Nowish

Finding an old pack of cigarettes / and the package is soggy from time / smoking in a Mossy Oak shooting vest / surveying the land that is mine

When teleportation exists / the Virgin will roll in its grave / a whistling dovetail in the mists / spending all the time that we save

Chesapeake water dog panting / a painting that melts in the shade / but it's instantiated ranting / an amorphous blob of 20th grade

Russell waltzed out in my houndstooth pants / expecting a keg full of fun / "my dad made money off land grants / in the summer of 1841"

The cooler is packed and we're ready to go / in tune with our feminine side / salmon shorts and braided hair / a portrait of field and hoe

A snarling string of Maccabees / recited on Peavey PAs / Tobit's dog was obedient / mine was the only life that was saved

sepuuki

"I'm higher than Burj Khalifa"
"I'm pedal to the metal every day dude."
"I'm going to study fashion design in Gotham City this summer."

"The last thing he saw were the kidney grilles of a pea-green 1500. He didn't feel nothing."
"I'll choose a fresh car wreck every time over Fra Angelico."

Mark had a big problem with babies crying. His pedophobia was most intense from behind the glass partition where he scooped and served delicious frozen treats at the Baskin Robbins on Elkins. Mark left the house every morning at 10:30 after he cleaned the toner from his counterfeit money printer. On the MTA bus he learned the name of the driver. They developed a friendship because they were the only people they knew personally who made finger tutting Youtubes.
"I saw a wreck yesterday. It was a pedestrian. The last thing he saw were the kidney grilles of a pea-green 1500. He didn't feel nothing."
"Hmm."
"Yeah man, I'm not a Starbucks Frenchy but I'd choose a fresh car wreck every time over Fra Angelico. 'Hi my name is James and I'm a recovering Catholic.'" James laughed.
"Well if it makes you feel any better I'm reading Kafka like you told me."
Bird droppings hit the bus windshield right next to Mark's usual headrest.
"Welcome to the thunderzone, Mark. I've spent the past thirty years trying to keep my head above water. It's been a constant struggle to 'abort the gnaw' but the gnaw won't go. It's entirely up to me to worship something; now they say "you cannot serve two masters," I am very convinced you can. I serve both negative and positive vibes. I have a melted heart for some things and a stone heart for other things. Outcomes matter."
A gentleman of color: "LET ME OFF THE BUS MAN. YOU TALKIN' ALL THAT BULLSHIT AND YOU DONE MISSED MY STOP. I PULLED THE CORD CAN'T YOU HEAR THE BEEP?"

For Jay

Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν.
you were mortar fire in my vacationist mind
I have your wild brain

We drove down Mendenhall, and your fifth step
foreshadowed
my
flailing life

I plucked my pukas
and stared at a homeless woman

Memphian Mysterion,
a thousand tears old,
I know the burning.

I know the burning.

today's trends

side hair pose and triangles
or
whiskey barrels and stomp-shout
or
ukulele, children's piano, and knits
or
Spencer's Gifts backroom
or
rainpunk's meander X prii range
equals
market money
equals
Navy cousin

equals

Jergen's hands palming a basketball

Robituss Goy

Sun Kil Moon in the camper
on a Jordan of our own
somewhere in Cocke county

the stars actually move as fast as the time-lapse
heart-crushing D strings

"the blades chop our grass, Dawn; Settlers of Catan"
mighty morphin power rangers
swim team shame
mugatu and blastoise seapunk nautica pleated pants

"I've worked so hard to not have to work"
the girls of the world keep shaking their hair

I am mortified by the freedom
I am mortified by the deaths of my people

In the living room of coral the fish have couched concerns
// in Fountain City, my love is gravel
for your Vibram vibratto

The World Has Been Overcome
but get back to work