I last saw her as a waitress in Illinois
in the bathroom apologizing for her compartmental way.
Does a kiss have value
if the kissed don’t ultimately care?
What am I experiencing?
at the end of a long night--
three hours of comedy music and drama
spilling from theater streets
where women sell coral beads
tins of homestyle delicacies:
relish, cockerels, turquoise, secret
years following a trail of feathers
one has no tolerance for
such questions or those questions' memories
of following a trail of feathers
southwest of apologies without effect.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Some nights walking the docks
in search of someone I could save
to atone for being this
leaking mystery you don’t-even-care-about
I thought about it, yes
and some nights
I lost track of you working
too hard for a delayed vacation.
And it's too late to take me back now.
I last saw my lover as a waitress in Illinois.
In the bathroom.
Apologizing for not loving me.
Friday, January 31, 2020
Balboa
Some visions last like your first kill.
Some voices carry
like monkeys' in the forest.
Feel yourself blind with broken knees
crushing through a forest of mosquito-bleeding rain.
Cooked in metal shells land
and gold, taken naturally
from cacique to king
slaughtering men for acting like women
mad enough to taste the fungi
growing from the blood.
When a man sees gore
run down a mountain peak
when a raider finds a new goldmine
waiting to be pacified
he feels my sunless weeks imprisoned
in a jungle killed for king and god:
My ocean. My sunset. My pearls.
Even in the conquered I find a home.
Atrocities accepted as the will of god
enough alliances to show my estate
followed by false charges and three hard axe-blows .
The quest was tough disappointing neverending and misguided.
But my vision of the ocean
is yours forever.
Some visions last.
Some voices carry
like a monkey's in the morning
you want to go away.
Some voices carry
like monkeys' in the forest.
Feel yourself blind with broken knees
crushing through a forest of mosquito-bleeding rain.
Cooked in metal shells land
and gold, taken naturally
from cacique to king
slaughtering men for acting like women
mad enough to taste the fungi
growing from the blood.
When a man sees gore
run down a mountain peak
when a raider finds a new goldmine
waiting to be pacified
he feels my sunless weeks imprisoned
in a jungle killed for king and god:
My ocean. My sunset. My pearls.
Even in the conquered I find a home.
Atrocities accepted as the will of god
enough alliances to show my estate
followed by false charges and three hard axe-blows .
The quest was tough disappointing neverending and misguided.
But my vision of the ocean
is yours forever.
Some visions last.
Some voices carry
like a monkey's in the morning
you want to go away.
Aztec Observatory
The mountain IS a jaguar.
Inside its mouth
every tooth's a scroll.
In this library of scrolls, priests ask
Is this the right one?
But none of them are
and there is no way of acquiring more.
Stars stare from the eyes.
The motorcycle repeats the déjà vu the motorcycle
disappears into the magma.
The jaguar rises with lava.
The scrolls are ready once again to burn.
Inside its mouth
every tooth's a scroll.
In this library of scrolls, priests ask
Is this the right one?
But none of them are
and there is no way of acquiring more.
Stars stare from the eyes.
The motorcycle repeats the déjà vu the motorcycle
disappears into the magma.
The jaguar rises with lava.
The scrolls are ready once again to burn.
To an Unknown Colombian Woman
Gridlock was rattling itself toward freedom! Monsters! Tyranny! Revolt.
I gave up T&P with semiautomatic compassion
for History changing unlike anything before.
She said You are my sky
I want to feel your hot breath on my neck
and put me up there in the Screaming Sixties
where the scalp of Earth
curves into the mint-black sex of space
as I stroll among the mint-white tongues of sea.
If I did, I died.
If I didn’t, I died. I reasoned.
You can cry or you can sing.
So why
not
sing?
I gave up T&P with semiautomatic compassion
for History changing unlike anything before.
She said You are my sky
I want to feel your hot breath on my neck
and put me up there in the Screaming Sixties
where the scalp of Earth
curves into the mint-black sex of space
as I stroll among the mint-white tongues of sea.
If I did, I died.
If I didn’t, I died. I reasoned.
You can cry or you can sing.
So why
not
sing?
Against Huysmans
A book of poems is but one
however-real-it-seems
beautified distortion of what's happening
and what’s to be.
