Pretending to be myself
sitting between two blue candles
watching the wind destroy
the city
filling boxes with
the old letters
listening
to a foreign radio station
taking flash pictures in the dim room
blasting shadows.
The city’s in bloom
little yellow squares glow and go off.
There’s a lot of hate in
those homes
there’s a lot of
confusion.
Open all the windows
connect the world with air.
Author: curator
Day and Night Handball – Stephen Dunn
Day and Night Handball
I think of corner shots, the ball
hitting and dying like a butterfly
on a windshield, shots so fine
and perverse they begin to live
alongside weekends of sex
in your memory. I think of serves
delivered deep to the left hand,
the ball sliding off the side wall
into the blindness of one’s body,
and diving returns that are impossible
except on days when your body is all
rubber bands and dreams
unfulfilled since childhood.
I think of a hand slicing the face
of a ball, so much english
that it comes back drunk
to your opponent who doesn’t have
enough hands to hit it,
who hits it anyway, who makes you think
of “God!” and “Goddamn!,” the pleasure
of falling to your knees
for what is superb, better than you.
But it’s position I think of most,
the easy slam and victory
because you have a sense of yourself
and the court, the sense that old men
gone in the knees have,
one step in place of five,
finesse in place of power,
and all the time
the four walls around you
creating the hardship, the infinite variety.
10 THINGS I DO EVERY DAY – Ted Berrigan
TEN THINGS I DO EVERY DAY
wake up
smoke pot
see the cat
love my wife
think of Frank
eat lunch
make noises
sing songs
go out
dig the streets
go home for dinner
read the Post
make pee-pee
two kids
grin
read books
see my friends
get pissed-off
have a Pepsi
disappear
ELECTRIGEL CREME – David A. Winston
Brazen Teen Bitches,
Take a serious look at your life.
And allow me to introduce
a powerful new substance
from the Electri-Cellular Industry.
Electrigel Creme
I wouldn’t have believed it myself,
But now there is a better way.
There is no catch.
I have to get this off my chest before I explode!!!
Electrigel Creme
It’s true you can earn $50,000 in the next 90 days
You really can find out ANYTHING ABOUT ANYONE!
A university diploma is waiting for you!
But no product is more effective than,
Electrigel Creme
What does it do?
That’s right. It really really does.
And that, my friend, is the bargain of a lifetime.
I am faxing a check
From “summer, somewhere” – Danez Smith
Welcome to the Jungle – Morgan Parker
Welcome to the Jungle
“I asked her where she wanna be when she 25 / She turned around and looked at me and she said ‘alive’”—Kanye West, “Welcome to the Jungle”
With champagne I try expired white ones
I mean pills I mean men
I think I’m going crazy sometimes really
you think I’m joking I’m never joking
All Men Have Been Created Equally
To Shiver At The Thought Of Me
is something I used to think but forgot
or got drunk tried smoking something new
put on a wig made a scene threw up
in someone’s living room cooked
too much food every time can someone just
give it to me when I get home
I know the answer is probably cleavage
cleavage all the boys I know
holding my arms down taking off
my bracelets with their white hands
I’ve pissed on a sidewalk in midtown watched
a Joan Crawford movie at dawn
art is nice but the question is how are you
making money are you for sale
people in movies are always saying
I can’t live like this! packing a little bag
or throwing down their forks I mean it
one of these days my whole body might just
go away like just standing in line
at Whole Foods or Purgatory I wish I were
a dream for you to suck on
once I got four tattoos
cut off all my hair
died my hair blonde
had a party had fifty parties
looked for Jupiter and Venus in the smog
painted and repainted my nails
what can they do for you sir
the question is where the fuck
is the sun the answer is tip-toe
into the park at midnight pretend
it’s green like home
Topography – Sharon Olds
Topography
After we flew across the country we
got in bed, laid our bodies
delicately together, like maps laid
face to face, East to West, my
San Francisco against your New York, your
Fire Island against my Sonoma, my
New Orleans deep in your Texas, your Idaho
bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas
burning against your Kansas your Kansas
burning against my Kansas, your Eastern
Standard Time pressing into my
Pacific Time, my Mountain Time
beating against your Central Time, your
sun rising swiftly from the right my
sun rising swiftly from the left your
moon rising slowly from the left my
moon rising slowly from the right until
all four bodies of the sky
burn above us, sealing us together,
all our cities twin cities,
all our states united, one
nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Late Hours – Lisel Mueller
Late Hours
On summer nights the world
moves within earshot
on the interstate with its swish
and growl, an occasional siren
that sends chills through us.
Sometimes, on clear, still nights,
voices float into our bedroom,
lunar and fragmented,
as if the sky had let them go
long before our birth.
In winter we close the windows
and read Chekhov,
nearly weeping for his world.
What luxury, to be so happy
that we can grieve
over imaginary lives.
Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2) – Pedro Pietri
Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2)
woke up this morning
feeling excellent
picked up the telephone
dialed the number of
my equal opportunity employer
to inform him I will not
be into work today
Are you feeling sick?
the boss asked me
No Sir I replied:
I am feeling too good
to report to work today,
if I feel sick tomorrow
I will come in early
The Good Idea – Charles Webb
The Good Idea
While asleep, a man gives birth to an idea of a woman. He wakes and finds it curled comfortably against him.
He takes it in his arms and kisses it. It responds perfectly. He wallows in the feel of its round breasts, smooth thighs, soft pubic patch. Its warm breath and little sighs drive him wild. He keeps thinking the words “Drunk with passion at last.” He makes love to it. It’s the best he’s ever had.
They stay in bed all day. When the phone rings, they giggle and ignore it. They agree about everything.
In a lovely office, the man’s boss throws a fit, swears to fire the man, but cools down, reconsiders. While outside a giant hand works on a picture of the sky, finally blacks it all out, throws in a moon and stars, and goes away.