Nat'l Poetry Month Day 4: Sides

Oh! There
you are
Or have been
Whole time
Hold
Time
Now
Holding time
Time and space
Run down
Run for us
Charging straight for us
Charging
Charge! Oh
Where did we go?
Surfaces
Service us
Preclude our landing
More
Fanning
More
Standing?
No more than standing
No
More than standing
Standing to push pedals
Peddling
Pedaling
Pushing petals
Pushing standing
On corners Oh!
Little coroners
Steal your watch

Deep in puddles
As you
Sleep in puddles
Keep
Keep me
In your rubble
Still

Nat'l Poetry Month Day 3: Compressed Air

My air has been
flavored
I've never even
been
In possession of
air
before
So I'm not sure how I know this
And how do
I know
It is you

In order to carry my
Air harpoon
My arms were always full out to
here
Air was the one thing I
Knew I could never
Lose I could never
Use I could never
Choose when I received it
You
What was that?AnywaywhatwasIsaying
Concealed air harpoon -
Spent it all on that -
Then lived in the sea -
Then drowned all my guests -
Then I chased bubbles
Until I ran
Out of
Air.

When I heard your
name
My hidden air
harpoon
Went off in my
Pants
Before
I even tried to use it
That is how
I know
It is you

Nat'l Poetry Month Day 2: Happiness in One Hell of a Semi-Qualitative Enumeration

Happiness in One Hell of a Semi-Qualitative Enumeration*

Forward progress
Always walking backwards
Hide your selfless
Like kale chips from party guests
See your tight-wound dream self?
It's hanging from your dream shelf

Think less, be more
Be your own vacation
Glance left, peer right,
Outsource your frustration
Ventilate your pain
In a beneficial way
Like regulations published for your health
Don't pollute
What you can not have your self

Unwind, rewind
Counting your mornings with chalk
Yoga, Spinning
Wade ten years of TED Talks
The vending machine found
In your destination town
Accepts you only in a certain range
Accepts acceptance in
Only exact change


*Inspired by this and this.  It reads well in the rhythm of the verse and bridge of "The Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera**.  You can read it with or without the absurdly melodramatic growl-whisper used in this production, which was far more effectively employed by Jack Skellington in "Nightmare Before Xmas" and Your Uncle in "That Time You Were Groped Behind the Shed on Memorial Day".

**I'll probably never get to kick Andrew Lloyd Weber in the nuts, but I think this is a small step in the right direction.

National Poetry Writing Month, Day 1: Moving Everyday

I am
depositing everything
I am
into a hole
Why?
To watch it pile up?
Then descend it like stairs
To explore?
And, surely, just as
(My latest offering)
I lean in to look
(wraps around)
I learn
(my ankle)
it has no bottom so I
Fell

Being whole
As a hole
I suddenly am empty

Not stomach emptiness, though
I've once tried
Crafting it
Like the perfect dish
Ingredients
Measurements, timed
Heat
Though, eventually, 
even I must
Eat

Not sports zen emptiness, though
It was something elusive and
Magical when I was young, like
Skipping stones
Except as soon as you think about
Water deflection
It dies and sinks, so
I stop watching before it sinks
And throw another

Not even self emptiness
Just emptiness of these things, being
Drunk on years,
I carry

And every day
You and I discover more
To donate to the hole
In exchange for a little emptiness
Until it leaves behind something
So light it can't be tossed
So large it can't be lost
Leaving only what
We are

Hunter S. Thompson Reviews Vegan Bakery

(GONZO is sitting at a table at “Flour Power Vegan Donut Shop & Bakery” as the lights come up, laptop in front of him.)

