Friday, December 10, 2021

Duddle-dee duh/ duddle DEE-dah

when i can't think
to the music 
better to sink 
what do you say?
then we can be
in the same groove
bobbing away
in the venue
letting it take
up all the room
then we can feel
at our leisure
when i can't see
to the future
better to be
in the future
then we can find
what there is here
and we will know
what to leave here
and we can think
to the music 
better to sink
what do you say?
[loop]
 
 
 
by Peg

Monday, December 6, 2021

Bothsidesism

to the poor or persons in the past i suppose 

i live the luxury of a most debauched king

while to my peers i seem a pitiable thing

 

the afflicted find fault in my astonishing 

complaints; the threadbare really seem 

to care about the level of my waste


prejudice, from the right and from the

left, from every gender camp and 

disinformation factory, theme, caste


 
 
by Jan Jansdaad 
(Jan's dad)


Sunday, November 28, 2021

Snub

you don't know if you'll live throughout the night 

and you're watching a rom-com? you can deduce

that all prospects are tongue in non-literal cheek

or that your level of acceptance is very high

or that it's depression giving up disassociating

and probably not production values, star power

a sudden insistence on minding the moment?

a pain strip that overlaps takes on is informed by

the stack of strips below it, a translucent 

suspension of anecdotes, quips, romans a clef,

bulleted lists, self-pranks legends memoir

and these legs can take you from sofa to desk

and a desk can take and make havoc with an arm

and an arm is all it takes to stop an action or

refuse the sorts of service lacking which could 

mean the end of a long but very young evening

it's that you're tired and afeared of a rapacious

environment which can be slowed cannot be

slowed by inaction but can be snubbed as one

would snub an earnest lover with no worldly

blame apart from the ancient code she arrived

with, no more agency than gravity and water

 

by Reptily

Sunday, November 21, 2021

345

decaying cedar lodge in eastern prussia

clump snow dropping from high branches

crystal blue sky


trying not to boil it down into an unfair 

and ugly blob or not even trying just

not doing that you know?


presents from four-score christmases

choke the closets and litter the plank floors

they're real planks that they'd cut from the

surrounding woods and made floors of them.

 

they were watching a season of Star Trek in

which the flow of the plot kept getting 

stopped dead when each character had to 

turn to the other and affirm their goodness


there's also a lake and silently dipping mallard 

groupings, legit choppiness or gently rolling

in the moon, natural waters that are filtered 

and stocked, ballooned over; still nature was

winning here, fungus by mouse by respect


by time no not by time. in the same

measure of time there can be renovation.

by age no not by age each age is just a 

fashion. there is only movement, only 

action, else there would be preservation.


by Reptily




Saturday, November 20, 2021

Unangry

they say never go into a situation angry or you'll lose

but if your spirit is angry all you'll do is suppress your

anger and not be unangry

that's how breaking the rules becomes a spiritual

pursuit especially if you have to pay off your

transgressions

and if not are you humbled by

rue?

the day after a full moon i felt and discarded emotions

rocked the bottom of the steering wheel

snuck nicotine vapes near a hospital's elevator banks 

found the only saturday medical supply outlet

marveled at aisles of crisp alarming packages

how family characters rise to an emergency 

in direct proportion to the value of the afflicted

or sink in unison if there's even only 

one who can't hold her shit

 

by Donna


Dog pees on rug

in one full-moon day:

ran out of my vape pen

with an hour and a half to go before the

tow truck

who said i couldn't ride with him because

he'd brought his girlfriend

the stepfather says:

pull it up right from the middle

give me a snuggie

and the woman with the broken hip says:

home healthcare workers

what for?

and the jury says: 

let him go

and half the people realize

all we need is lies

dog pees on rug

Sunday, October 24, 2021

wound porn

there was a four-foot tube going from my nostril to my small intestine, and i pulled it out, twice, once while vomiting. 

i figured out how to work some of the blinking, sucking, beeping machinery, and when i'd had enough, i switched it off. 