A pretty face
emerges from the sliver of a moon.
Another rises like a shell from shore.
Election, blastoma, perfection, piranha.
Hypergiants of the Tarantula nebula!
Look around before it surrounds you.
Love before you start to age.
Pray before you cease to be.
Truth will rise/a leaf will fall.
A praying mantis on the edge
of a crisp red book.
however-real-it-seems
beautified distortion of what's happening
and what’s to be.
A pretty face
emerges from the sliver of a moon.
Another rises like a shell from shore.
Election, blastoma, perfection, piranha.
Hypergiants of the Tarantula nebula!
Look around before it surrounds you.
Love before you start to age.
Pray before you cease to be.
Truth will rise/a leaf will fall.
A praying mantis on the edge
of a crisp red book.
Turtle Soup at Midnight
When a sphinx doesn’t speak
don’t ask no questions.
Just awareness
there are questions to be asked
will draw scrutiny from mothers guardians spies.
We see it at our periphery, the fiery End.
To understand one trains in secret
perhaps prey for a predator
perhaps the miracle who survives
wades among the sirens answer with a fierce red scream
a presentation of sharp innocence
warped by time as always is resolved
with comprehensive hands
at least for a creature who knows its culture
and orders follow as the ant to theend. [Sic]
Fuck our minds full of todays
and the tides are coming for us all.
But though everything is bullshit
we get up and still make turtle soup at midnight.
Without a lean awareness of these mysteries
you are dead in the water.
With them hope lights a dark place
we are amazed to fall
so beautifully into.
don’t ask no questions.
Just awareness
there are questions to be asked
will draw scrutiny from mothers guardians spies.
We see it at our periphery, the fiery End.
To understand one trains in secret
perhaps prey for a predator
perhaps the miracle who survives
wades among the sirens answer with a fierce red scream
a presentation of sharp innocence
warped by time as always is resolved
with comprehensive hands
at least for a creature who knows its culture
and orders follow as the ant to theend. [Sic]
Fuck our minds full of todays
and the tides are coming for us all.
But though everything is bullshit
we get up and still make turtle soup at midnight.
Without a lean awareness of these mysteries
you are dead in the water.
With them hope lights a dark place
we are amazed to fall
so beautifully into.
Fear of Time
The tissues of fate
moved by wind on April’s balcony
sweep the hands privately
and though we cannot island, connected
to racist rapist thieves
entitled brutes
dumb boys dumb women
we find a way to interwind
like two frogs on a leaf
and whisper, laugh and laugh
real happy and real
sad in the sad extreme:
I am a barrel of gasoline
deep in the arctic
its significance unrealized.
I am a flame new to the arctic.
Soon you will realize.
moved by wind on April’s balcony
sweep the hands privately
and though we cannot island, connected
to racist rapist thieves
entitled brutes
dumb boys dumb women
we find a way to interwind
like two frogs on a leaf
and whisper, laugh and laugh
real happy and real
sad in the sad extreme:
I am a barrel of gasoline
deep in the arctic
its significance unrealized.
I am a flame new to the arctic.
Soon you will realize.
Monday, January 27, 2020
Chesapeake
We zero in on a
refurbished oil rig.
We smell it is a
restaurant.
Mom says Yes
we used to come here
before you were born.
As the helicopter is landing
we see the floor covered
in crabshells.
Thousands of crabshells,
crabs stuffed with crabs.
The floor is deep
orange, mustard and intestines.
Piles of crabs come out
of the ocean—
even a tarantula has
formed on the back of a cook
like some kind of weird
flower.
A lobster the size of a
porpoise
gets shelled before my eyes. Quivers
like a squid as the
butter drips.
Crabs keep piling
up.
We stay til nightfall
when the warmth of the
water
is confused with the
warmth of the air.
A Bible reading. Then back
to the trailer
smell molding in
humanity.
Summer, 1960.
A white blouse smeared
with seasoning
draped my mother’s model
form
and dad was righteous
for a time.
Mob
Aristocrats enjoy execution
so long as the guillotine is gilded.
The blades whirled by good smiths
charging a fortune in pardons for billion-dollar alloys
to crack the spine well
encourage years of craft.