GONZO

After what was deemed a "fascinating but regrettably un-publishable attempt at journalism" in Las Vegas, I was sent… here.  I am serving what is ostensibly my punishment: write a review for "Flour Power Vegan Donut Shop”.  I’m here with the usual tools of the trade: laptop for my official thoughts, notepad for my actual thoughts, a pen with which to impale thoughts, and a snazzy urban backpack replete with 8 and a half psychedelic mushrooms, 17 flavorful strains of cannabis, 2 Pez dispensers of molly, an eye dropper of ketamine, a toilet paper roll dipped in blotter acid, and a flask of tequila in case I need to puke it all up later.  Vegans. These people are here for the same reason I’m here: something went horribly wrong.  They give up meat to try and diagnose their mismanaged lives, or they indulge in gastric novelties to distract themselves from discovering more things that just don’t matter.  Eat that faux-bacon-studded maple glazed pastry and maybe, for just one more day, something like love is still possible.  As though it is possible to experience love when love encourages you to continue doing the things that make you yourself, the one person in the world you despise more than all those other everything-consumers out there. Eat a vegan éclair or a pistol, and be grateful that no animals were harmed when the American Dream was embalmed with a non-dairy based confection.

How did I end up here?  Let me retrace the steps. 

(SHOP OWNER walks in, also wearing aviators and a vintage print shirt, so GONZO thinks he’s seeing himself)

Oh, there I am walking in… except I didn’t have all those goddamned letters on my forehead. I walked in, and took note of all the ads on the door.  They're all...

Swing dancing

Anarchist rhetoric

Memes

Union protest

Equal rights

Live Music

Acupuncture

DJs

Acting lessons

Meditation,

Social justice

Or SAMUEL ADAMS for short. 

(SHOP OWNER approaches GONZO)

Wait! What are you doing here? We can't just hang out like this.  Get those letters off your forehead, you’llmakeafoolofmyself!

SHOP OWNER

(Takes glasses off)

K… Well, let us know if you need anything!

(Approaches WAITRESS)

Wow! I want whatever donut you gave him!

WAITRESS

He hasn’t had any.

SHOP OWNER

What!? We need him to write a good review!  This decision to distribute through Safeway has been a PR nightmare! That crowd of protesters is growing every day!

PROTESTERS

(Offstage)

DOWN WITH CORPORATE GREED!

DOWN WITH UNFAIR WAGES!

PLUS, SAFEWAY DOESN’T TREAT THEIR EMPLOYEES WELL, SO IF YOU HAVE THEM SELL YOUR DONUTS THEN YOU ARE AN ACCOMPLICE TO INJUSTICE!

OWNER

Their chants are getting more and more convoluted, and they keep putting shit on the door. Go work your magic, get on his good side!

WAITRESS

I’m not sure I like the energy I’m getting from him!  I think he took a roll of our toilet paper… he’s creepy!

SHOP OWNER

He’s not creepy, he’s just… indie!  Go flirt with him!

(DEMON WAITRESS follows WAITRESS and mimics WAITRESS’ actions and repeats what she says in demonic monotone.  DEMON WAITRESS only repeats things that are flirtatious)

WAITRESS

(DEMON WAITRESS repeats)

I like your shirt.  You’re obviously very open-minded and confident in your… masculinity.  Would you like a menu?

GONZO

(Scared out of his mind)

Oh! Uh, OKifyouinsist. 

(Looks at laptop)

Why can't I get online?

WAITRESS

(DEMON WAITRESS repeats)

Oh, it’s that Occupy protest outside!  They’re “occupying” our free WiFi! Heh. Heh. Heh. They’ve also been “occupying” our bathroom.

(She leans in closely to place menu on table)

GONZO

Stop eating me!

WAITRESS

(DEMON WAITRESS repeats)

Hah hah hah, you’re funny!  Here, let me read you our specials.

We have banana glazed crendles, walnut raisinnnn sneaker panda-pads. Chocolate Kenilworth the layperson files. Sticky gender blocks.  Twenty nine-hotdogs, (pointing at him) Cheddar.  Enjehhh memr smems kibbeh? 

GONZO

Kibbeh?

WAITRESS

(DEMON repeat mockingly)

KIBBEHHHHHH tis!

SHOP OWNER

(Disappointed & peeved)

Kibbeh? Rumbut skumplebart.

(SHOP OWNER exits. WAITRESS and DEMON WAITRESS wander, and in the background do evil seductive dancing/motions.)

GONZO

How am I supposed to select a donut in these conditions?  Communication with the outside world is unfathomable! My only connection to reality is my own recorded thoughts and Samuel Adams at the door.  Samuel Adams at the... oh there he is now!