i took the loudly ticking clock down from its high place on the wall and removed its battery. 

i signed a waiver of liability so that i could be allowed to sit up in bed.

i told them i wanted ativan, and a full milligram, not a child's dose. 

i allowed a young male nurse to wrap me with a vinyl leash and walk me up and down the corridor. 

i became conscious well into a narrative with a daisy miller-like subplot. 

there in trinidad and tobago, i gave her one more chance to choose between the hipster boyfriend and the security of her father.

i drifted in the streets after they made their choice and moved inland, toward the volcano. 

i evaded pickpockets and thugs in a dark terrain of campfires, our shadows splaying against the outer city walls.

i got a ride in a jeep full of local teenagers speaking tagalog.

i cooked a pork shoulder in an aluminum pan at an outdoor community kitchen.

i slept in a flophouse full of mattresses in wall alcoves and flashlights and men.

i met the girl who was going to solve the problem of the tracking wires embedded in everyone's eyeglasses or canes. 

i was desperate to find an overall solution, but i could only wander from situation to situation. 



by Donna

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Repast

watching her dance plays
all their muscle keys
her inner commands
can freeze them in place

but she can't reach me
the pitch of my jib
bends off her song
and won't let me on

my breathing, long and
unobstructedly
tacks the vanished spell
only when she's gone

only when alone
can i read her lips
free from the bleeping
moment's disorder

wings sweep on the floor
panic and truth merge
is this not my drug
or not me at all
 
on stolen spirits
please the vacant skull
take time and hurl it
with your polished shoe
 
realization
is after it's through
what's not caught is true
so what have you done? 



by Reptily

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Skeleton parade

i can feel the life 
coming back in
and it's terrifying
as a skeleton

while before my 
past wrongs paraded
before my eyes
now more are on the way

i don't set time
but i did invent it
so to steal it
from the chill of night
 
but the warm of day
is tending light
must i still pay
for not living right?
 
 
 
by Reptily

Friday, September 17, 2021

Smoke crazy

She keeps going out to smoke this
in to smoke that
like breathing except the opposite
she smoke crazy smoke crazy

She went to college and all that
end up like this
in mutually exclusive states
we trial dating while mating

Half the day she's in pain from 
electrolysis
she gets that but not how her 
soul might fit, soul might fit

Lady in the main, second is a
man for this, a man 
much more than any other gender
that's one for you, one
 
she smoke crazy
we trial dating
oh she a lady
and he a man

[repeat]




by Donna

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Lyric for electric organ, fog machine, and choir

Look, i'm touching my scalp, right near the brain
it's an expression of painful humility, vulnerability
 
as i read the prognosis my heart was 
thumping with surprise [begin drum]
 
to do it and feel it at the same time
the answer was always why
 
when it could have been a 
fun time, fun time [begin organ]
 
free, and free is what they hate us for
fire, it's what our lives are given for
we: have no regrets for living on
fire, it's what our lives are given for
free, and free is what they hate us for
we: have no regrets for living on...[fade]

 

Donna Thong
"My name is cool because it's a command."

Friday, September 3, 2021

Any single lover

it's only 11:30
but my night is over
and it won't be getting better

reminds me of the time
i made out with a man
who turned seedy and spent

i'd like time to
be there to make you
want to get to more time

by no means will i
give in willingly to sleep
it must win me over
 
nor will any single lover
dictate my ups and downs
or cause me troubles
 
 
 
by Donna

Thursday, September 2, 2021

can't go back/ have to go back

can't go back/ have to go back
still beat up/ they're on task
boat that spins/ must join in
 
out of doors is a hot griddle
other persons burn too hotly
i can diffuse their iterations
 
from within these walls and
tunnels/ can't stay here/ can't
leave, reaching way beyond 
 
my fingertips what i can feel
is read only/ listening trying 
to jaw the words correctly
 
i want to stay here forever/
this is not at all what i want
too hot/ stay in/ want not



Dr. Donna Thong
Center for Therapeutic Re-credentialing
Rm 409

Television leaked into the vacuum of my inactivity

Hunched over an ancient glory hole in one of their urban sub-baserock ant tunnels, pressing my eye very close, I could see a television. Its sounds and light began to leak day by day into the vacuum of my inactivity. 
 
