotations.

1. “I had made her a receptacle of lurid things […].”

2. “[…]Who would ever absolve me, who would consent that I should go unhung, if […] I were the first to introduce into our perfect intercourse an element so dire?”

3. “If I tell you why, will you understand?”

4. “It was practically the end of everything.”