(Enter SAMUEL ADAMS, drunk as hell holding his eponymous beer) 

What do you think of the Occupy movement? Is this the sort of revolution you condone?

SAMUEL ADAMS

Well it seems to be a congregation of confused rebels chanting slanted facts and out of context statistics.  The American Revolution was a bit different… Or was it?  I could have been a passionate orator whose speeches incited a righteous and informed revolution… or maybe I was a propaganda spewing instigator, a manipulator of confused and angry mobs. What’s the difference?

GONZO

For some reason this is not how I imagined you at all.

SAMUEL ADAMS

Not so! You are imagining me right now!  Truth becomes a four-letter word when society forgets how to count.  This is what happens when people learn about you from beer bottles and Jeopardy questions.  The same thing will happen to you!

GONZO

You mean, most people are going to remember nothing of me other than my use of psychedelic drugs?

SAMUEL ADAMS

Frat boys will quote your work to sound smart, just like people offer Sam Adams lager at parties to look classy.  You have no choice so you should embrace it. Also, have you checked your toilet paper?

(SAMUEL ADAMS exits)

GONZO

Good idea, I need another hit.  Where is it?

WAITRESS

(DEMON WAITRESS repeating)

Aren’t you supposed to be writing a review?  We could really use the publicity.

GONZO

(Spastically looking around)

I could really use not being eaten! 

(Swings a fly swatter at WAITRESS until DEMON WAITRESS runs away)  

I think a toilet paper roll might have fallen out of my bag and rolled off somewhere, have you seen it?

WAITRESS

You mean our toilet paper that you stole? I put it back in our bathroom!

GONZO

What!? No, that was- Oh god! Has it been in use?

WAITRESS

You kidding me? With all these protesters coming in, not buying anything and using the bathroom… I put it back 45 minutes ago and it’s already gone.

(WAITRESS exits. While the protesters deliver their lines, GONZO takes mask out of his bag, looks at it for a second, puts it on, exits)

(Offstage)

PROTESTER 1

(Frightened)

Why is this water so far apart?

PROTESTER 2

(Accusingly)

Stop throwing those opinions at me, thought sprinkler!

PROTESTER 3

(Defensive)

Stop looking at me as though I’m sort of your construction site is ruining this neighborhood.com!

PROTESTER 4

Let’s all say “Rup!”

EVERYONE

“RUP!”

PROTESTER 4

Again!

EVERYONE

“RRRRUP!”

PROTESER 4

Thank you!

PROTESTER 5

(Announcement)

If I could. I would eat.  Sand!

End

Surface Tension

This town is full of misters
We scrawl our names on the
wrong side of frosty glasses
Season cycles of perspiration
Evaporated watermarks
recorded on my sleeve

Yeah, we're out again
Regular regulars
Your breath fogs my pane of thoughts
from across the table
I write backwards so you can read them

I must be so ugly
With my rash of condensation
Braille in beads of sweat say nothing
To this special brand of blind
I can only watch them convene
From the window I'm behind
I can only hope
So hard
That they stop falling apart
That they form a drop on
The forehead of your ocean
From where they'd like to start

The Moonburn Cycle

I. Nighttime Indulgence

One sugar-glazed moon gaze earns
Sunday sundae sunburns
Morning dew on a hollow creme brule skull
And the Godfish flops beneath
In search of something wet
Something tidal
An audience for
Its moonlit recital

Tonight's moon is a ray-gun,
turning moon gazers into the sun
Light and warmth trapped in my heart
nomadic, unstrapped, (forget) drift apart
Between my eyes and groin, they pass
I study me through a magnifying glass
Recycled repast for my glowing gains
Fledgling feelings flicker, growing pains
I burn create me

II. Landing

I drift home like snow
Ahead of behind myself
Each crystalline chip lurches forth
like a car with worn brakes,
driven by their very shape,
piled like busted glass pancakes
Melted by the time I arrive
Painstakingly reformed
So designed to be broken
Like a glowstick
Now I see it!









Now I see it!









Now I see it!