Paul Tanner

path

dumb. goal-post dumb. 
he didn’t have a learning disability.
he wasn’t let down by the education system.
well, at least no more than the rest of us. 
no. he was just dumb. a big dumb fuck.
he farted when he walked.
he’d come farting across the school yard 
farting footsteps 
and grab you:

cum sniffer! he’d accuse. sniff your cum, you, don’t you?
or:
mum perv! perv on your mum, you, don’t you
and:
dog wanker! wank your dog off, you, don’t you? 

his chin against yours because he wanted a kiss 
and the only way he could get one
was to find an excuse to kick off on you 

and it was in maths class, or science, one of them 
and Mr Harbour had nipped out to put some Irish in his coffee 

and you don’t know what happened:
you saw the big dumb fuck 
sitting on his own there 
mouth breathing 
and you thought of all the farts 
brewing inside of him 
and it suddenly really pissed you off.
you were bored. you were so fucking bored.
bored of him and bored of school
and the two of them together? same time, same place?
nah, that was too much, mate. 
so you went over 
and you said:

YOU sniff YOUR cum. YOU perv on YOUR mum. YOU wank YOUR dog. YOU sniff
YOUR cum after wanking off YOUR dog of a mum. it’s obvious. 
that’s why you accuse everyone else of doing those things. so fuck off. fuck
the fuck 
off
and he hit you
and you went down 

and you were lying on the floor of the maths room, or the science lab, one of them
declaring: I hit a nerve! it must be true!
and you could see him standing over you
with his leg pulled back at the knee 
like he was going to kick you
but he was hesitating:

even that big dumb fuck 
had the foresight to know 
that if he started kicking you he wouldn’t be able to stop,
but then his eyes went glassy 
as he saw his whole shit life before him,
realising he was probably going to end up in prison anyway 
and his big mushy face seemed to 
relax
as he decided: fuck it 
might as well get a head-start on my shitty prison life 
by getting some revenge here and now, eh?

when Mr Harbour came back 
with his cheeks all shiny 
and yelped. 

the big dumb fuck got chucked out of school. 
or he was just suspended, and forgot to come back. who knows.
but you were looking over your back for a while.
and then 
well, shit,
you were dragged into adulthood
and he kind of faded into the back of your mind
until you forgot about him completely, like 
that nugget of data devoted to him 
just fell out of your ear one day
when you were 
sitting in the dentist’s waiting room 
or fisting someone’s grandma,
as you do. 

and you just got 
this job
bringing the deliveries in 
at the frozen food place in town,

and who’s working alongside you?

no, you think, looking out the corner of your eye
as you strip a pallet.
no. surely not. how’d I end up in the same place as him?

then he puts down a box 
and comes farting over:
his farts, matured like cheese,
slapping the warehouse walls …

you brace yourself 
for another kicking.
for the lifetime of kicking 
that he’s backed up all this time.
probably got lots of practice on his prison bitch. 

you brace yourself 

and the big dumb fuck, 
he leans over you
and he sniffs his finger 
when he asks:
cover my shift Tuesday? 
gotta walk my mum’s dog.

James Diaz

I Aim To, Yes

I will take your hand like a mountain 
an impossible climb, time passing
we know this, never so gently 
as the song playing in our heads, four ribbons
outta four winds, snow in the lung
shovel up to the door of your sadness heart
tonight I am a huge fire, 
you’re the thunder roaring under
motel floor boards, six-pack eyes 
call the owl to bread, let the garden sink
under autumn rain, listen to the dark highway 
hum a sweet little song of pain, 
Yes, I’ll take your hand, try very hard to understand 
what the poem tried to say, what my eyes couldn’t find
all alone anyway, out here in triumph or drown land
low edge blur of town, I just want to pause the hurt
be a fixer-downer 
back to the roots, inside the seed 
ride the wind, let the wound bleed
back East West North South
anywhere but nowhere 
everywhere the poor heart lands
yes, in your hands…

Shawn Berman

Stuck At the Bar

March 22, 2020. 10:00 AM

I never thought that I would become one of those stereotypes that everyone laughs about: a pubic hair stuck in a urinal at a bar. How original. But here I am, and I don’t know how this happened. If anyone is out there, please alert the authorities and tell them that Harry (that’s me) is stuck in the 3rd urinal (men’s bathroom) on the second floor of Wolff’s Bieragarten in Troy, NY. I don’t know if a ladder is needed, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring one.

March 22, 2020. 10:20 AM

This is gonna make one helluva screenplay. Who do you think should play me? Maybe The Rock? We have a very similar physique. 

No way that anyone in Hollywood says no to this project. Not a chance. This has Oscar-bait written all over it. 

March 22, 2020. 10:50 AM

My friends are never gonna let me live this one down. Seriously, I’m gonna be the butt of every joke. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to any cookouts or happy hours without them busting my chops. They’re gonna be like, “look who it is, Mr. Harry hou-stuck-in-the-urinal-dini,” or something like that. They’re not the smartest.

March 22, 2020. 11:03 AM

Someone should call my wife and let her know I’m okay. Let her know I won’t be able to pick Junior up from Little League practice tonight.

March 22, 2020. 11:11 AM

I’ve started carving out prison scratch marks on the urinal cake. By my calculations, I have roughly 8 hours left to live, and my resources are running out. Food is minimum. Warmth is also limited. Please send help. I could use a Diet Coke, too.

March 22, 2020. 11:35 AM

Reward: Don’t have much to offer but I have a solid fantasy football league that you can take over. I’m currently in first place and the winner gets a $25 gift card to Chili’s. 

March 22, 2020. 11:37 AM

Starting to feel a little disconnected from reality. Does anyone know Who won RuPaul’s Drag Race? I DVRd it last night but I obviously don’t wanna wait that long to watch it.

March 22, 2020. 12:40 PM

I took a quick nap and when I woke up, I was surrounded by other pubic hairs. They look kinda mean. One of them has a broken heart neck tattoo. Another one is doing push-ups in the corner while his buddy does some bicep curls. They’ve made a line down the middle of the urinal and they told me to stay on my side unless I wanna get beat up. I guess this is it, right?

March 22, 2020. 12:44 PM

#SaveHarryFromTheUrinal. C’mon, y’all. Let’s get it trending!

March 22, 2020. 12:48 PM

Rejoice! Someone is here! Please help me, brother! I have been stranded for hours. Wait, what are you doing? Noooo…stop! Are you sadistic?! What are you doing now? Are you flushing the urinal? Please, I beg you—don’t do that. I have a family at home. A wife. A kid. Don’t do thissssss—

March 22, 2020. 1:08(ish) PM

[A crumpled urine-stained will has been found in urinal #3 of Wolff’s Biergarten by a janitor]

Hi, everyone. Harry here. Welp, if you’re reading this, I guess it turns out I didn’t make it. 

But don’t cry. I lived a full life. A much longer life than expected! It’s a fact that 1/3 pubic hairs will be flushed down in a urinal. It’s an unfortunate statistic but that’s just the territory that comes with being one of us.

To my son, Junior, I leave behind to you my Xbox. Don’t stay up too late playing Fortnite. You are now the man of the house. Take care of your mother for me.

To my wife, Harriette, you are now the proud owner of my super-secret haircare routine. Say au revoir to morning frizz. I’m sorry we didn’t get to say goodbye. I love you.

To everyone else, please don’t waste your money on flowers. They smell terrible. Donate to Junior’s college fund instead. That boy’s gonna be a great artist one day, I just know it.