Thursday, April 30, 2015

April 30th - Melanin

Eight of Clubs - Melanin

When is a Riot Not a Riot?

The Patriots won
And people took to the streets
Filling the night with cheers and open containers
And I was there
Watching and yelling though I had no allegiance
Except to my friends who had been waiting for this for years
So I joined them in revelry
Caught up in the oneness of the crowd
I screamed "Patriots!" till my throat was sore
And when the chant turned to"USA!"
I echoed back surpised at the strength of my voice
Even more surprised when someone started a fire
Then another
And a boy from my creative writing class
A quiet thoughtful kid
I think his name was Wyatt
Ripped off his shirt and jumped over one of those fires
While a pasty man climbed somehow onto the McDonald's awning
And the crowd roared as he postured and started a new chant:
"Show your tits!"
Two students started pushing each other almost hitting a woman
And the McDonald's man moved to dislodge the golden arches on the roof
As the crowd yelled "Show your tits!"
They began to move so erratically that someone fell to the pavement
Somewhere a plate glass window broke just out of sight
And the crowd had thrown a rope up to the roof of the McDonald's
And the man there had tied it sloppily to the dip in the arches
But it somehow held as the crowd pulled backwards
Everyone staggering
A man punched another man
And a woman yelling
Wyatt bleeding from the head
While the man on the McDonald's awning
Pushed the almost severed arches
And the chant shifted to "Fuck The Yankees"
As young men began to jump on any car with New York plates
And I remember not one police officer
Not one
As a team of hands
Mostly white hands
Worked together to try to push a public bus
Onto its side
We heard a faint explosion in the distance
So we decided to go home

Monday afternoon once Boston wakes
Eyes adjusting to the sun
And the city workers sweeping glass
From the streets of Kenmore Square
Boarding broken windows
And picking up pieces
From that McDonalds sign
A man moves to replenish the Boston Herald box
With a fresh stack of late edition papers
That describe the events of the night before
And without even paying three quarters
You can see the story
The only story - really
A full page headline
Proudly proclaiming
"Patriots Win"

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

April 29th - Expired Condoms

Five of Clubs - Expired Condoms

You forget it's there
Most of the time
Save when you
Dig into your wallet
To buy milk or books
Or pornography
When by accidenet
Your fingers graze it
Through worn leather
You find yourself
Tracing its misshapen form
And remembering how long
It has been safely tucked away
Unused, unrealized, unopened
Now useless

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

April 28th - Expired Milk

Four of Spades - Expired Milk


Sell By Dates

A single quart of milk
One of the last left
Standing in a Quik Stop refrigerator
Among the mold and spilled beer
Carton bloated and bruised
From rough handling
Being frozen and unfrozen
Before ending up here
On this mildewed shelf
Later than the date printed
But not expired
Not yet

Monday, April 27, 2015

April 27th - Outdated Maps

Nine of Diamonds - Outdated Maps


Outdated Maps 1

You ask if I know any constellations
I could point to the sky
And connect any seven stars
And name one for you

But we will never know
How much of what we see is
Just an afterimage
Light from frozen suns
Dead for eons
That has taken all this time
Just to cross
Our expanding universe

So I tell you no
I don’t know any constellations
And you don’t say anything
And the moment is over

We’re standing together but
Not touching
Ever-slowing
Moving apart
Growing cold

Sunday, April 26, 2015

April 26th - David Icke

Three of Spades - David Icke


Spending The Afternoon With David Icke

I imagine him
Beside me on this bench
Watching the children on the monkey bars
The old men playing cards on a stone table
The couple stroking each other's hands
Watching them and thinking
Their actions are controlled by the moon!

How ever-confounding a world it must be
If you were to believe that people's thoughts
Are actually the moon's thoughts
A hollow man-made moon
And that spies from the Draco Constellation
Could be anywhere

A mother furrows her brow at me
For my unkempt appearance
My proximity to the playground
She stares at me with cold eyes
Could she be one of them?

April 25th - Old Canaan

Four of Diamonds - Old Canaan


Building a New Canaan

Once the men were slain
And the slavers paid
The soldiers gathered pots and tablets
To be smashed

Their Captain watched
His men obliterate
Men who wore filthy armor under stolen nobles’ robes
Men with blood under their fingernails
Men who had not eaten or slept in days
Shattered pots and tablets
And their Captain watched pondering
The mystery of the broken etchings
And their beauty
Eventually he looked away

To the West
Towards the hanging trees
And the ships
Women lined up on the shore
As if greeting these ships
As if they were returning home

Saturday, April 25, 2015

April 24th - Chyna

Queen of Diamonds - Chyna

She also paid off her student loan debts, and successfully moved to Japan, unlike a certain someone.