Some dip theirs in caviar
others oil with truffles or limited cologne.
Some are engraved
with tiny verse
so the flesh shaved
is instantly impressed
with a truth
or something.
It doesn’t make much goddamn
sense to me
and anyway
I'm just here for the blood.
so long as the guillotine is gilded.
The blades whirled by good smiths
charging a fortune in pardons for billion-dollar alloys
to crack the spine well
encourage years of craft.
Some dip theirs in caviar
others oil with truffles or limited cologne.
Some are engraved
with tiny verse
so the flesh shaved
is instantly impressed
with a truth
or something.
It doesn’t make much goddamn
sense to me
and anyway
I'm just here for the blood.
Final Exam
When the reply finally came
it was by book.
She wrote she was an independent-minded woman
who liked greasy spoons
maple water, vintage watches
and here I was, laughing at football
a curiosity and she was curious
with had no intention of aging.
Upon the balcony my mother asked
What are you reading?
I snuck out for a smoke.
There in the courtyard
next to the very same church
as the wind kicked in and the boxwoods leaned
I saw a man made of ink. I moved toward him
and became Marilyn Monroe.
On the balcony, my mother watched with alarm
and a werewolf dressed as a king
beside her began jumping for joy.
The man of ink turned and shot me.
As I lay on the cobblestones bleeding
I woke up drooling at 10 PM.
it was by book.
She wrote she was an independent-minded woman
who liked greasy spoons
maple water, vintage watches
and here I was, laughing at football
a curiosity and she was curious
with had no intention of aging.
Upon the balcony my mother asked
What are you reading?
I snuck out for a smoke.
There in the courtyard
next to the very same church
as the wind kicked in and the boxwoods leaned
I saw a man made of ink. I moved toward him
and became Marilyn Monroe.
On the balcony, my mother watched with alarm
and a werewolf dressed as a king
beside her began jumping for joy.
The man of ink turned and shot me.
As I lay on the cobblestones bleeding
I woke up drooling at 10 PM.
Mallarmé
Music in my mind
sharp and brilliant as the greasy knife
shaving a day off the sun--
music meaningful as water
or the song still ringing
when the notes' bare ends
in a thought afloat in light--
stray swan alight in a sunset
engulfing entirely the moment aspired to
or a truth not unalike as shrouded.
Most things I was good at making nurses laugh
the human body's ironies alike we, perceiving
connected like bone to flesh
as sure as we were bred to laugh
identically even if otherwise
my general confusion
was now symmetrical with understanding
The Being Unbeing Itself.
sharp and brilliant as the greasy knife
shaving a day off the sun--
music meaningful as water
or the song still ringing
when the notes' bare ends
in a thought afloat in light--
stray swan alight in a sunset
engulfing entirely the moment aspired to
or a truth not unalike as shrouded.
Most things I was good at making nurses laugh
the human body's ironies alike we, perceiving
connected like bone to flesh
as sure as we were bred to laugh
identically even if otherwise
my general confusion
was now symmetrical with understanding
The Being Unbeing Itself.
Black Widow
Dark-navy woman with honey-gold eyes--
red hourglass on her ass.
Her blueberries drip
opal milk on the indigo fuzz
of her opengold lush
flower disturbs the peace.
I licked it from her abdomen like a dragonfly
by softened leaves
and a strong odor
unafraid to drink
evermore complex nectar.
One night I held this woman
in the palm of my hand.
Misled I let her go.
red hourglass on her ass.
Her blueberries drip
opal milk on the indigo fuzz
of her opengold lush
flower disturbs the peace.
I licked it from her abdomen like a dragonfly
by softened leaves
and a strong odor
unafraid to drink
evermore complex nectar.
One night I held this woman
in the palm of my hand.
Misled I let her go.
Matt's Fantasy
A ‘59 trip
in an Eldorado Biarritz
up the California coast--
only the finest Mexican food
the freshest vegetables
the most properly aged cheeses
the finest sunset
rolling in the sands
with Catherine Deneuve.
in an Eldorado Biarritz
up the California coast--
only the finest Mexican food
the freshest vegetables
the most properly aged cheeses
the finest sunset
rolling in the sands
with Catherine Deneuve.
