Mark Metcalfe - "Sisyphus II", Copper Plate Etching
Copyright 2010. Image appears by permission of the artist.
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Friday, February 29, 2008

Week Seven Poems

A Pantoum for Sisypha's Past

Sisypha was resisting,
insistent on pissing off too many
police officers
when she was twelve.

Insistent on pissing off too many,
Sisypha may risk detention.
When she was twelve,
she'd had the fever bad.

"Sisypha may risk detention,"
she mocks with precise pretensions.
She'd had it bad,
hardly ragged for awhile.

She, now a teen, mocks with precise pretension,
"Sisypha had problems with attention & convention;
hardly ragged at all."
What a mess my beloved has become.



Ghazal Song for Sisypha

I wanna taste yer leaky ketchup w/ its processed nature
and the blade of yer face & its moisture-keeper.

You were meant to lose liquid, for it to shoot forward.
I was made to sponge you up, to construct an oil well for yer blowhole.

"All my lovin', I will give to you. All of my lovin', Darlin', I'll be true."
What sass the Beatles had. We lay and listen and gaze with the integrity of loose children.

Now that you've come, too, you can feel me move through yer bruises,
as the forehead swells with booze and cigs and sweat.

No wonder you came, Sisypha. I told you to get paid, you
who still shaves too much today, and didn't listen to me, and won't remain.



Sisypha Presents Religion:
Ransom Note Ghazal (taken from NONzine)

Sustain. Release. Eat. Sustain...Smoke out of your mind: Tell Stories.
Battle for an Anonymous Garage Soul.

Because the world is avisual & celestial math
The fall of you or your body gets weird.

Gonna miss the poor house place below:
Tell 'em we can blow my young mind.

Feelin' the hound...Get the ability.
Animalkind is obsolete.

Don't let your red dirt expire! roll a tornado!!!!!!!!!
Cast out years of the kitchen table!!

Start to Dance!! Blossom a GOD
I'm not here I'm not here I'm not here I'm not here I'm not here I'm not here I'm not here

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Week Six Poems

Magical Rage

Allen Ginsberg, all alone,
enters the eternal. Smoking a joint
by himself, he answers, "Yes, yer
Highness?" We, the feverish, forgive
him for moving forward. But no, Nina's
there, Nina Simone. "Hey Al,
got a bowl?" And they talked
about, naturally, jazz. And
Allen an' Nina smoked.
Then, they discussed their
sex lives. "Spicy," Nina described.
"(Scripturally)," Allen resisted. His
beard cut off: Mr. was hysterical
for awhile; though, they continued
(they had a long time). Given up
on inventing his surroundings, Allen
an' Nina got hungry. They desired,
yes, as their stomachs were aching from
infinite, & lungs choked by eternity.
They compromise on voodoo.

Nina and Allen now with a smoke-pile,
playing chess cautiously. Nina's
eyes deep, pulling in from the
smoke and choked with the play
of the match/game. They agree
to be pleased together. They shoulder
into an elevator, a doorway appears.
The magic of one an' rage of the
other, they surmise something fine.
They light fires, burn down buildings,
chant with Jerry Falwell. In the
end, it went pretty great. They
put out their buds in the new bonfire:
stoked, blazed, loaded,
and go back to their beds.

Tomorrow, the two listen to The Who's
"Tommy" again for the first time.
While trading pawns, Allen blows out
a lion from his tongue, w/o paws.
She chuckles. Nina realized that
lies, those pleasurable, are acceptable in Heaven.
"Hey, I've ne'er screwed a Jew." Allen
chuckles, like she knew he would. They,
together, soulmates? ol' friends?
together? invisible?
"Hey Nina, can you load up this
glass hitter? I got 'er in India.
She's terrific."
"Sure Al, b'wait a second. You wanna
smoke the rest of this?"
"Will you sing?"
"Can you read?"

Yes, they giggle and play
footsies. Her great little paray, oopsy, wait...
Her great little parade didn't gain any
weight. At least she don't hear the
sirens anymore. 
                              "Her sides don't hurt,
ears ar' workin' fine. No more jangle-jangle,
'cept when Allen plays Tambourine?
In a liberated Africa! In the peaceful East,
Indonesia, overseas? Go to the
unknown? Okay: space. Make yer
choices in Heaven."
                                     - April 10th, 1969 Heaven Commercial
Did Heaven get a TV spot? What else has
Heaven got?
                        Dictator Tots, Jupis, Continuum
Powder, Lucky Charms, HFLA (Huge-Fucking
Library Association [quite anti-censorship]),
etc.
etc. x a = Heaven
a = infinite
Heaven = infinite x etc.

but math is too imperfect for their
home. All grown up, real young. Impossible,
you will say? Watch yer tongue. It's
nonsense, yer Alice in a toybox, exiting
an' entering simultaneously. Can it be?
"To be cont'd" bullshit, we'll see. Really,
I hope not. Me? Exactly. Them: eternity.
Must be nice, less than pleasure: never, anytime.



Bronze Lungs

I don't know if I left Sisypha.
A foot forward, a baby-toe back,
a retreat, a forfeit, a hostage
of my pose, goin' nowhere, with
a statue's courage, a bronzed-
long distance runner. Gonna pause
before any explosion or go on when
no one'd notice. Whithin, always, I am;
so often I cannot. My feet urge
my bones, I keep posted, boring
non-motionings, stopped as long as the ocean.
But someday, these waves will be home.



