Slats

I
As the near ship lurches and doors close at churches
As the near night fails and the broadside light trails
As the coffee has been cold for nearly a decade
As the season comes to an end and the storeroom is morbidly quiet

the cigarette butt falls through the slats of the pier
down to the wharf where barque gremlins quiver awash
lichen covered and lapsed and dazed. dazzled and dazzling
the razzmatazz trash cymbals devolving madmen
dissolving dysentery and disinterested in retribution

the cigarette butt falls through the slats of the pier
down to the wharf where sturdy maidens clamor
for cancerous elbows and carcinogens and laughing.
crafting and casting lures for the unsuspecting diver
in his bell with the red cap and the charming smile

II
aqua-lunged and curious 18 meters deep he asks
why she wears such a frown. she cannot speak but gestures
the human with long legs and sand in his toes. there sits the
prince who loves alone, fingers wrapped round thoughts of a sad
faced fish woman. and longing undoes the she-thing

never make mention of what she has become and if
she still dabbles in human affairs from clouds. while the pirate
ship groans across the moon. there, the boy and his fey. the boy
and his thimbled lady. the boy and his bastard brothers living
what we'd only imagined. feyness in kittyhawk

As Icarus goes down he thinks of scotch and milk and miles
He thinks of the never have been and of his electro-theremin
He thinks of the never have done and of his little black book
As Icarus goes down he whispers: how brilliant they will be

When Collies look down their noses at us

We must see little things

little teeth & vetted gums

This dream stating;

the lovely spring children

love symmetry in all things.

They are bound by beauty

and in beauty bound miss

the honesty found in all things.

On all things, (papers and poems and bills and such)

I began writing my name

when I remembered;

I do not want to be forgotten.

But I will forget or have (been) forgotten already.

!

— ?

Protest Music


Listen: Ball of Confusion - The Temptations

Father Fagen

I grew up with this. The bastard catalan of Donald Fagen--inescapably tied to the voice of my father.
Fagen crooning heron.
And I grew up with this.

Flutes

As the ball drops on the six ton city
See, '02 escapes in warm belches that
reek of hot mustard and pork
and retiring to bed, she joins
me, smiles incredulously and
tucks me in, neatly. smiling all
the while by the happy little
drunk entering dreamless sleep

to

the loosy i bought; smoked on the outskirts of a
no name place. to the place where i buy my cannons.

in the thistle where the kings do not tread i go
to skulk and fuck. some thing, i am missing now.

and the missing piece of the clock my father
meant for a fair weather fifth or fourth birthday.


Imaginings


The Art & Illustrations of Ken Wong


Brother, Brother

A voice is unlike any other god-given gift. Voices are, quite often, taken for granted--discarded as an ugly remnant of childhood. Occasionally an exceptional voice will emerge unscathed or augmented by bass and the responsibilities of adulthood. And the idea crosses my mind that voices are separate entities. Beyond the mere measure of pitch, intensity, timbre, a voice is a distinct facet of an individual's persona.

As we grow older we play russian roulette with our senses, deadening nerve endings and quietly consuming our memories. Sometimes I wonder what sense tugs first on our hearts. Sound for some. Touch for others. Taste, scent, sight. Sensual memories may elicit biochemical reactions: emotions of love, anxiety, sadness, excitement, arousal, calm.

And a voice; the sound of another so closely connected to our physical perceptions of the world.

This is feel good music:
Got to Give it Up - Marvin Gaye (Live At The Palladium)

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (What's Going On)

E.S.P.




Marcos Valle and the Borderline

flashing neon will discolor the red brick across
the avenue, byway of coke sprinkled upon iris

aural parsing becomes the woman. she hears
loudly and quickly these candid candied inflections

a rail of sensitivity misplaced along the columns
of her spine. down to the thicket where she need not ask

only take. and one thing comes off. and two things come--
off putting the musky vapors, excited inkblots. the

counting of each pore will take the concentration of each
splayed limb. a toll of seven copper tongues lolling over skin

(all thousands of miles
above an aching mania, sated)

The Honeysuckle Breeze



Today


Pete Rock reinvented the day. C.L. Smooth dedicated it to the gone but not forgotten, Trouble T. Roy.

Live in the present. Life is precious.

i (still) owe her ten bucks

father one introduced me to father three
several years ago
father three has for nine years told me
several stories of anti
and I respect father one
and I respect father three

I hear them speaking in the next room
where the lights are dim and their voices
dimmer and their expressions hang
flagrant chandeliers grim and their voices
grimmer when the lights of passing cars hang
on unsettled dust in the air and their voices

calloused mustard are the fingertips worn
and appreciated by the spoon dipped further
in my throat and down the stairs to where
rests my pieces and pieces and she twists
and pulls back cupfuls of this dark stuff, worn
and waiting to reassemble what I’d taken

father three sings all weary melody
he has now for several years crowing of anti
barbiturates and February are r’s rarely
pronounced but you must to read such a line
finely ground, easily absorbed in the nasal
cavity and the dirty dollar bill; his name is Fagen

rather, father three is much the father anti

Rugged Slang

Do not remove articles of clothing

your jacket

your hat and bag

Do no pretend as if you have

not, com

promising a sacred womb, this cavalier in ertia

Do not remove articles of clothing

your scarf

your sexuality and romantic

vacancy; only temp oral, lobes

convey multiplicity in meaning

Do not remove articles as

you will not stay long here

beg forgive

much later for granted taken the sanctity of

this place

Transcription


She is most certainly +/.

irish

simian lip enticing

pink: a most violent color

In this land

barely existing

hardly subsisting

the poets are positively schizophrenic

the soul is leather bound

not worn on sleeves

not for sharing candidly

without first

signing a receipt

In this land

we are folly ##

and

She is most certainly +/.

irish

simian lip enticing

pink: belies to spite the careless

organics addicted to

bitters of gastric acid +… electricity

Nim Beneath Banyan

long haired banyan canonical studies of occidental colloquium made to calcify the bone; a wretched squealing while walking understudied the ruling class individ ual accompanied by o ther ruling class individ uating the sensations: the sensitivitip made
to calcify the soul; wretched pangs be muse conscious rat ionality. still hungry still hungry the loss of nerve endings never quite enough
wind whistles wind carries wind spills wind harrows wind howls wind wills
how long can we pretend to be so otherworldy and we are not like the wind anymore