Thursday, December 31, 2015

1:43 A.M. [2010]

a sight inside stagnation     
I am a gathering of spirits     
struggling at restraints
drunk (upon tiptoes) of the clock
and swaying in an illustration
of A.M. metamorphosis

the flesh of this effort
has been peeled away
(seven ribbon increments)
by the licentious     bleating muse
and offered to Williams' aperture --
an indecision before the fold

and the ache of my eyes 
has been momentarily diverted
to the scrape of bone on pen

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

vote [2010]

  wretched is this 
  being
  coiled and motionless 
at the eaves of his dominion
  having just excised 
another tumorous faith

he has gone unreservedly 
to the roots 
of a dozen afflictions
dissecting designations of
spinning sectarian portent

and he has been 
consumed 
by these operations


                                             he is dying
conclusively
for change
yet
he has not
                                             cast his vote

Monday, December 28, 2015

empty it and (la-la-la) [2012]

"To find love [in] an open hole is...
...a heartbreak rattle...
...like I am so (pause) calm."
-- Anonymous

obey     (or an ordinary opening)
is just a word like luscious and 
licking the periphery of your shock I'm enamored of you and old
might expel scat jazz and dialogue     but wait
this isn't a song     
or a scripted scene
it's a teenaged manifesto and
in it I am where do you see this going?
racking up points as
the justice vacuum and
greeting your hole
like an impetuous pundit
what might I do to dazzle you?
this (political?) chasm is no less void when 
            fucking fortified
and the la-la-la is looping like a period piece     so
scatter whole across the empty instincts of 
this candidate
and warble
                      into the black                                         I'll film you by match light
                      until you won't                                                    and archive the loss

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Everyone has 6 names. [2011]

COMPLETE NAME:  George Matthew Mapes

DJ NAME [favorite paper product] + [favorite zoo animal]:  DJ Cardboard Capybara

PRETENTIOUS ASSHOLE NAME [first initial] + [favorite car] 
+ [any German language verb] 
(be mindful of potential opportunities for alliteration): G. Eldorado Erschrecken 

JUGGALO NAME [the last bodily fluid you secreted outside of your own bathroom] 
+ ["fucker", "murder", or "killer"] + [shortened version of your middle name]: Piss Fucker Matt

ROBOT NAME [brand name of the first computer you ever owned] 
+ [any word beginning with your last initial and ending in "ize"] 
+ [convert each letter of your complete name to its number in the alphabetical sequence 
(A=1, B=2, etc.), then add them all up] + [first letter of your mother's middle name]: 
Tandy Metastasize 151 G

NAME TO WHICH YOU ANSWER WHEN YOU'RE HANGING OUT AT 
THE SPORTS BAR WITH YOUR DRUNK, IDIOTIC BUDDIES 
["the"] + [last name hyphenated with "(a)tronic" or "(o)matic"] 
+ [literally any loosely related noun chosen at random]: The Mapes-atronic Beard

Saturday, December 26, 2015

blame [2010]

once inside this reason  (a classroom)
brilliance is a minus light  (brightness subtracted)
though from my perspective  (beneath a desk)
vision is seen as unimportant (not the good looking)

the landscape is threatened (grade-point trembling)
by too many clustered pieces (hastily discarded)
of eyes and ears and fingertips (bodily waste)  
                                     gathering around the distilled intellect (poking and stifling)

a possible solution is blame (a poem)
which lacks proper intention (an understanding)
but colors the darkness (right black voiding)
with a spectacular dull (almost an invisibility)

however

this relief would be a joke (even one hall over)
because of its relation to 70 (the quiet is laughing)
and I've just 45 (give or take a knowledge)
until I'm back to my reasoning (diminishing)




to which 70 responded:
"qazwsxedcrfvtgbyhnujmikolp!" (translation: "let's get some flamin' cheese up in 
                                                                   this bitch!")

Friday, December 25, 2015

December 25, 2009 [2009]

today
lonely with the morning
and a dozen broken gifts
a small, bent, trembling tenor 
did not sing
another insignificant carol

instead
he composed a serene Yuletide silence
                                                              and he performed it

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

bastard [2010]

is a(n)
__________ and/or __________
creation

torpor lifting     clotting thought relaxed
a slackening of procrastination
all mind     an appetite slate

lusting of an ecstatic impregnation
a fervor     an intensification
            applied     to educate

  text E points
  convention Q experimentation
coherence U illogicality
organization A fragmentation
designation T dissociation
linearity E juxtaposition

narration O immanence
closure R rupture

(...)

becoming something other than
an automaton breathing the
sweet gasses of formal intoxication and
taking the necessary steps to
approach this hybridized language without
relinquishing the character of your
delineation     will lead to the verification
                                                              of your specific order
                                                             to assimilate

this is not a parallel obduration
  but an anomalous beating of an other
            neither inferior     nor illegitimate

