There was porn
on the TV when
I fell asleep, the irony
not wasted in dreams
I had bulging muscles,
blinding white teeth
and the Instagram hair
of hot selfie-junkies
I held...
It's not the fall
of shank buttons
or the tearing noise
of quick unzipping
or the impulse
of pull and push
or the rough
of cold concrete
or the thin blades
of wild...
For Edna with love.
"Whiskey.
Any kind you like.
Club soda.
You never go back.
When you do,
you're an old party girl
still sucking
all the fishermen off;
everyone else
is long dead.
Know...
on a bench
in Barcelona,
open-neck plaid shirt
betrays him as a visitor,
children chase their
football,
unaware that he is there.I watch from behind an olive tree,
observe a passive...
Pages are falling,
and I’m always replacing.
They never look just right.
I’m haunted by red bougainvillea
blooming
along the King Kamehameha Highway
so thick the road crews
hack it down...
Everyone in this meeting is full of shit
& not the kind of shit to varying degrees
depends on how long ago was their last shit
or...
I wanted to write about the wind
but instead I find words like wait
or fury which are somewhat appropriate,
but not really. The day lifts and the lake
rolls with a...
Even Jehovah’s Witnesses avoid me now
since I started wearing my fur coat
year round.
Pervs in the park leave me be
until some pop tune
reminds them I’m...
Let her be healthy and let her be safe.
Let her climb on the turtles and run
through the spray of the Three Rivers
Fountain and when...
Eddi, our elderly yellow lab,
both house alarm and protector,
now lies at your feet as you sit
on your kitchen stool cutting
fruit into a clear bowl.
This...
when i was 2 and a half feet tall
smiling at everything
learning how to use my
ams, legs, fingers, toes
drooling kindly, generously
over everything
mastering walking, learning language
confused
cooing...
"There is an old saying: 'No piece of writing is ever finished, it's just abandoned.' But my own rule is: No piece of work...
Click any image to view full-screen.
Click any image for full-screen display.
aesthetic, showing the words for anaesthetic, little creatures placed
to sleep a while. on waking find that spelling is not so awkward now.
checked without books....
Pencil, ink, watercolour, graphic ink pen, coloured acrylic ink, oil pastels, chalk pastels on Canson Technical Drawing paper 90gsm - 23cm x 40cm
Glory to the newborn king, mixed media on cardboard, 30,2 x 40,6 cm, 2020
to wait behind, or folk to watch acutely
for invasion of your space. No queues outside
in all weathers ready for the nod to enter
and buy...
a reflection of self
of loss
it happens sometimes
and things come too big
1. 94. the kimono.
2.95. big coat.
3.96. covid hair with bows.
4.97. another day.
5.98. corona
Since when did the doves descend in the stanzas? I saw one I think. She was like a mother to me, holding me in...
When I don’t
think about
breathing,
it still happens.
When I don’t
think about
living in the moment,
it still happens too.
Once the harsh acids
of common sense
and hard science
have dissolved away
the hearsay of the Gospels,
the science-fiction of a Virgin birth
& a resurrection,
along with the myth
of...
but her hands
will always seem
like strangers,
pale animals
with a life
of their own,
loading, clicking.
She brushes her
colorless hair
200 times, as if
where her father
moved thru her
was still a...
I would create mountains that can spit fire
& cover them with tall green trees with myriad roots
holding dearly the skin of soil covering the...
one of the nurses
wanted to
meet
me.
she said she
had all my
books,
which had to be
a lie, but it
was okay,
because she was pretty
and didn’t laugh
when the
doctor
had me take...
He lived with a pigeon,
his entire apartment was
covered in bird shit,
he dealt good hash,
but it was a horror,
no surface was
untouched,
it didn’t seem to bother
him...
Slow Into Lifeless
No Mo
The Question Implied
Passage
i borrowed your apron many years ago. i still have it and just remember you, your darkness. it was good news from the bad,...
http://openartsforum.com/audio/milnerplace01.mp3
It was about ten to eleven when I went out into the street.
The world was considerably empty except for some
exceeding light
of the kind that...
