Issue 57: here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Encephalitis lethargica
In the disease of sleep
Meatloaf please
Here you go
There is no sleep
In the disease of dreams
I'm sorry, I was only kidding
Are you visiting someone?
You're a patient?
You don't look like a patient.
I don't?
Did you choose this place?
Why?
Where else is there?
And somehow we wake up
Each day, a simple mantra
Of self-loathing on our lips
Give me a Rob Roy
On the rocks.
My mother doesn't think
So.
I receive medication
For what
Stored up like your
Father
That's what I hear
That's what I didn't want to do
I didn't want to tell you
I didn't want to tell you
You know you made me love
You.
It was nice talking to you
Too.
Take me away from this
Place.
How's it going?
How's it going?
My son has disappeared.
That's how I feel.
Hi.
That's really nice.
He'd die without me.
Hello.
Hello. I need to talk to
You.
Hello.
Are you all right?
Yeah.
The simplest thing.
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
IPad Note Poem no 8: the psoriatic
It starts on the calves
The skin reddens
Swells and itches
It is only later that
The scales come
If they come at all
And then the shame
Follows
Of course, it is known
That it is not one's
Fault. No pecuniary
Damage can be assessed
But tell that to the
In-born savage who
Sees patterns in the
Cracking skin: the
Mark of the Devil
The hooves of the beast
Kicked hard into the
Shins
So one applies ancient
Balm that smells of
Pitch and sulfur,
Muttering two word
Prayers to a god
Too angry to remove
The curse
Oh God
Oh God
Oh God
And one believes
And one repeats
And one remains
The itching of the
Skin subsides
An abiding God
Resides
Recalling the cold
Past where we
Swam deep in
Tropical waters
And our skins
Were hardened
For a purpose
Not beyond
Reckoning
Where the only
God was to swim
On to the next day
With no feeling
In our flinty
Hides
Our past
Hides beneath
Supple skin, waiting
For the winter
Morning when it
Will break forth
To protect us
From something
That is no longer
Here
Sent from my iPad