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

America [2011]

is kicked-over headstones on neatly manicured lawns
  is a desperate woman pleading for custody of her child 
on a pay phone outside of 7-Eleven
is high-fructose corn syrup and mayonnaise
is flat-screen televisions and chronic obesity
is drinking a bottle of Bud Light     listening to Nickelback     
             and making frivolous E-Bay purchases with a stolen Mastercard
is Adam Sandler in Rated Arg For Pirates
is 13 million people tuning in for the debut episode of the new reality show     
                     Methletes
is forgetting your mother lives in a nursing home 
down the street
is seeing the face of Jesus in your Spinach Noodle Kugel
is smoking your crack pipe through an infected tracheotomy wound
is a Cub Scouts group leader masturbating to blurry videos of 
                           Thai children being skinned alive
is voting against your own best interests to keep from voting for 
  the black guy
is 23 emaciated greyhounds found caged in an 8' x 10' tool shed 
is the belief that attending church on Sunday morning makes up for the fact that you're 
a malicious asshole every other day of the week
is 11 men gang-raping a 15-year-old blind girl in a bar 
outside of Louisville
is a prescribed pill to solve every problem
is an unwashed man in a sleeveless South Park t-shirt proudly parading 
the Stars and Bars through the courtyard of his apartment building
is a hiking path that ends at a pile of used condoms and syringes
is 4-wheel drive     a Hemi engine     and a Red Wings bumper sticker
is your grandfather dead from heart disease at 54
is the Pledge of Allegiance     morning prayers     and Intelligent Design class
is your third D.U.I. in less than 18 months
is a toddler in filthy diapers running barefoot with a pack of dogs
is the only place in the world where you are honestly lauded 
for staunch ignorance
is the land of the "free" and the home of the "brave"
                                                                                                          is 235 years old?

Monday, December 21, 2015

the song at the end of the counting is ever [2013]

  on the occasion of my wife's 40th birthday


wrest the dandelion from a pinch of tail
and the evening is off into lean places…

[E & M celebrate the time understanding]

…wondering is expectable and incessant
and the syllable is mother to all things You

(9…8…7…)

center what compels You     twist the filament
and color the precedence a decade's smacking

(6…5…4…)

You must adopt the bright as your manifesto
surrender absence     and the tuneless teething

blow into trumpets of grace     into echoes
give the silence back its elemental plunder

and sing craters into the tracks of an armchair
as the aging face is strings scraped     or an eye…

(3…2…1…)

[E & M go forward     and are eloquent]

…where scarves cover the throats of rabbits and rodents
You will find everything I know about music

(0)

greens     the night     and You

Saturday, December 19, 2015

estranged [2010]

he
who deserves     a whipping
more than most (for unreasonable behavior)
is a dog
not designated queen
directly beneath me
as I attempt to     sleep
estranged
mid-afternoon     naked 
and chained
pitifully whimpering
without mercy
soliciting

                        unreasonable behavior

Friday, December 18, 2015

solve applied problem [2010]

equating a.  0
fire b.  2
hopping     c.  3.14
success d.  69185
representative < severance  (e x f x h)
            1/2 times are times pie
                        (success sliced)

                                    = 3.14     (seat scorched)
                                    x 1.2738853503184713     (hunger variable)
                                    4.00     (1/6 designation)

Thursday, December 17, 2015

dissonance [2009]

tripped the flickering switch light
doubled tone
doubled tone
found eleven past the board
along the line, approaching the cone

across bass strains and strangles
to the drum
to the drum
signified the bar, to beat it
back to the feed strap, moan and hum

howled Brazilian two times thin
out to lean
out to lean
slipped the concrete pillar resting
trapped the timing, clocked the mean

moved the avant Teuton son
plowed the peace
plowed the peace
draped the danger, smoked the black
and traced the analog release

lost into the winter night
passed the past
passed the past
tangled dissonance and dreams
with forever and another last

Monday, December 14, 2015

on/off (riddled division) [2010]

we will retire fat outside these white facades
surrender satisfied then our skeletal ideologies
sneak homeward after dope-stuffed trunks are scorched
unburdened of photos from bald manifestations

at a cross derived of detailed theological pointing
our burn will then be a resolution to dissolve
two will be revealed in confirmation of an indelible blanche
when a flesh is severed abruptly of its mount

a terrified one attenuates within your whet walls
in observance of an intricate practice of touch
do read the Teutonic script in broad stroked rows
and accept this as a mirroring of our like minds

Sunday, December 13, 2015

the interior of the last night of the earth (1992-1994): home [2011]

he
came
through
the door
donned a hard hat
and shouted
"think safety!"