The Owl
Come morning he hoots
and no one understands:
A Rolls Royce helicopter
makes mandalas upon the waves.
A congress of octopi
lets the hurricane move in.
Can I sleep in your basement tonight?
A marginal figure.
Existing by chance
in destitution
or very structured homes.
Migratory jobs are the norm.
Average enough to pass for riffraff
his commune with ghosts
is soon detected by psychiatrists
who abandon him, untreatable
resistant, perhaps unrecoverable
perhaps just ok.
Such a woman driving home
tries not to hit a homeless woman
knowing she could be dodging traffic next--
accused of child neglect
burnt at the stake. Drugs take her sometimes.
Sometimes she takes herself.
It wasn’t always this way.
It won’t always be again.
The owl sleeps with many thoughts
including yours.
Its dreams are all of daylight
and nights an unfettered flight
to a site where the wind
lets voices good and disturbed
from one world into this one.
and no one understands:
A Rolls Royce helicopter
makes mandalas upon the waves.
A congress of octopi
lets the hurricane move in.
Can I sleep in your basement tonight?
A marginal figure.
Existing by chance
in destitution
or very structured homes.
Migratory jobs are the norm.
Average enough to pass for riffraff
his commune with ghosts
is soon detected by psychiatrists
who abandon him, untreatable
resistant, perhaps unrecoverable
perhaps just ok.
Such a woman driving home
tries not to hit a homeless woman
knowing she could be dodging traffic next--
accused of child neglect
burnt at the stake. Drugs take her sometimes.
Sometimes she takes herself.
It wasn’t always this way.
It won’t always be again.
The owl sleeps with many thoughts
including yours.
Its dreams are all of daylight
and nights an unfettered flight
to a site where the wind
lets voices good and disturbed
from one world into this one.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
George Fucking Washington
It is difficult for truth to be untrue.
Some would say impossible
but my door is open
should you find some dark miracle
against the nature
that one plus one is two.
Truth is true.
Most people who dispute this
are confused.
They see exceptions everywhere
and by some damaged logic
to them I am a platypus.
The truth is true
or it would cease to be the truth.
This is evident
to one who follows the argument.
Most can't. They love slave
and master, playing the aristocrat
who can insult your children
or the tyrant to represent you with a curse.
Lies, extrapolations, conspiracy
shifting sands, twisted theories
bullrush, false equiv, denial
powerful order and countermand
the evidence we hate each other
and our histories will clash
because you know, I said.
I am fortunate.
I speak first.
When you judge me
against who comes last
bear in mind the truth is true
when you get confused.
It sounds so simple
it must surely be untrue.
But everywhere as light without enemy
and sure as sky turns blue
one plus one equals two.
Sun rise tomorrow.
Like a compass or a good book
take heart and reset
to judge with clear eyes.
Some would say impossible
but my door is open
should you find some dark miracle
against the nature
that one plus one is two.
Truth is true.
Most people who dispute this
are confused.
They see exceptions everywhere
and by some damaged logic
to them I am a platypus.
The truth is true
or it would cease to be the truth.
This is evident
to one who follows the argument.
Most can't. They love slave
and master, playing the aristocrat
who can insult your children
or the tyrant to represent you with a curse.
Lies, extrapolations, conspiracy
shifting sands, twisted theories
bullrush, false equiv, denial
powerful order and countermand
the evidence we hate each other
and our histories will clash
because you know, I said.
I am fortunate.
I speak first.
When you judge me
against who comes last
bear in mind the truth is true
when you get confused.
It sounds so simple
it must surely be untrue.
But everywhere as light without enemy
and sure as sky turns blue
one plus one equals two.
Sun rise tomorrow.
Like a compass or a good book
take heart and reset
to judge with clear eyes.
Noctambulism
Under a window dripping a piano song
the queen is there
Blackmail, her bedroom next
kill her consort with a dart
hide in the woods with scarf and bandana
There is no bathroom in the house-What house?