-

She is an easy target
"She-Hulk XXX"
Drunken porn convention antics
Jumping in a fish tank
For some reason

But can you
Think of a better person
To play She-Hulk?
And would you
If invited not attend
A porn convention?

You wouldn't be able to
Help yourself and even if you said
You were going for the novelty alone
And at all times you made sure
To keep at least one sweaty palm against
The back wall you couldn't
Say you wouldn't
Have just one drink
Just to loosen up
And then just to loosen up
One more

Thursday, April 23, 2015

April 23rd - Red Herrings

King of Diamonds - Red Herrings

Say/Do

If you come back
Tomorrow before 6am
You will be seen
Maybe
They tell your dear
Dejected face

If you keep doing
What you're doing
Something might open up
In six months
They tell my pained
Exhausted face

Let's make something
Instead with truth
So undeniable
They won't be able to tell
Anyone about anything
For a very long time
Their manic mouths
Too busy jawing tales
Of what we've made

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

April 22nd - Mint Juleps

Six of Hearts - Mint Juleps

Daydrunk In Your Mississippi Apartment

You don't use enough syrup
Your ice cubes are melted
The mint is turning

You stir with your finger
And glance toward my shoulder
The face of unconcern

The sharp taste of bourbon
The trace of your finger
Magnify my yearning

I touch your Julep
To my two lips
And savor the burn

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

April 21st - Viking Metal Bands

Jack of Clubs - Viking Metal Bands


Vikings Invade a Station Wagon Outside of Ithaca


Speeding past Elmira
Somehow sleeping through
“Twelfth Stroke of Midnight”
Kenny Erickson dreams 

-

They sail to stage atop a Viking ship
Suspended over barrels of dry ice
His heart and stomach jumping through his chest
Young Kenny thinks on just how far they've come
Two half-Italian kids from Western Mass
Who used to haul their gear from gig to gig
Packed tightly in the shittiest of cars
Who now traverse the skies in private jets
And when on stage transform to Nordic Gods
The throng of people chants his sister's name
As strobe lights frame and freeze their silhouettes
Ken lifts his sticks above his perfect locks
His shadow frozen on The Garden's wall
And magnified to twenty times its size
He harnesses the anger in his hands
And picturing his father in the drums
He smashes down upon all of their heads
As if the Day of Judgment had arrived
And he can feel his sister's eyes on him
As Donatella speaks unto the crowd
The image of a flightless Valkyrie
She terrifies them with her quiet voice
“New York: prepare yourself for Ragnarok!”

-

Unconscious still he
Softly kicks his sister
One hand on the wheel

She smooths his golden hair

Monday, April 20, 2015

April 20th - Divine Right

Ace of Clubs - Divine Right

There is no recourse -
Youth's flower plucked from any
Radical who dares
Act against Him
No opposition
No other choice
In the face of The King
Critics shall stand silent
Idolators will renounce and kneel
Down before God's Chosen -
Except one

April 19th - Wedding Stress Dreams

Five of Hearts - Wedding Stress Dreams

Guests are chasing you
Bleating and wailing - betrayed
Wringing empty hands

No decision on
Table favors was made today
You wake in cold sweat

Saturday, April 18, 2015

April 18th - Furries

Three of Hearts - Furries

And That Was The Last Time She Let Her Friends Set Her Up

Eduardo's considered a hunk
He's handsome with plenty of spunk
But his value's diminished
For Eduardo can't finish
Unless he is dressed like a skunk

Friday, April 17, 2015

April 17th - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Six of Clubs - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Every Night at Seventeen

She melted butter in a pan
Then pushing past her parents
She closed the door to her room where
She listened to The Jesus And Mary Chain
And ate grilled cheese sandwiches

Thursday, April 16, 2015

April 16th - Boko Haram

Two of Diamonds - Boko Haram


Reflecting on the Phrase, “Western Education Is Forbidden”

This poem started with a book
A heavy, hard-bound tome
Containing Milton and Shakespeare
Austen, Chekov, and Wilde
Placed open before Abubakar Shekau

It was a revenge poem in which I lifted that book
And broke his nose with it
And beat his face in with that book
Until his teeth lay broken on the floor
And the book was soaked in blood

But this poem wasn’t written
For my rage is impotent rage
Unwelcome and ultimately superfluous
There is no poetry in 276 children
Who are no longer children

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

April 15th - New Canaan

Four of Clubs - New Canaan

New Canaan, Christmas

Sipping peppermint lattes
You walk hand in hand
On your third Holiday Stroll together
Where everything seems new
Even though the carolers are the same as last year
Where you never tire of the ice sculptures
Marveling at the face of a reindeer
Somehow made of water
And your husband tells you to come on
So you continue to walk
Under an intricate lattice-work
Illuminated
Even though it is daytime