The Mothkeeper

I swat at the moths;
the moths flee.
They multiplied too much,
too rapidly, destroin' property
an' people,
tying off their conscience with a loop.
Hanging by a head-thread, the moths
would leave off, away for some food.
"my grandma knitted that sandwich,
geek," my younger brother squeals/squeaks.
He bites at the moth's feet.
Where've you been, mothface?
Gonna go on? No, an' quit nagging.
Yer annoying, a nuisance, something to be
loosed, gruesome, too old to boot.
Um, uh, hold on...So, man, it's lagging.
Regardless, I'll arrest 'em an' rape 'em.
So, they'll get slaughtered an' shamed.
Well, I'll whip 'em an' waste 'em.

Yeah, I'll yip an' yawp.
Oh, it will go on, the games aren't for our show.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pyscho Physics

Psycho Physics

Sisypha
witnessed the finality of existence
when her vision went toward the sun.
Too much light makes thing stop.
I wonder some if Abraham Lincoln's been burned into my retinas.
Go away, Abe.

Sisypha went 
and experimented with using 
physics to prove her illness.
Once, when she was young, she went
under. I can't keep the clouds from swinging.
The laughter shifts into sickness.

In the duality 
of Everything she places her trust.
Unchurched, she learned of things unwanted.
Her eyeballs saw things a bit too rusty.
Underdone, my brain can't keep from shaking;
without anything set, I get more forgetful.

Pulled between what is
& has been,
her awareness is unkempt.
Sharply, Sisypha believes in the unseen.
Dissecting my mind & mine raggedy organs has
left with me a little more than something.

Sisypha sifts through the pages
of yesterday's proofs,
without much will or strength.
Shrunken, her courage kinda remains, continues.
I, drunk with a mystical rage, will
tip over so soon.

Entirely wrecked, her daily mindset becomes
feckless. Stepping forward,
though without movement, Sisypha
tunes in and escapes too willingly.
O! the synesthesia's absurd--
liberty isn't always freeing.

Fried, tired, & tried, her body: lazy an' unemboldened,
seeks rest. Her parts worn, her balance unsteady,
she doesn't dance for too many weeks.
She lies in red bed-sheets, can't reach the nightstand.
I live with Sisypha always.
She sleeps adjacent to me, eternally.
/She has buried herself in me so deep./

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Week Five Poems

The Prettiest Girl With The Thinnest Face
[click to enlarge]


Rusty Bagpipe Lungs

Her diaphragm expanding
infinitely with a crescendo,

her backyard
with all its beers.

her acid tongue,
bitten rough,

her newly crocheted stomach,
empty, without enough,

her always brushed teeth,
worn clean from all the LSD,

her tight appendages,
to the touch: cotton,

her "I don't know how to sing"
eyes, oily from gasoline.

her "Fuck you, you're the whores
Pigs and Politicians. Whatever,"

her, "I don't get to see you often...
What, I wasn't listening?"



Webs

She pirouettes
w/ cigarette-stained breath.

Daddy sinned,
the building sleeps, ratty business.

Fingerish spiders
lit on fire by vicious lighters.

"Hey, dust
mixed up with champagne just makes mud."

She whispered,
"You look too young to be an apple-kisser."


Friday, February 8, 2008

Week Four Poems

Notes on The City
February 05, 2008

Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse

Concrete Walls, crumbling can't stop.
"POST NO BILLS," tells bearded police.
Our architecture & marathons
& cocaine marching bands &
huddled ballet wretches

& Prophitears. Mexico may
be laughing, or you're insane,
Someday masses. And how the
forgotten Midwest sleeps early.



First Heaven: A Cinquain
Syllables: 2/4/6/8/2

Sometimes,
I wonder if
Heaven is really just
a big bureaucracy. There might
be dues.



Lavender
An assignment that required four syllables per line.

Ripping ballasts,
trapped, tasked,
rude, but baldly
as we all can
manage, erm, or
foresee. The bank
is on a date
and spends millions
on righteous tights.
Pitied, all the
Deities eat
rams and dried meats.
Salt, eh? Can the
Carpetfuzz get
unrolled, ripped up?
Say man, gonna
bowl or scream? If
it's one it's two,
but the Captain's
at sea--always
will be.

               Pill-heads
and pillow aunts
can sing, can dance!
Ripened pin men
will fish joy, the
rich or goddamned
stomach turners
will find out your
Secret Love Meal.
How does it feel
if the eyes, long
mangled, unsunned,
bloodfilled, craven,
solo, sometimes
Fifty,

           Whir! I
went past Tie Man:
sweater, pale hands,
Barber! Without
seconds that turn
around, maybe
the candy canes
will release some
figurative
numberfuckers,
a painless tour,
a free zoo, much
obliged, DR.
Saliva, stiff as unearthings.
I wonder some
if we're robots.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Free-writing, Wednesday, January 06, 2008

Notes from Survey of British Literature II

Grow upward out of or
harness yer explosions.
yer eyes' undoing, sick-filled,
scraped out,
overmined manholes

Paisley's stomach gut was
shoveled, impressed, seeking a
mister--underdressed. Sister Paisley,
come out from under the stairs.
Yer home isn't there, is it?

Mine's heavy.



Sunday, February 3, 2008

Free-write, Sunday, February 02, 2008

Insane Chained Feed

Taking turns at naps,
we planned the other's unravelings,
brushing off our dusty paths
and mapping fantastic tongue babbling.
The fox, tricked, reveals the trap.

Gory, plastic ideations
of the suicide-ridden society
left all of our creations
longing for soberness. Eh, sobriety...
Though pious, the hunter waits with patience.

Caged, the poet caves idly.
Heavy, his chest quivers with anxiety.
What hath his mind's eye seen,
his brain's very own unbridling?
All the while, the Creator laughs, mad, wildly.