Country princess

Drumming rains

the thunder came in
sounding like a gas
flame jet building to
its highest setting

drumming rains, not
rain, depending on
the heavens, always
draining and taking.

Filter of loathing

Like the new scrim in the sky above,
his entire stature was a filter for the
loathing of the poplis, an antenna or
dish, essentially convex, an aerated
vessel, representational of an ideal
who could be picked out in a crowd;
essentially invisible, contradictory.


Sylvia
"guess who?"

Pig shepherds

in response, we reverted
to a family-like structure with
oaths, rocking, game meats

or buy a red light and see
how green the cherry of your pipe,
just trying to hold your shit


by Hoolie
"Hot-Child-in-the-City Chank"

wide-straddling sado-recreationalist

He felt that acorns' plumets
were people throwing rocks

judgers standing too high to
see the faces or even shoes

gamers or conformists taking
their roles in comfy innocence

wide-straddling sado-recreationalist


Sylvia
"It's how I will remember Tom."

Plant takes man

We are gaia's brain
So vital yet just an
Organ of nature

Our parts can sever
one another, to
varying degrees of

Destruction on a
scale of hand
taking foot or

Brain, reeling,
taking poison:
plant takes man


by Donna
a) "Today just Donna today." 
b) "I kept adding 'today' to the ends of my sentences, and they still seemed to know I was an ex-con."

 

Ruddy september

Beasting sorrow

this is the place i left behind
this is the place i'd long outgrew
this is the place i'm in right now, and
to make it worse i'm here with you.

by Mad Ted 
"I'm outta su'um."

Coronal mass ejection

it was the day she said
"I can't see a way forward"
that we reflect on, two
moons later, needing
a coronal mass ejection
that gruesome darkness
precedes gratuitous bursts


by Tom
"I'm a work in progress."

Amazing witchery

Auntie Peg counted out loud by tens on her fingers so I could hear and see it. Surprised she didn't spell it out in my palms. Your father was born in 1948. You are two years older. I had to stop and think about it myself but it's true. Fifty-eight, sixty-eight, seventy-eight, eighty-eight, ninety-eight. Ninety-nine... that would make... 10, 20, 30, 40, 50. He died at fifty-one. You are fifty-three? It was an amazing witchery that she performed out of mathematics. I doubted.


by Hoolie

I watched my friends go insane

after the first round
mercifully died off
began a twitch and
baby rattles, spores
living out the norm
in transient cavities
alternate-grotesque
mercifully unaware
how gone, how far

What we know about K's

closest in the world you know to pterodactyl, but
similarities end there
smarter, have human genes
can mate with humans
excrete a glowing purple jelly
can be controlled remotely
by workers behind glass 
are farmed illegally
are vengeful but regret
have ceremonial role with full consent
sense of history and purpose
participate in village raids in season
drop perfectly formed egg-like
turds weighing tons into decorative
caldrons of festival broth whose
scalding waves are enough to maim
a fortunate few
they can abduct humans
take them into their cliff nests
keep them as grooming slaves
and form strong emotional attachments
K's fly spread eagle

when you [finely reach the day]

when you finely reach the day
that your father
never got older

he never got older than you today
never older
than you are right now boy

you get to it
you get to it and it bowls you over
it's the age that he died now

when you reach the day
the days that been waiting for you
you can see it clearly cause

you're in the moment now son
when I passed
from your eyes

and since then, in disguise
among everyone you know
they'll know you know it's true

you get set free today
the day I'm going to send you
forward, on

[REPEAT]


by Jan

The arch is not set

The arch is not set
even as the meat attached
jostles with enamel

for a bed
and the stress that lips apply
can't be disputed


Donna Thong
Transitioning

tortilla espanola de patata y salmon ahumado con cebolla y ojitas de eneldo

K

College of Cement

un vo ca re bu por fa

you give back what you get and
you get back what you give and


by Reptily

For each medication, a signature facial expression

Woke squinty,
left chemically
unblinded in/
during sleep

eyes rolly from
action fashion
dreams where
i spied and

pleated, won
they put my
heart in a tiny
box where it

could bang free
but it seems
they want me
to sing tenor


by Peg

Croak as in frog

is that the first
bird or latenight
chirping piss

i hear one side
of the fold or
the othern

melatonic wave
roll onto arm
aching so

do not put
me on my
back, i shall

croak as in
frog, lay as
a fog lays


Ilyn
"State of Illinois"