"Pick up your lip." Daddy said
that night during a phone call.
It was the day I got pulled
out early
from school after mom's
appointment.
I held the receiver...
Sometimes,
if you are walking through a cemetery
you might hear them calling after you.
Their voices sound like rusty whistles and dry, crackling leaves.
You might hear...
The smell of rain from my window
tried to prepare me for your death.
It tried to tell me that rain clouds
have become too heavy to...
always an admirer
of critical thinking
man is still
a slave
to his senses:
he is slave
to the cook flipping burgers
in the fast food joint down the street
he is...
I sat on the floor
and two women
were sat on my
sofa: we were
drinking wine
and smoking
joints: I knew
one of the
women and was
keen to get to
know the...
I watch them come in. The women in Mickey Mouse sweatshirts, their mouths open. They shuffle. Everybody shuffles. The men in winter coats with...
Imagine there’s a painting
adorning the wall of some president’s
master bedroom. It hangs
beneath a mirrored ceiling where his wife
(lucky her) gets to watch his pumping...
I need to fall asleep to the thought of a pretty girl
the world is gross and doesn't care
the TV mutilates
my vomit comes out before...
Her hand
in my grasp
passed
from warm
to cool
to cold.
I got home
finished a drink
noticed how
the ice cubes
passed
...
I'm watching eight minutes pass on my clock,
the time it took you to die
with your face pressed into burning asphalt.
Was it something you said?...
lawd
we march
lawd
we chant
lawd
we pray
lawd
i sing the body to a hemorrhage
i sing
"the fires are not my doing
neither is the fear
nor the brown skin
i put my...
The First Time I French Kissed You
was the same as the first time I kissed a girl
the same as the first time I kissed...
“Power is not what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.” —Saul Alinsky
Elections have consequences.
So say the victors to justify
their ends and...
A black leaping buck
painted on a yellow diamond
both warns & welcomes me.
There is no need for words.
My green house has red awnings
& brown rabbit...
"With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony,
I collected the instruments of life around me,
that I...
sitting in a home, full of white privilege
i try to comprehend what it means
to be “of color,” never feeling much
like a “person” in the...
I look in my rear view mirror
& see myself as a boy
in the back seat
who wants to know
if we are there yet.
Look over here,...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2KHFgIJlzI
Wear this mask over your face.
Be sure to hide your feelings displaced.
I'm jaded, snide, and too emotional
because I cry.
Getting good at sealing your fate.
The...
the owner of a dog
loves his dog.
he gives him a name.
he feeds him
and waters him
plays with him
protects him
defends him.
but still
a dog
is nothing more
than
a dog.
Click a painting to view full-screen.
A short story I drew/wrote for my 3 year old nieces. —Tom Strong
mixed media on paper
I never know what to say about my work except I needed to make it. —Jenn Zed
Click any image to view full-screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf9nU1paL_w
Rose red lipstick, ruby
red orange writing on the bed.
Blood on my skin, staining
the threads crimson.
It was too late. Time
was turning nervous in my hands.
I...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgcKJXW_D-0
I've been writing all day, trying
to find a phrase
that doesn't need any formal wear and
my hands are twine, tying my eyes
wide. My cheeks are...
Sarah Clancy
May 2020
This crazy spring froze me right inside
its own unnatural thaw. When I look to
the generation behind myself I see nothing
but a glossy...
It’s not your taste for cheap beer
or the fact that your couch smells like boys.
It’s not the way your little cat gets stoned by...
https://soundcloud.com/flowermouth/aljosja
“If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake.” —Bill Gates
We admire the philanthropist for "giving...
I’ve been living with someone
who is good but a lover, an ex-con
hunk’s back in town. It doesn’t
matter he’s been dead for decades.
Or...
Medusa
It’s late August in the city: sweet summer’s
coming to a close. But where are you?
The democratic debates have started,
but I’m not watching. Most of...
now
that the hands
can tell carnations
from wood
& the feet
also understand
the soothing
of clay
please
let me confess
that i love
the meek welcome
of the morning
waking me up
to the numbed noises
of...