The calling card says Fine Birds
and the unsuspecting
to an end, we think
but not me
A cave deep in time
and a crescent-blazing light
Sorry you can repeat that No
There comes a time
when your ability to appreciate sensation dies
and you are fueled exclusively by shark appetite
a thirst for continuance
and your life becomes a slice of lava pie
hot and unformed as when you wake in the night
and dreams like these are dripping
and you’re not quite out of them yet
despite the fact a child is obviously crying
or a cat is sticking her paw in your face.
the queen is there
Blackmail, her bedroom next
kill her consort with a dart
hide in the woods with scarf and bandana
There is no bathroom in the house-What house?
The calling card says Fine Birds
and the unsuspecting
to an end, we think
but not me
A cave deep in time
and a crescent-blazing light
Sorry you can repeat that No
There comes a time
when your ability to appreciate sensation dies
and you are fueled exclusively by shark appetite
a thirst for continuance
and your life becomes a slice of lava pie
hot and unformed as when you wake in the night
and dreams like these are dripping
and you’re not quite out of them yet
despite the fact a child is obviously crying
or a cat is sticking her paw in your face.
Dusk Chillout
Summer silence drops like cool water
tilting stars that spill more light on me.
Thunder and cicada
fill October's empty trees with sonata
and a splash of sun in twilight wine.
Inside homes abandoned to a television light
perfusing softly the night's many flaws
a couple go through the motions
and the houseplants keep expelling
air to poison.
When was the honey thicker?
The sea clean? Was it better?
Or was that just a dream-- a legend no artist
can at loose ends with reality make dovetail at dusk.
----------------------------------------------
Tragic family never anything
and now fewer birds in the sky
time itself flakes from away the memories
for those upon the planet
orbiting, as punishment
til one day or another
can't be remembered, and Time itself is done.
I lose the streets among the suburbs
and end up at a stranger's home.
Years becoming suggestions.
tilting stars that spill more light on me.
Thunder and cicada
fill October's empty trees with sonata
and a splash of sun in twilight wine.
Inside homes abandoned to a television light
perfusing softly the night's many flaws
a couple go through the motions
and the houseplants keep expelling
air to poison.
When was the honey thicker?
The sea clean? Was it better?
Or was that just a dream-- a legend no artist
can at loose ends with reality make dovetail at dusk.
----------------------------------------------
Tragic family never anything
and now fewer birds in the sky
time itself flakes from away the memories
for those upon the planet
orbiting, as punishment
til one day or another
can't be remembered, and Time itself is done.
I lose the streets among the suburbs
and end up at a stranger's home.
Years becoming suggestions.
The First Man
The first night the first man
tried hard to stay awake
because he thought he should keep moving.
The last night the last man
tried hard to fall asleep
because he knew he would shit himself soon.
tried hard to stay awake
because he thought he should keep moving.
The last night the last man
tried hard to fall asleep
because he knew he would shit himself soon.
Arcadia
The backstory runs as the young and lustful do
treasure desire in a whirlwind of rubies
full of Ferraris burning toward fantastic futures
I heard the hairbands tell me Rock on.
At a train show under the fireworks
in a village south of here
I took a Ferris wheel to the moon
and thought I’d live forever.
The Bible folded like a dead dove in my briefcase.
No longer river I was nothing but sea.
A fly trapped in an airport. Pick a metaphor, a simile
symbolic of something so profound
the rationale’s a politician
betraying slivers of the truth.
Excited—too excited
to play philosopher with existential games
to drink cognac with Vivaldi
pretend I understood Spinoza
shut off from all but the strangest of men
I took off the clothes of the Superanimal
and was scared to death by what I saw.
treasure desire in a whirlwind of rubies
full of Ferraris burning toward fantastic futures
I heard the hairbands tell me Rock on.
At a train show under the fireworks
in a village south of here
I took a Ferris wheel to the moon
and thought I’d live forever.
The Bible folded like a dead dove in my briefcase.
No longer river I was nothing but sea.
A fly trapped in an airport. Pick a metaphor, a simile
symbolic of something so profound
the rationale’s a politician
betraying slivers of the truth.
Excited—too excited
to play philosopher with existential games
to drink cognac with Vivaldi
pretend I understood Spinoza
shut off from all but the strangest of men
I took off the clothes of the Superanimal
and was scared to death by what I saw.
King Solomon, for My Father
I was a witty child and had received a good soul.
For I also was my father's son tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother.
Incline thy ear to my prudence.
I will shew thee the way of wisdom.
