mmm

fragment

naturally i dream
when the sun beats
like a pelt against
my window screen


______________
__________ hence
i am not octagonal
(but i am nocturnal)


living two floors
above the courtyard
of desire shoves
its puny fist into


_____________
the garden hose

mmcmxcix

The Container

My head is more than
full .. is more than full
of the most awkward
fruits. The ones from

lands too far away to
even imagine when
these gem-colored
fruits have come

such a distance
just to lodge
themselves
inside of a

skull that
mathem-
atically
cannot

even con-
fine such
a single
misshaped

eccentricity,
even if it were
otherwise a dry
and empty shell,

housed within a
container that,
long after I
am no longer

one with its
physicality,
will appear
perhaps right

here, as if a
moth-eaten
rag of a mask
that would

not cover
but a much
tinier head
than the

one it does
now, drops
like a man
in a suit

from the
top floor
of a sky-
scraper,

in dizzy,
slow-mo-
tion ex-
haustion,

until its
puffed
chin
sound-

lessly
stops
in the
middle

of my
chest,
jarring
what’s

inside
my head
such that
an uncomf-

ortable cur-
rent gives
my spine
a hyper-

spastic
jumble
that
climbs

like a
rolling
quake
up my

back
but
just
to

edu-
cate
my skull
full of awk-

ward fruit
about con-
finement and
incarceration;

of min-
imal
rights
and

slavery.
And they
(my skull;
its con-

tents)
in turn
force up-
on me the

keenest
most fer-
ocious
percep-

tion, an un-
derstand-
ing of the
universe

and its
collect-
ive mig-
raine.

All this
tran-
spires
here ..

in my
solitary
home ..
which,

appro-
priately
enough,
is about

the size
of a
common
coffin.

mmcmxcviii

Fireball (a codespondence)

you’re wearing sainthood so well!

     and you’re lookin’ pretty smooth
     yourself.

but i don’t feel silky.  like, at all.

     you mean like a marshmallow?

hey. that’s a peanut butter cup to you,
mister.

     well aren’t you the persnickety
     whippersnapper all of a sudden.

that is correct, sir.

     no worries, then.

there never are any, sir.

     like a thicc marshmallow smoothie
     that no matter how hard you suck
     you can’t even get a taste for like
     30 minutes.

that’s right.  you’re no dummy.

     but ... my marshmallow has
     the memory of a goldfish.

i guess that’s relatable.

     let’s be real, though.  you’re
     absolutely right.  30 minutes
     is just not enough.

you …

     it needs to be unsuckable
     for at least an hour and a half.

you are so totally …

     i am just an icon smoothie!

you’re so s&m!

     whoopsie!  but i was singing.

it’s not exactly.... hmp.  i bet you
own an actual leather whip that’s
twice as tall as you!

     at present, i am not so sure.

kapow!

     snap!

but that’s not really the point,
is it?

     splash dunk!

sizzle-izzle!

     ka-chonk!

why don’t we take this whoopsie
kapow sizzle into the…

     anyway, are we finished now?

but we’re on fire!

     i may never have been in on
     the joke, anyway.  in fact,
     maybe …

aw come on!  that doesn’t mean
that we need to be unsuckable
for an hour and a half!

     maybe …

or what am i not getting?

     maybe the joke’s always been
     on me.

well.

     i mean …

i still love jaden’s new song, though.

     sigh.  but i can only think of willow.

excuse me?  i’m still having a funny attack
over here.

     maybe there wasn’t a joke after all.

well aren’t you just a hot slice of scruff ...

     stuck in a smoothie generation, no less.

who thinks he’s the butt of every joke.

     don’t i know it!

and there are a lot of joke butts out there.

     let’s be real.
     in reality …

in reality, we are all just stuck inside of an
excruciatingly long, tedious novel about
the one who gets the spotlight …

     vs. the one who doesn’t.
     you’re ever the
     broken record, bub.

you know, sometimes you really get me.

     uh huh.

didn’t you suggest a …

     kapow!

uh huh.

     now you’re talking.  i mean.
     well.  you always talk.

uh huh.

     but that will always be my favorite
     hit!  who’s got the handcuffs?!

what, it’s the apocalypse already?

     not sure.  but i definitely
     know where you can get a
     pair of ’em.

and i’m sure it’s a basement bargain,
to boot!


[rimshot. darkness. apocalypse.]

mmcmxcvii

Dodo Bird Rhapsody

I did it
in a minute.

hashtag:
still here;

still jo-
king; qu-

irkyalone;
1980’s;

blonds vs.
brunets;

quaran-
teeny.

mmcmxcvi

Bold Stroke

I have always said
that Mister Green-
jeans has a late
lunch with the
Stepford Twins,
paints the times
with a rather
large brush.
I never knew
that such
broad
general-
izations
had Rocky
elope with
Bullwinkle
to (Viva!)
Las Vegas,
opened the
long-clogged
infrastructure
of vessels that
at some dim
point in mem-
ory made like
a traffic jam
in which for
a decade I
breathe and
the blood
doesn’t get
to my brain;
floodgates
that some-
how man-
age to say
yes to no-
stalgia
again

and

again.

mmcmxcv

Domo Arigato Doctor Demento

Today, I am thinking
That it just might be
The bomb diggity
To get a frontal lobotomy.