It was in Spain that men learned one can be right and still be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times...
I tried to go to the store,
but drove straight toward
the huge moon.
My car didn't sprout wings.
I could not fly,
so I turned round
on wobbly tires
back...
all summer long
I looked at flowers
without even noticing
they were there
The Odd One In
Emergency Landing On Taurus IX
Whoddaboy
Excavation Site
The Passage
Face Time
Pointer
Collateral Collage
A Bright Future
There's some lady you're always talking to on your phone. I hear you and this lady from our room all the time. I'm so...
How do they cram
all those sardines
into each green can?
Science is
an afterthought.
The hearth cracked, ashes spilling from the fire grate;
and that same day a bird flew inside the house, a starling.
Reaching out to catch it...
1 allegretto
A zebra with a party
horn and hat has crashed
your thirtieth. This
creature was your friend
when you were three
and lived beneath the
checkered tablecloth
and would come...
Swiftly sliding steel
I stop at the sudden sting—
see pink shaving foam.
I was sick
reading the bible given to me by a friend
I kept thinking
I was going into the blessing he put on it
and back into...
Yet I expect the same,
kneel without a prayer,
unzip with no looking,
take out what bulges,
like salt to my tongue.
The arrant uselessness
of my teeth, I just...
His burnt-orange t-shirt,
black letters above the image
of an AR-15, the slogan:
“quickest way to a man’s heart.”
I’d describe him, but why bother?
My shrink left town,
so...
Pencil and graphic ink pen, with some new reinking recently, on cartridge drawing paper—51cm x 29cm
Here's a list of links to other interesting outlets for writers, artists, and photographers. Feel free to suggest additions to the list by responding...
I’m that dead tree
standing sullen
in a secluded summer grove
waiting for winter
to make me indistinguishable
from my peers.
you took away the fruits of the womb,
along with the dear heart I once
promised 'forever' to, with your lies.
all i ever wanted was happiness.
you've...
With the smirk of a soulless sociopath, the metronome spreads vicious libels against the sanity of protoplasmic cadences.
*
The metronome is a jealous god. Its...
A fast train from Pradipghat would take around 45-50 minutes to reach Bharatgadh. Marvan would travel daily between the two stations, in a second...
https://soundcloud.com/user-394055377/i-hated-tamaqua-live
I hated Tamaqua
and the early morning light in sleepy eyes
the leftover drunks wandering around the gazebo
the food stamp fat ass roast beef feasts at...
Inception: Life Emerges
Here on this fleck among the uncountable stars something takes form, eventually to wonder why we are and what to each other....
an ocean
of inquiries, curious inspections, questions
swelling
since that primordial day of light
when our minds first opened their eyes
will,
one day,
not long after we have perished,
begin
to evaporate...
Walnut with turned legs
That unfold in a triptych
For dining or card play.
Carried in an ox-cart from Minnesota
To a Dakota homestead.
Grasshoppers destroyed the crop
So they...
mixed media on gallery canvas
36x48"
Lorette C. Luzajic
www.mixedupmedia.ca
My doctor said to play with my cat as a coping mechanism to prevent my suicide
but neither one of us feels like playing today
I...
I guess you saw it coming
I guess you'd marked the edge well
as we walked the path
failure is its own reward
I guess you'd call me...
reading Leonard Cohen
by candlelight,
visualising
bonfire night,
your birthday
were you still alive
under that streetlamp,
we could walk together
to your bench
and talk awhile
it’s what we always did best—
just talk,...
it could be fashioned
of iridescent plumage,
gilt and crimson,
a phoenix in transition,
transformed,
unbeaten
is this thing that we say
in this Mar Vista
restaurant that i open
and close
open
and close
open
every night
it means, to us
let’s go home
lucio
is the dishwasher
in this place
he’s...
If I remember right,
Jesus arrived at the trailer where we lived in Glenville
during the summer when Papaw Henry
poured gasoline all around the elm tree...
Heel-to-toe, he taps to the harmonics of
reverberating bounces and swish-swooshing tempos,
and to the serenades of sirens outside his window.