I will lead thee by the paths of equity.
Choose knowledge rather than gold. Her ways
are beautiful ways and all her paths are peaceable.
The desire of wisdom
bringeth to the everlasting kingdom.
Wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb
and made the tongues of infants eloquent.
One is as it were rich when he hath nothing.
It is better to be humbled with the meek
than to divide spoils with the proud.
When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad
and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice.
A joyful mind maketh age flourishing.
A sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones.
I love them that love me
and they that in the early morning
watch for me shall find me.
The Lord possessed me
in the beginning of his ways
before he made anything.
I was with him forming all things
and was delighted every day
playing before him at all times.
The steps of man are guided by the Lord.
But who is the man that can understand his own way?
For all men have one entrance into life
and the like going out.
The meadows are open and the green herbs have appeared
and the hay is gathered out of the mountains.
If thou sleep, thou shalt not fear
thou shalt rest
and thy sleep shall be sweet.
For I also was my father's son tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother.
Incline thy ear to my prudence.
I will shew thee the way of wisdom.
I will lead thee by the paths of equity.
Choose knowledge rather than gold. Her ways
are beautiful ways and all her paths are peaceable.
The desire of wisdom
bringeth to the everlasting kingdom.
Wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb
and made the tongues of infants eloquent.
One is as it were rich when he hath nothing.
It is better to be humbled with the meek
than to divide spoils with the proud.
When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad
and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice.
A joyful mind maketh age flourishing.
A sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones.
I love them that love me
and they that in the early morning
watch for me shall find me.
The Lord possessed me
in the beginning of his ways
before he made anything.
I was with him forming all things
and was delighted every day
playing before him at all times.
The steps of man are guided by the Lord.
But who is the man that can understand his own way?
For all men have one entrance into life
and the like going out.
The meadows are open and the green herbs have appeared
and the hay is gathered out of the mountains.
If thou sleep, thou shalt not fear
thou shalt rest
and thy sleep shall be sweet.
Corruptomundo!
Stop 1: The streets are on fire and the people are sweating in supermarket trolleys. Collect 45,000,000
Stop 2: You compare the United States to an angry mama bear. Various groups protest. Collect 5,000,000
Stop 3: You put rocket launchers in the hands of children. Millions of lives are saved. Collect NRA pass
Stop 4: Bubblegum-flavored peanut butter is a hit. Collect 7,000,000
Stop 5: A group of militiamen has deemed you the Archfiend of Mammon in a promotional pamphlet. Liberal media becomes infatuated. Collect 19,000,000
Stop 6: You avoided war but thousands of lives were lost. No one respects you. Collect 1,000,000 Alternative: You went ballistic. Now the people want blood. Collect 1,000,000
Alternative: You thread the needle perfectly. The universe adores. Collect 2,000,000
Stop 7: Your taxes are due. Collect 20,000,000
Stop 8: Other people can’t get mad at you for your success. Collect 6,000,000
Stop 9: You find the cure for cancer causes cancer. Collect 25,000,000
Stop 10: You lose all equilibrium in a skiing accident at an undisclosed mountain range. Win a free talk show.
Stop 11: You are controlling member of a nanny torture ring. Government post denied. Collect 45,000,000
Stop 12: The AFL-CIO has tapped your phones. Spin again.
Stop 13: 42% of Americans support new slogan, ME = MC2. Collect 9,000,000
Stop 14: You find a bag of coins under a python at the zoo. Time magazine calls you Human of the Year. Collect 6,000,000
Stop 15: Your BMW is implicated in a sex scandal. Collect 4,000,000
Stop 16: Kate Moss, Vishnu, and an octopus approach you about a time share in St. Martin. You become Viagra pitchman for a fiscal year. Collect 20,000,000
Stop 17: Your sixth wife wants all your money. Collect 10,000,000
Stop 17.5: You repeat that thing of where Axl Rose told Kurt Cobain Tell your bitch to shut up. And Kurt Cobain turned to Courtney Love and said Bitch, shut up. You do this for Bonus Points if you know what I'm talking about. See Instructions 35.C
Stop 18: It’s time to get back to basics. You create an affordable electric hybrid that everyone wants. Collect 7,000,000
Stop 19: You become an outsized celebrity ice sculptor with a methadone problem and a stable full of wild bears. Collect 10,000,000
Stop 20: Effigies of you are burning in the streets. Immediate image makeover is a success. Collect 4,000,000
Stop 21: You enter rehab for fellatio addiction. Collect 20,000,000
Stop 22: People say that nothing works. The rapist and the racist carve up the spoils. The temperature is rising. Collect 50,000,000
Stop 23: You're at the end and it isn't funny anymore.
