Your Hard Fall

November 2012 

Black Friday

*

*

When Black Friday comes

the Consumers of Gridville

huddle in the parking lots

in predawn frozen blackness

waiting for the sensor doors

to activate and swing open

so that the ensuing stampede

into the widget warehouse

can gush cheap trinket

torrents of electronic desire

to purge themselves

of what limited imaginations

they have left and have not

squandered and impaled

upon product acquisition

suggestions programmed

to them by fiber optic

daily behavioral vampires

so well appointed

with glistening fangs

of fashion compulsion

obsessive consumption

in a I-Pad-I-Phone I- Me Me Me Me vortex

instantly alerting them

of the nowhere

they lust

Is here

In stock

On Sale

And they simply cannot

live without it.

*

 –  The Terrible Now   2007

 

*

 New work

Hard Fall

*

 Didn’t someone

always take the Fall

so hard.

*

 Fell so fast and flat

perhaps the season

mistook the faux-pas

resolute direction upon

mistake’s reflection

misdirection

Wherein what the ear would hear

was exactly what blind eye was missing

after thinking

no more believing

that the door was

no longer

ajar.

So astounded

So slammed shut

barely containing memory

of some many

entrances and exits.

Steel Panic Bar nights

in spring loaded hair triggers

only ever working

only ever releasing

frantic impulse and remorse

from the inside.

While on the other side

there was clearly posted

No entrance

This is not an exit.

10/2012

*

Film Study

 

That night they were

making a movie

outside of the bar

on location with

too many extras

lights-camera-action

The entire production

was bugging the regulars

ruining the atmosphere

with klieg ego glare

in general the entire affair

was a huge pain in the ass

The view from the front plate

glass window obscured by

this obscene trailer that stretched

a half block long out front.

 

And even coasters were in short supply

to make matters worse the ink from

his pen point was either fading or

his eyesight was

or both.

 

In short ?

His weren’t leaving much of an impression.

 

Somebody suggested to the one of the gaffers

to cut those goddamn lights off out there

in front of the bar

since filming wrapped up over an hour ago.

 

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when

it all went dark even though now diesel

fuel exhaust was the next unwanted condition.

 

Enter a weary looking director

with a clip board who ordered a double

shaking his head with disgust.

 

Truth was ?

 

The plot was ill conceived

and what was once viable property

was now late and over-budget

The ink was still wet on the last

re-write of the script

and not one of the actors

came away with so much

as fingerprints to leave a mark.

 

The shame of it all ?

 

It had been a dream casting call.

Some many of the roles

they were made for.

Had been dying for.

 

And now it appeared they all

were just destined for

the cutting room floor.

 

Where at the end

the word finis

always shows up.

 

10/12

*

On the very Limited Lake Shore

 

White Trash

Wants to know

if you’re Irish

or

maybe Scottish.

 

White Trash is friendly

wants to tell you

her stories.

 

White Trash retains water

wears a ill fitting halter

over her freckled bilious bosoms

 

White Trash talks in the present tense

about her babysitter from forty years ago

 

When White Trash ended up in the Emergency Room

after being knocked up

then knocked down

by her ex boy friend.

 

White Trash has a restraining order now

against any further occurrences of

Impulse Control.

 

White Trash remembers everything

Forgives nothing

and believes she is entitled to

everything.

 

White Trash after being disappointed

she couldn’t peg you as a foreigner

settles for the label snob instead.

 

But when she leaves the coach

She says good-bye and how nice

it was to have this little talk

 

White Trash actually almost liked you.

…..You Snob

10/2012

*

My Doctor Said…..

 

She looked at me steadily

with gravity and concern

as I entered her office

and coolly said….

Better have a seat….

this is going to be rough.

 

Look I’m not going to beat

around the bush here or

try and sugar coat this…

you have so many things

wrong with you

I just don’t know where to start here.

 

But can I ask you a question ?

 

Didn’t you see this coming ?

 

Just what in hell do you think

all the years of self-abuse

was going to add up to ?

 

Quite honestly ?

 

I completely fail to understand

how it is a man in your current

condition seemly from the outside

seems to relatively normal and healthy.

 

Because I can assure you that is not the case.

Have you ever considered donating your

body after the inevitable here to medical science ?

 

She pointed to a half a dozen brown manila folders

on her desk.

 

These are the results of the tests.

I will go each one of them with you in depth…

 

But the short version ?

 

You’ve got it bad

from where it goes in

to where it comes out….

 

….and might I add quite a number of stops

in between.

 

You are just as terminal as we all are.

 

But the difference here in your case ?

You were the guy that liked train trips right ?

Well…..

Your stop is coming up.

Fast.

 

10/2012

*

 

Falling Shorts    2012

 

*

 In Synesthesia

*

Three kinds of listening:

Wind chimes without a voice

The incomplete sentence of silence

Lexicon stripped of shivers

When did my delight

become a dead language ?

*

 Cancelled Cooking Show

 

When someone has

really gotten deep

into your kitchen.

You’ll never find

that recipe again.

*

October is…..

 

October is what

you once said

to an empty door.

*

 The Spider leaves home

 

These are our ghosts now

trapped like ashes

in an abandoned cobweb.

*

Remember we are not….

*

And he had this stiletto cackle

laugh like a manic trip hammer

Woody Woodpecker

*

 Never be

Try to never be just

another

a shitty thing you had to do

Sure.

Say what you want

Go ahead with doing what you once

said You had to do…

but if any that just means

washing your hands

with a cold hard shrug ?

Try to never be

just another

shitty thing to do.

*

 Bitten off

 

One might be wise to bear in mind

that all the hurt you have done

in appetite and menu

will someday return

to eat at you.

A nibble here.

a mouthful there

and that time when you once bit off

more you could chew

And just spit it all out ?

That will somehow stick around

till next time you are

really, really hungry

and that hurt will return

to swallow you.

Whole.

*

 These Goddamn Gnats…..

 

Are in my face

have me slapping at the air.

Clap on/ Clap off…………insects.

  10/2012