the six of them
became so drunk that
they attempted
to play pool with
their cocks     (apparently
                       one was more successful than
                       the others)

he sat dejected
on the fourth step
and confessed that
because of her absence
he had no interest
in the party or
the concert afterward

he had ingested
so much wine that
when he awakened
the next morning
his equilibrium was
gone

the landlord came
on Sunday night
and knocked on the door
for ten minutes     because
she knew that he was
up there     hiding in his room
and he was     (he had lost
                       the rent money
                       at the track)

he lay face down
in the drain of
the tub     and
continued to
regurgitate
the salsa and beer

when he arrived home
at 2:30 in the morning
he popped some NoDoz
smoked a joint and
proceeded to craft
a rack for the pool cues
from scrap wood and
used shoelaces

his mother had left him
6 new pairs of socks
a package of underwear
and two fresh towels
so he decided to
bathe

when the ladies entered the restroom
they realized that it had not been cleaned in months

they spent the evening
listening to Johnny Hartman records
drinking Wild Irish Rose
and forgetting

he sat on the edge of
his bed     unable to move
unable to do anything
without the room
spinning     and
he prayed to God
(in whom he did not believe)
for redemption

after a concentrated search
for the source of the stench
it was finally determined
that the cats had been
pissing and shitting
up inside the recliner

he tried to remain focused on
practicing his instrument
as the over-anxious pounding
continued     however
when Prince's "Soft and Wet"
suddenly became the soundtrack
for the loss of his roommate's
virginity     he had to stop
and take a moment to reflect

his skin was so badly
burned     that his red afro
appeared bleached blonde
in comparison

the argument continued
until the phone rang
and an opportunity to
get drunk and
get laid
presented itself

after the band had played
several of them gathered
in the freezing loft
to discuss exit strategies
and write songs
for the new splinter group
               Head

they found him passed out     using a milk crate
for a pillow     and his amp for a leg rest

the dishes were stacked
3 feet high     and the kitchen
stank like boiled roadkill
but the standoff continued

on the day that
the dirty old man
died
the house was
burglarized     and
as he inspected
the mostly empty rooms
he noticed that
the burglars had
left the screen door
hanging open     so he accepted
the ironic gift and
                         walked
                         out

Friday, December 11, 2015

practicing tongues drifting [2015]

                         (…)
question
                         opposite of gallop
obsession
                         apply language wedge
transition
                         plaster the suburbs
congestion
                         absence is coupleable
abscission
                         assume another’s ignorance
infusion
                         mother affects jazz
tension 
                         slacking becomes wishing
                                
          and lurk like a rabbit at the top of the stairs

["We were pernicious in our tassels and triangles, and the contracts came forward like searchlights, tentative, but versatile as dynamite in the hands of a hermit."  Question.  One of us might have been a statue, or a hatch, and another seemed unclassifiable, stacking its misconstrued equipage in tight piles of 48.  Obsession.  Our kingdom is a universe, and paintings of damage; we have smiled shunts into the camera of your intestines, and you are off into veritable phosphorescence.  Transition.  When you are random numerals, it is difficult to maintain fenced-off sentences, but our satisfaction is in the munching of attributes, not in the rhythms of another’s alarms and whittling.  Congestion.  Chattering, chattering, chattering, and the tireless trudge of circular logic are we.  Abscission.  Together, quartz crystals and our high-school heydays make a ladder into a commission of temporal murders, and we are monuments to quitting, or the skyline at dusk, or some slime found on the ceiling beams of your brand new downtown loft.  Infusion.  Midnights, and other entrapments, are all that we have left to give, to the perimeter, or to any young mumbler with the desire to wrangle malingerers and dust.  Tension.  We all gather in illusion, slurp television through straws, and lurk like a rabbit at the top of the stairs.]

conclusion
                         practicing tongues drifting
(…)

Thursday, December 10, 2015

flinch [2010]

(it was unto them     in universal acknowledgement
                    through the standing blinds
                                        across the sheets
                                                            over the desk
and up onto the wall)

8 eyes witnessed it     a stiff marvel no doubt
aside the outgoing mail

  was it striking?  no     more stricken
                                was it great?    almost     though somewhat abstruse
                                was it heavy? something closer to improbable
                                was it right?    well...

bearing it was almost too much
for the jaws
smiling was certainly out of the question
and the children were never able to incorporate it
into their funerary game play

did they not later obtain it
surreptitiously
that is to say     by means of stealth
as nations of them slept?

we should now stand clear
in remembrance of it     or out of respect
and sing laments     hum dirges

we'll drape a flag of it 
over the casket of a ditch digger
and declare unity
until a flinch tomorrow
                                                                       wrests us divisible

I believe they did!
quite sneaky     weren't they
with their bayonets
and zealous slippers?

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

(no-input) [2011]

  after Toshimaru Nakamura

is not the white whorl of static 
undermining and erratic
crackling in low lamplight

is not the cold manipulation
of a tonal manifestation
doubling you in black and white

(is not the sudden gasp for breath
as you track stainless steel death
circuitous in its blight)

is not the squealing crescendo
heard outside your bedroom window
late in the black-wrapped night

          it is your feedback
         not alarming you