Stop 24: Atlantis rises. New markets form. Pick a car and circle the board.
Stop 2: You compare the United States to an angry mama bear. Various groups protest. Collect 5,000,000
Stop 3: You put rocket launchers in the hands of children. Millions of lives are saved. Collect NRA pass
Stop 4: Bubblegum-flavored peanut butter is a hit. Collect 7,000,000
Stop 5: A group of militiamen has deemed you the Archfiend of Mammon in a promotional pamphlet. Liberal media becomes infatuated. Collect 19,000,000
Stop 6: You avoided war but thousands of lives were lost. No one respects you. Collect 1,000,000 Alternative: You went ballistic. Now the people want blood. Collect 1,000,000
Alternative: You thread the needle perfectly. The universe adores. Collect 2,000,000
Stop 7: Your taxes are due. Collect 20,000,000
Stop 8: Other people can’t get mad at you for your success. Collect 6,000,000
Stop 9: You find the cure for cancer causes cancer. Collect 25,000,000
Stop 10: You lose all equilibrium in a skiing accident at an undisclosed mountain range. Win a free talk show.
Stop 11: You are controlling member of a nanny torture ring. Government post denied. Collect 45,000,000
Stop 12: The AFL-CIO has tapped your phones. Spin again.
Stop 13: 42% of Americans support new slogan, ME = MC2. Collect 9,000,000
Stop 14: You find a bag of coins under a python at the zoo. Time magazine calls you Human of the Year. Collect 6,000,000
Stop 15: Your BMW is implicated in a sex scandal. Collect 4,000,000
Stop 16: Kate Moss, Vishnu, and an octopus approach you about a time share in St. Martin. You become Viagra pitchman for a fiscal year. Collect 20,000,000
Stop 17: Your sixth wife wants all your money. Collect 10,000,000
Stop 17.5: You repeat that thing of where Axl Rose told Kurt Cobain Tell your bitch to shut up. And Kurt Cobain turned to Courtney Love and said Bitch, shut up. You do this for Bonus Points if you know what I'm talking about. See Instructions 35.C
Stop 18: It’s time to get back to basics. You create an affordable electric hybrid that everyone wants. Collect 7,000,000
Stop 19: You become an outsized celebrity ice sculptor with a methadone problem and a stable full of wild bears. Collect 10,000,000
Stop 20: Effigies of you are burning in the streets. Immediate image makeover is a success. Collect 4,000,000
Stop 21: You enter rehab for fellatio addiction. Collect 20,000,000
Stop 22: People say that nothing works. The rapist and the racist carve up the spoils. The temperature is rising. Collect 50,000,000
Stop 23: You're at the end and it isn't funny anymore.
Stop 24: Atlantis rises. New markets form. Pick a car and circle the board.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Sustainable Fine Dining
The questioning host
flows
Among gangstas the streets never mean
The questioning host flows her white gowns.
her white Buddhist gown
past plates of hamachi.
Trump and Soleimani
sat by firelight
a one-breasted queen
appraising the room.
Among gangstas the streets never mean
quite the same shit.
Nerves already on edge
the darklight of a Capricorn birthday
menacing acid to begin.
Glaring drivers’ eyes say
Dragon marrow: $Your life
(Thus…thusly…isthathowyousayit?)
with money in my throat I sit down
to a menu 25 fucking pages long.
Wild boar was on the menu
hunks of lobster genetically enhanced
lettuce washed by salmonella rain.
Elk guts. Bison nuggets.
Excellent choice*.
Like many of us
I vomit prime rib and ferns
gut clenched by a bitter beast
that lives in the night-gone-bad.
Around the fireplace, sand—
the scratch of sandpiper feet
becomes a battle map
with buried bones
as if that helps the fact
I'm bleeding out this time.