He dances the Dig Toe Step to beer...
Mother plays piano. It’s a dark night. She plays all the saddest pieces. Tchaikovsky seems to break her piano apart with fervency. Debussy’s sad,...
It’s true, what you said,
if I don’t love myself
I can’t really love you.
I kissed my reflection
on the lips last night
in the motel mirror
mostly as...
I.
My father
would’ve laughed his ass off
at how overly concerned I am
about treating his ashes
like a delicate antique;
he’d say he didn’t care
‘cause he was dead.
My...
‘member
seeing your little brother
just outside Angkor Wat
wearing your father’s face
‘fracted through
a dented, busted
rear view
scooter mirror
peeling plastic husks
from Milky Way
Candy bars
Kalashnikov slung ‘round
his shoulder:
like friending...
I sometimes think of Lazarus
when I feed the seven fishes
in my little pond, my sister
coming back to life, asking
how goldfish could live so long
I...
“A breathless Death is not so cold as a Death that breathes.” —Emily Dickinson
I’m no Dante, lost though I may be,
Nor you my Beatrice,...
The man swallowed
480 ball bearings.
One sphere a minute during
his last eight-hour shift.
No unemployment lines
for the human anchor
sitting upright
on the floor of the sea.
The scuba...
Come to Italy and live in the sun, you write.
Serenity is a giant orange
waiting to be plucked from the gnarled tree near
the old tracks.
Look,...
write for the lost
the
fucked
the insane
most of us
are never comfortable
anywhere
born into a boxer’s stance
weak like fading
orchids, weeping
a NYC fire
escape
hellish summertime
shifting, endlessly
downing pints of
IPA’s
b4 winter salsa...
When moving was certain
Anna pried off the old wrought iron
bell and replaced it with a ghost.
An evening echo to ring down
a thousand twilight suppers...
As I grow older, I see how places and events all interconnect, that what I do with my life affects not only my family...
I stand, pale fine hands clasped over my long skirt and white starched apron -
docent to strangers, in the kitchen of an ancient Vermont...
...though Darling took a charge for one once, and, thrusting her arm into a gum's hollow, she left us well behind to break it...
QUEPOS *
A chunk of a rare type of meteorite crashed into a Costa Rican village this spring. Experts say it likely contains clues to...
My state allows us to compost human remains
I imagine a flower
growing from your mouth
violet or weed? who cares really—
be a place for bones to...
I counted four old people scanning groceries at six open checkouts
I see them everywhere in retail jobs we held in our twenties
jobs you kicked...
Jane from Hastings
got me a 25g score of smack
from some ex of hers
we spread foil and crumble
a small amount of the powder
onto the foil
lighting...
Panasonic camcorder as a self portrait
At most, it was a routine guess before I had industry down a tunnel. I caught the business of...
I’m at the vet with my roommate while her cat is dying behind a few sets of closed doors, & I notice the purple...
nothing's worth anything anymore
I'm surprised my memories were worth anything at all
hours of old video games
sold to some woman who was so mean it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCKt7im62ik
36x48," mixed media on gallery canvas
Acrylic on burlap canvas
18" x 24"
Decay is the theme here. My two inspirations were pond scum and tree diseases.
I mixed baking soda, baking powder,...
I pour my thoughts into a lamp’s light,
and I sense I am heard. I speak as a father,
reciting all the usual warnings and legends,
but...
It was the season of fruit flies
that brought us to the orchard—
no reptile could ever convince me
that you were the gravest of sins.
I caught...
I hurt you, you hurt me twice as much.
Here is how thick boughs grow.
I’m waiting for your carcass to be stripped
of all its withered foliage by the gales.
Your leaves were screwed and twisted back in June,
brown long...
Keep her in the dark. In water. She's no good dead. Gotta cut her while she's fresh. Slip your chipped knuckles into her accordion...
Instead of travelling to a place
I’ve never been
to see something I’ve never seen,
I prefer the seclusion of my backyard.
Marveling over the elusive
residing in familiar...
was the same as the first time I kissed a girl
the same as the first time I kissed anyone.