Outside of Ralph Lauren
- The children's store -
Rosy face after rosy face
Shivers expectantly
Waiting to whisper Christmas wishes
To the man in red
Your husband crouches to joke with the children
But you stay standing
For in the distance you see smoke
One of the smallest girls points and
Her mother tells her it is smoke
From Santa's workshop

Twenty miles east
In Bridgeport
An abandoned slaughterhouse burns
And burns

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

April 14th - Failed Poets

Jack of Diamonds - Failed Poets

He taught poetry
To seventeen year-olds
With sleepy eyes and strong hearts
Open and anticipating
Ready to digest anything
That moved us
But he taught without poetry
With vengeful swagger
He presented us stanzas
With no author no title
And commanded us to show no mercy

Under his orders we
Disemboweled Dickinson
Eviscerated Yeats
As if they were fetal pigs
Whose naked pieces
Became unrecognizable
Laid on cold metal tables
And the parts that functioned well
He would speak of proudly
As if they were his parts
And anything vestigal or undergrown
He would berate and bully
Until what remained fell apart
In our mouths

Then one day
One fateful day
He presented us with three stanzas
With no author no title
With smiling face and steady hands
He snuck his own words
In with those of the masters
Like a man in a woman's dress
Attempting to escape a sinking ship
Thinking he got away with it
He commanded us to read
And with the tools he had sharpened
We tore him apart

Monday, April 13, 2015

April 13th - Chosen People

Ace of Diamonds - Chosen People

The Reaping

The crowd holds its breath
A single organism

As the names are read:
One boy, one girl

The center breaks
We are once again distinct

Wails
And sighs of bitter relief

It is not my child
Not this time

Sunday, April 12, 2015

April 12th - Quitting Your Job

Ten of Diamonds - Quitting Your Job

Last summer I worked at White Castle
By June 'twas already a hassle
I finally quit
Cause my boss was a twit
And the hamburgers tasted lke asshole

Saturday, April 11, 2015

April 11th - Red Dogs

Seven of Spades - Red Dogs

Shotgunning Red Dogs In A Blockbuster Parking Lot

Warm beer resurges
As your summer friends laugh you
Vomit on pavement

Friday, April 10, 2015

April 10th - Amaterasu

Queen of Spades - Amaterasu

Invisible In Tokyo

I curse my forebears
Sprawled on Ueno park bench
The sun still rises

Thursday, April 09, 2015

April 9th - Third World Travel Guilt

Five of Spades - Third World Travel Guilt

Beachside Service

A little boy with no shoes approached
Skin blackened by the sun
And dirt caked
On his tiny clothes

His hands were full of carved stones
We said "No, gracias"
We shook our heads
His mother didn't look at us

"That poor kid"
I told my wife
Or maybe
I just thought it to myself

As I gave the waiter 60 pesos
For a pair of margaritas

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

April 8th - Dead Dogs

Seven of Hearts - Dead Dogs

Reruns

You wake up to Kelsey Grammar
His voice
Delivering some one-liner
And as you adjust your eyes
You see a small dog with perfect timing
Scamper off-screen
Somewhere people are laughing

You don't laugh but
You tell yourself that
Yes somehow Eddie Crane
Could still be alive

You lie
On the couch half-watching
Enveloped in the blue glow

Tuesday, April 07, 2015

April 7th - The Backseat

Seven of Clubs - The Backseat

1986 Chrysler Town and Country (75,000 miles; 325,000 miles)

You were always in the back seat
Next to the buzzy speaker
The broken window crank
Next to Kenny who
No matter how many times you would say
"Quit it, Spastic"
Drummed his fingers on everything
Cupholders, wood paneling
Your own ten year old knees
"Stop it"
The drivers side headrest
"Please Kenny Stop It"
And your father would remove one hand from the wheel
And he would slap him
Kenny wailing and gasping
"Goddammit little shit I'm gonna break your fingers"
The cars everywhere honking
A slap so hard that you would start to cry
"Stop Crying"
And so you would stop crying
Kenny's tiny feet kicking your body
Harmlessly
As you burrowed into your
Transformers blanket
You watched the odometer change

Driving North to Ithaca
On the way to another gig
Bury Your Dead
Playing on the car stereo
Crystal clear
But soft enough
Not to wake your brother
Your baby brother now grown
Sparse beard and maiden's hair
Sleeping beside you
As you glance at the traffic in the mirrors
And just for an instant
See yourself
But you are gone
And so is the back seat
You remember the day you tore it out
To make room for amps
And your brother's Kicks and Snares
And you don't feel anything
For anything
Except for Ken
And your guitar
Sitting in the back
Wrapped protected in your
Transformers blanket
Faded by the sun
You watch the odometer change