I can feel my emotions getting on the roller coaster provided and off the one that's in my head and pretty soon, one is just a template for the other, but which is which?



by Reptily

Moral Crimes

The poor make truer friends
or lack of means starts trends
that beg the path of more security
in that the opposite of debt is money.

The rich are fickle and strategic
needing all the more to shirk the tragic
prone to see the emptiness in bounty
but always find the energy to count it.
 
Being in the middle you're suspicious
Poverty becomes your real subconscious
you notice tiny fluctuations
and the moral crimes of rich and poorer nations.
 
 
 
by Reptily

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Sincere Little Face

i was at least gonna 
log in an
leave some pathetic
message to no one

but then i remembered
ye are already damn 
complete in Him
and my song carries on...

i got my grrl with her
little sincere sleeping face an
glowing red nails 
from the rag weed an the
 
biting flies she's ad-
mittedly an animal but ya
could eat her up like a
cannibal and every little
 
move that she makes
is worth a second take cuz
she sleeps by my side an
poses for greeting cards an
 
deals out the faces make a
grown man cry like it's
his own baby child looking
up and smiling missing a
 
tooth but pushing
through the discomfort so she
can be there for you an be
there for you there for you oh
 
CHORUS

my child's got me got my
eye got my face got my
eye got my taste my child's
got me got me in her embrace
my child my child my child

REPEAT



by Hoolie

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Peg's Failed/Anachronistic Do's and Don'ts for Petty Transgressions

  • Just hold the item(s) in your hand and walk out the door with it/them, purposeful but unhurried. Then if stopped, say, "Wow, I guess I spaced out. I want to buy this/these, but I also wanted to compare the price over at [name of other store at mall]."
  • If you must flame while in a hooptie, keep hands well below the dash.
  • If you are trying to get back more shiny coins, choose a teller who seems to be flirting with you.
  • If you have a lighter in your pocket, and there's another one on the table, use the one on the table, and then put it in your pocket. You now have two lighters.
  •  Get the shiny coins up front, but make sure his purse is close by in case he wants to add items or go off menu.
  • Press a dab of his pre-cum between your thumb and forefinger. If it's tacky, use a condom. If it's stringy, you're good!

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Take these to switch up sleep type

story-verbal sleep

itching-layered

many-roomed structure

places on maps

view from grave

view from above

view from a passing conveyance

figures beckoning

bent coupling

generic horror

deeply unasleep

torque of somnolents

conscious paralysis

tandem breathing

ever sinking

scary clear

content bemusement

seeking moments

stranded in time

able yet not able

about the bed

night shrouded

stark light black curtains

sweet avoidance

stolen

form of eating

brain stuff

closest listening

despite discomfort

ring of saturn

bobble head

Monday, June 21, 2021

I thought it was all over and then woke up to a whole other day

Yes, I used to contemptualize everything

like the bitter, curmudgeonly professors at

the beginning of my career. They filled the

smoking lounge with grievances and

plotting, derisive cackling in their blur of

fear. But for some the failure has been a 

tenderizer, the corrosive beating toward a

climax of surrender. Is what I'm hearing.



by Peg

Monday, June 14, 2021

Murder grinder

My face was smeared across all the killings
one of them
killed when he'd temporarily forget how to type
innocence stuck in back corners presented as 
stupidity, passion
a mocking deadly innocence put mildly
nature predating pre-forgiveness
unchanging through ages of moral fashion
 
But when they think of murder they see me
I believe I have to tickle them with it
They feel they need to get all into it
I am this free-channel boatman
skimming along
living my life with all these dead along
keeping my eye on what can change
not what's done.



by Ted