My tongue in your mouth like...
everything gone
flaccid
my droopy blue
suede
strap on
little anchors
in clouds
precipitated worms
choke fly
crows
like bags of black keys
not meant to amuse
you
never know when to screw
when called upon, I act
test
fuck...
he only hires
pretty girls
i knew that
as soon as i handed
in the application
the rest of the
cashiers are
brooding brunettes
and a young
brassy blonde
steve was pissed
off, "you always...
heron stalks planted,
sunfish glisters—sharp beak snaps—
morning dissipates
Sadly, I imagine you will wake, too,
because the silence has changed colour,
the way, fluting across a murky water,
a swan’s light may gently startle you,
gleaming...
i have tasted air bag, it’s a badge of honor, a one-way ticket to epiphany, it tastes like burnt rubber, like powdery words sucked...
with a nod to Joseph Rice
We only rent the past from the shade
of our declining tribe. They are our elders
laughing under the polaroid image...
the times I pined to leave the city
the clefts between
myself and the friends I lost
the jobs I lost, the plants that
succumbed to mold, to...
The problem with being a dyke
is standing in front of your mirror, naked,
feeling both admiration & shame
for the woman in front of you,
who locks eyes with...
I eat a half dozen Funfetti cupcakes
& then one more
because I cheat on my diet
& I cheat on my girlfriend
in my imagination
only in my...
(after Shelley’s “England in 1819”)
A demagogic moron mad with power;
his brood snapping their tongues at golden flies
with reptile grins of brazed entitlement;
the people’s servants...
The Charles Bukowski Society (Bukowski-Gesellschaft in German) will celebrate the first 100 years of Charles Bukowski in Bamberg, Germany, from June 22 through June...
Summer Couple
Abyss
Entrance
Cocaine Voodoo
When he asks why, I say because I’m out of money.
& because I know there’s a shoebox in the garage
with a pair of clippers...
Below are some poetry thoughts from Wayne Dodd, from a course I took from him in 1991 at Ohio University.
Language as magic, as...
I didn’t really learn what bisexual was
until college, part Intro to Women’s Studies
textbooks, part kissing girls with boyfriends.
The books spit out words like fluid
& continuum, & the...
We all try to get what we can
out of life. Me, I could make do
if you give me a job that pays
enough to get...
she
spread
her
legs
open
with
her
pen
and
let
me
fill
in
the
spaces
We memorized poems
to pass them on,
past the strident winds
out of the Kremlin.
When I walk the avenue
lined with our history,
I trust you to guard
the ashes...
My friend, a poet, over a cup of coffee,
depressed & roaming around in his head
like a bear looking for berries while waiting
for the salmon...
Inisheer Rust 3Decomposition Series 1, Plassey InteriorEngine Room
Descomposition Series II Plassey RustDecomposition Series Harbor Rust I Inisheer Rust IV
Watercolour and acrylic paint on L'Aquarelle Canson Heritage Block 200gsm cold-pressed watercolour paper - 34cm x 51cm
I wake up one morning
and look out the window
and there’s no car in the
driveway but I’m not going to
call this theft; it’s retribution,
paying me...
Black leather, on
Jeggings, tobacco
A femme Danny Zuko
Something’s about to happen
Something baaaaad
Streets designed
let alone the -iesque
for running I guess
Can one run
from ovulation?
All that for a kilometer,
ardency...
like the rug
she sat on, memorizing
the patterns, avoiding
confrontation, she chose laundry:
the warm lullabies emanated from the dryer,
rocked her in a way that she hadn’t
been...
Over here, solvent skyline. A virgin
in white, on a hill. Simple.
How cities seed. Every South American
epicenter, but usually a man,
a cross. An extended release...
https://soundcloud.com/jennzed/01-slacker-1?in=jennzed/sets/android-girls
This is my new album, which I've been working on for the best of this year.
All the tracks have been created specifically for this...
The penultimate track from my forthcoming album Gradients of Light and The Destruction of Space.
Piano and video by me.
Please watch in fullscreen high-definition where...