Monday, April 06, 2015

April 6th - Micropenises

Three of Diamonds - Micropenises

Micropoem

Brief
Never 14 lines
But with the right angle
Has the potential
Just maybe
To make love

Sunday, April 05, 2015

April 5th - Killing Two Birds With One Stone

Six of Diamonds - Killing Two Birds With One Stone

I hold the distinction of having been the worst-ever staff writer for the great My Entertainment World (one article!). Now, I am happy to fiiinally an active contributor. Poke around the site (it's awards season!) and then check out a preview of my latest record review (in the style of 10th century Japanese Chooka) below:


Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp a Butterfly

History reigns on
Kendrick Lamar's Butterfly...
With samples ranging
From George Clinton to Tupac
Disco to dubstep
Over innovative beats
Lamar detonates
On this most angry, playful 
And truthful release
In my recent memory
Lyrically dense
Beautiful and maddening
Even danceable
To Pimp a Butterfly is
Perhaps unequaled

Is it too early to crown
The best album of the year?






Saturday, April 04, 2015

April 4th - Furies

Three of Spades - Furies

Blood in the Sea

They follow me
The three ladies
Hidden always just beyond my eyes

They follow me
For I fired my kettle to overboil
For I swam in the river of another
For I thrust you in to the arms of the undulating sea

Whatever is born of blood
Yearns for red return

Friday, April 03, 2015

April 3rd - Yellow Kings

King of Hearts – Yellow Kings


The Honorable Rev. Billy Lee Tuttle in His Chambers

He is smiling with teeth
Even with the glad-handing
And the sermon done
The man does not stop smiling
Thinking of the Place of Skulls
Of iron uniting flesh, wood, and bone

He catches the mirror’s reflection
A face made of clay
Eyes still and yellow
Smile painted wide
He moves to take off this mask but
He wears no mask

Thursday, April 02, 2015

April 2nd - Thanks, Obama

Joker - Thanks, Obama...


For the day off! This was a Joker, after all.

-

I actually wrote something that I'm fairly happy with, but I'm not posting here for a few reasons. It's called "All Districts Reporting". Ask about it next time you see me. 

-

Expect a full poem tomorrow (er, today).

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

April 1st - Animate Skeletons

Nine of Clubs - Animate Skeletons

So much for tweet lengths...


American Museum of Natural History, The Last Day

When the dead rise, my love
We’ll travel to the Roosevelt Rotunda
And before we free the Groundhog
And the Albert’s Squirrel
Both bewildered
Still half-dreaming
We’ll gape awfully at The Beast
The Barosaurus
Its never-ending naked vertebrae crackling
To life –

Its metatarsals touch
For the first time in history
An unfathomable floor

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

National Poetry Month 2015

Welcome back, dear readers! April is upon us once again!

The rules:
- There are 53 prompts each assigned to a different playing card as detailed below.
- In the morning I will draw a card and using the randomly selected prompt, write and post by the end of the day.
- This will continue every day for the entire month.
- Due to other projects, time-consuming jobs, and short attention spans, all poems this year will be tweet length...mostly. I'll reserve the right to run long, if necessary.

Six years is a long time. Thanks for sticking with this, friends.

Enjoy!

2c Terry Richardson
2d
Boko Haram
2h Juggalos
2s The MTA
3c David Icke
3d Micropenises
3h Furries
3s Furies
4c
New Caanan
4d
Old Caanan
4h Estranged Relatives
4s Expired Milk
5c Expired Condoms
5d Missing Planes
5h Wedding Stress Dreams
5s Third World Travel Guilt
6c Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
6d Killing Two Birds With One Stone
6h Mint Juleps
6s The Land Before Time
7c The Backseat
7d Collateral Damage
7h Dead Dogs
7s Red Dogs
8c Melanin
8d Magic Cards
8h Excel Spreadsheets
8s
Boxcar Hobos
9c Animate Skeletons
9d Outdated Maps
9h Nude Beaches
9s Water Towers
10c Small Victories
10d Quitting Your Job
10h Ceramic tiles
10s Stage Kisses
jc
jd
Failed Poets
jh When the Dead Don't Die
js William Blake References
qc Margaret Bourke-White
qd Chyna
qh Ancient War Widows
qs Amaterasu
kc Silver Alerts
kd Red Herrings
kh Yellow Kings
ks Blue Mondays
ac Divine Right
ad Chosen People
ah Apocalyptic Dreams
as Apocalyptic Realities
joker 
Thanks, Obama