was
older than he looked,
was
impressed
by the smell of his own farts,
lied
about everything,
never
held a job for long,
ate
everything,
drank
anything,
and
changed his shorts
no
more
than once a week.
Tony had
3 bad marriages,
4 shack-ups,
and
that one month he
never cared to talk about.
i liked
Tony.
Poem read by by Soodabeh Saeidnia in the Farsi translation she created:
https://soundcloud.com/soodabeh-saeidnia/a-messiah-morning
This is one of four Silent Lotus poems included in the bilingual anthology Persian Sugar in English Tea, Volume II, published in March 2018.
My mind is a musty record crate.
Schlepped around. Only exposed to
monthly swap meets, and nostalgic nights.
Brush decades of debris
from my mental music (re)collection,
hoping to add freshly-dug earworms
to proven, fossilized melodies.
Casting moldy bait in binary streams,
I hook the next big...
The day was so tender
it almost broke (us) in two
the buds on the trees
lime-toned and ready to uncoil
the doves not yet married, nestless
A squirrel carried one of
last year’s nuts around
in his mouth, forgetting
there would be new ones
(We) wondered out...
Part I
Part II
The sex falls in
flecks and sputters as the
limousine windows slide down
...
The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. There will be a wide margin for relaxation to his...
One day on the back porch
many years ago, catching
some rays, sunning, as it were,
after the wife had been fired for
crimes against nature, self and child
and the dream and the life and the job
and the house and everything once loving
to...
for poetry,
I can't give you poetry—I'm
not one of those poets
writing for four hour periods
each morning with
french-pressed coffee
I can't give you
words
that will always make sense
and fall into each other with perfect
commas and
strategy
I spit these out like juicyfruit—
and they always lose...
into you and
it felt like the womb
I had left 5
days early.
I crawled
under you
like winter cats in car tires
I dropped my steel and stayed
in your waters, risking air
but I had your air
I didn't need to hear words with
your ears, but...
The flame’s reflection on the television was so crisp like it was real and soon the stereo was on fire. Then the couch would light up and the smell would at least be pleasant, with strawberry and skunk meandering....
I can still remember how
annoyed he got the first time
I used it, “Door mat,”
the way his mother let a brute
of a man walk all over her.
“Door mat”—you’d think I’d
called his mother whore or
bitch. Not strange, I went on,
so many...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NvHJSpI5Zs
Steve Richmond was a mainstay of the American little magazine scene of the 70s and 80s. He gained notoriety not only for his extensive series of "gagaku" poems but also for his longtime association with poet Charles Bukowski. As...
You can bitch about quality
all you want
& make your anal
compulsive
lists
the best school
the best fuck
the best career
the best italian
sausage
& then 30 years
removed
or maybe 40
you realize
no one gives a fuck
& neither do you
so you sit down
with a drink
& a small stack...
https://soundcloud.com/user-151672534/i-need-more-2018-edition
Oil Pastels, Colored Pencils, Graphite, Lithography Pencils, Bleed Proof White,
Digital Paints on Photograph. © 2011 Thomas Yarbrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwgB7EEZbU
The bird circles endlessly in my room, in the half-light—
comes close, carries the harsh carnival of his eye to mine,
causing my neck to fall down in slices of yellow,
my shoulder to reveal the five sleeping armies.
The bird lands upon...
When fathers stopped wearing fedoras at ballgames
unity and chaos wrestled in the mud.
•
When fathers stopped telling the old jokes
quills grew on the tongues of their children.
•
When fathers stopped strangling ice picks
cars sank in a traveling darkness.
•
When fathers stopped building...
Just got off the phone
with my Uncle Jim
2 years, 11
months, and
14 days in FCI Memphis behind
him. He’s
the one who taught me how to play
drums. Spent
thousands of rounds failing to get me interested in
guns. Took
me seriously as a
teenager, listened
patiently expecting
I...
Lena, across the street
on her porch step clutching
her robe closed against the afternoon sun.
ashtrays neat
stacked full of half smoked Kents.
in her bedroom
a real live slot machine
sprayed nickles when you never won.
Lena’s buoyancy declined
absent my mom floating
her tab
at the China...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnoTelwXuww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=78&v=3AIzoMJURAE
I don't wanna pay April's rent
I just got an email (and they never send them) that said
Hey, don't forget to pay April's rent.
I was going to pay the rent like I always do
but now since they sent me that
I...
1.
2.
Watercolour on L'Aquarelle Canson Heritage Block 300gsm cold pressed.
Watercolour paper - 51cm x 34cm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZd4Ats7DRI