Here's the secret about war, she thinks, it's such a bore,
government shacks, feckless roaches,
harsh shampoo if you can get it,
staticky radio tuned to cooking...
mixed media on cardboard, 19 x 27 cm, 2019
https://soundcloud.com/floreiii
Was a pair of trousers
With five pockets:
Strewn, wrinkled, gouged
Empty when Mom first told us
She was leaving it
To live with her new husband—
Her third boyfriend...
And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want any greatness for it, particularly a...
Watercolour on L'Aquarelle Canson Heritage Block 200gsm cold-pressed watercolour paper - 51cm x 29cm
The Window
Traversing Alone
Yearning like a flower
looking to tilt its face
toward sun,
only night clutches the world
in loneliness,
when neither moon
nor stars are out.
Dark opaque clouds wrap...
The man swallowed
480 ball bearings.
One sphere a minute during
his last eight-hour shift.
No unemployment lines
for the human anchor
sitting upright
on the floor of the sea.
The scuba...
Click the first image to start full-screen view.
...
RIP Rutger Hauer —Jenn Zed
Mixed media on Strathmore 500 Series Illustration Board Heavyweight Vellum—51cm x 29cm
https://www.facebook.com/jordan.trethewey.16/videos/544170026359890/
Long military coat, snapping blue eyes
a flower, pinned on her sleeve,
not over her breast where it should have been.
Grey hair stuck out from her...
Boulevards of grass
barbered in flattops,
borders of beach sand
and rough.
I am here to prove who I am
but being a novice
the bend of the wind
is a...
For the ruination of Palmyra and after P B Shelley
His shroud was campion in May;
a king's cape of crocus in November.
Curled olive roots held...
What the stiff breeze and the ocean have to say
remains a mystery. Who are we to
try to understand the splinters of a
broken boat that...
Hilary brought mom and dad
from Ashland
where for the last decade
they’d been useful in her home
as bookends and paperweights—
we scattered them on a hillside
mom’s wish
at...
lightning bug streaks
illuminate my windshield, July nights
winding home, slow down
bone glow of tombstones, soon moonglow
the earth sips the sky, red wine sun
bobbing lower and...
The sound of your shoes dropping,
...
Dickie Sweeney and David Meyer
don’t seem to care
when she sidles up
to the neighborhood boy group
assembled in Roger’s backyard
to throw a football. They also build
snow...
do
his suffering
in
grand style…
starting off with
beer in the morning,
then
the good wine
as the afternoon and
the memories kicked in.
toward evening
he
switched
to Grey Goose
and
finished the night
with his old friend,...
Hi everyone,
File this one under "historical news."
In April I guest edited an Ekphrastic Challenge featuring the art of OAF editor extraordinaire Jenn Zed.
If you...
Hey fellow lOAFers!
Head on over to The Ekphrastic Review today and check out the featured responses to @Dale Patterson's piece, "After the Storm."
Cheers!
Jordan
last i heard
she was running coke
for some club owner
in Rio
from São João de Meriti
to São Cristóvão and
up and down Copacabana
to pay for her penthouse
apartment...
I stand on a bridge
between my two worlds.
The river and the moon
are hushed tonight.
They know innocence.
The moon bows slightly
in humility while death,
disguised by the...
It's hard for me to accept things the way they are.
I want to fight for what's right and fair.
Acceptance is a part of survival.
I...
just a morceau, perhaps more so, than usual
With no time
to spend
with my wife
and children
over breakfast
this morning,
I went
around the table and
simply pressed
the like buttons
on their faces.
At
the supermax prison
books on the subject
of superdeterminism are,
predictably,
in super high demand,
flying off the shelves
seemingly faster
than the speed of light.
Recreated images of faces now available via EEG scans.
So accurate, police sketch artists will soon
apply for employment insurance benefits,
while witnesses are tapped like portable...
mixed media on paper, 21 x 29,7 cm, 2019
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More
It Is written
At
the supermax prison
books on the subject
of superdeterminism are,
predictably,
in super high demand,
flying off the shelves
seemingly faster
than the speed of light.