And see? The end of the hour
has brought cute couples in to watch me die.
Never again will I wish for more history.
Do not think poisoning
is easier than torture
or slow decay.
Minority rules treason house arrest.
This restaurant fooking sooks!
Trump has disappeared into a motorcade.
Soleimani is just a few chunks on the marble.
The questioning host flows her white gowns.
when someone shouts aloud and truly
This venison is something else!
*I
ordered the rockfish.
The
waiter said Excellent choice.
I
said Well how is the moose?
I
was actually considering that too.
An excellent
choice.
I
tried to joke
Well
how about the porterhouse?
He
replied Excellent choice.
I
was like What on here isn’t an excellent choice?
and
shoved the menu in the air.
What
about the duck egg quiche.
The oysters Rockefeller.
Ah, excellent
choices, all, sir.
I
said Ok look you, stop all this pandering
and
find me something here that isn’t an excellent choice.
I
don’t even want anything good anymore.
Just
get me something, the worst thing here.
That’s
what I want. Jesus! Quail,
the quail with fig and chantarelles.
How’s
that one?
Very
stern he told me
That will not be
an excellent choice.
I
said Good, give me that.
Another
couple came in minutes later.
The
man ordered the quail with chantarelles.
Same
waiter.
Excellent choice.
The Account
Blackbeard died of eighteen holes and fourteen wives
a stint as a lumberjack
and no regrets he knew the Devil.
Bart Roberts ran aground
got shot in the throat.
His endless conquest launched his own.
He hid his blood in crimson damask
and the cries of burnt slaves.
Black Caesar wasn't going back.
He took Florida, Europe, the hurricanes.
Starved his harem. Chieftain to the end.
Stede Bonnet was a coward. He paid for his crimes
like a fool. Not before begging
to self-amputate for clemency.
If you were too happy Edward Lowe cut off parts of your face
roasted and fed them to you.
No one knows what happened to him.
The best Anne Bonny could do was fuck
the dog she was dumb enough to understand
and pregnant enough to not die for.
She disappeared. There were whorehouses.
Kidd was nothing special.
Weak leader. Political tool.
Left behind treasure neverthere.
Even murder couldn’t hide
his lack of command.
Henry Morgan went of dropsy late nights, and rum
like many governors.
He barbecued the the innocent. Amen.
The hourglass goes empty fast.
a stint as a lumberjack
and no regrets he knew the Devil.
Bart Roberts ran aground
got shot in the throat.
His endless conquest launched his own.
He hid his blood in crimson damask
and the cries of burnt slaves.
Black Caesar wasn't going back.
He took Florida, Europe, the hurricanes.
Starved his harem. Chieftain to the end.
Stede Bonnet was a coward. He paid for his crimes
like a fool. Not before begging
to self-amputate for clemency.
If you were too happy Edward Lowe cut off parts of your face
roasted and fed them to you.
No one knows what happened to him.
The best Anne Bonny could do was fuck
the dog she was dumb enough to understand
and pregnant enough to not die for.
She disappeared. There were whorehouses.
Kidd was nothing special.
Weak leader. Political tool.
Left behind treasure neverthere.
Even murder couldn’t hide
his lack of command.
Henry Morgan went of dropsy late nights, and rum
like many governors.
He barbecued the the innocent. Amen.
The hourglass goes empty fast.
Portrait of a Young Sailor's Wife by Anonymous
No one signed his name to me.
I come with no name at all.
They say I am a young sailor’s wife.
But I was a little girl before
who knew the men without names on the waves
and the wife with no man who comes back.
A woman with this smile endures.
Mona Lisa, yes, she was beautiful
but I have different stories.
You learn them when you are less lovely
grow up with cold salt in the air
and the smell of fish and fire all around.
No one signed his name to me.
No one can without the urge to run away.
I come with no name at all.
They say I am a young sailor’s wife.
But I was a little girl before
who knew the men without names on the waves
and the wife with no man who comes back.
A woman with this smile endures.
Mona Lisa, yes, she was beautiful
but I have different stories.
You learn them when you are less lovely
grow up with cold salt in the air
and the smell of fish and fire all around.
No one signed his name to me.
No one can without the urge to run away.
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