John D Robinson

After the Second Date

‘You’re fucking nuts! You know that?’
Fucking crazy!” she screamed at me:
it was 07:30 and I had to make it
into work within the hour:
‘I don’t know what the fuck you’re
talking about, but whatever the fuck
it is, forgive me’ I said:
‘You should feel ashamed of yourself’.
she said:
‘I do’ I replied:
‘You can’t even remember what you
did and said last night, can you?’
she shrieked at me: it was true:
‘No’ I said:
‘Well, you’re soon find out’ she said
‘and if you’re looking for your shoes
you’ll find them in the freezer
where you put them last night!’
she turned and made for the
bathroom as I stumbled
towards the kitchen.

John Tustin

Nail Holes

I’ve memorized every nail hole in these 
Four rooms.
I’ve eaten my various mélanges of pasta,
Rice, beans, tuna, salad,
And chicken
A thousand times.
I’ve asked for your help
But have not received it.
I don’t believe in magic, in God.
I like Jesus. He said a lot of good things.
He died for jerks like us.
I like Buddha. He’s pretty good.
But I can’t reconcile the fact
That he abandoned his wife and kids.
Kiss me once, as I die
In chains.
Hold my hand
As it trembles uncontrollably
With the palsy of
The past.
The bugs skitter along the walls,
Along my skin.
I am a prisoner of this flesh,
This omnipresent erection,
This pulsation, exsanguinations of
The soul.
The machinations of bone, of blood,
Of joints.
The living are crushed
Between my teeth.
I expand, I recoil.
I sit and stare as music blares.
I puke up nightly regrets 
And sorrows.
From the bed
To the toilet
To the car
To the toilet
To the bed.
If there is a God,
He sits on his throne
And don’t give a fuck.

Dustin King

Scam

Raise your hand if you were miscarried. 
Aborted?
The baby in the backseat wails,
“It’s a scam, it’s all a scam!”
You’re right, kid.
Pop music, like apple sauce, is insufferable 
and you can’t stick a candle in your asshole
and call it a birthday cake. 
One day, though, you’ll receive the gift of excess.
I fuck with deaths small and large,
whimper my orgasm about town,
had both glitter and blood in my stool.
Neither the hangovers or venereal diseases
are as bad as they say.
Broke jaw, broke ego, just plain broke,
it’s the piss test or relinquish duty, cocaine brain!
Anyways, never trust moderation or the moderator–
you could live to 105 and never cum
but if you show at your funeral, 
they’ll thank you for lifting the mood.

Casey Renee Kiser

Boredom is a Pathetic Way to Die

You wanted to play Chess 
but nah bitch,
we gonna play Twister.
That’s what I do—
I’m a game changer.
Since you had me all twisted up
in your twisted mind ~ 
You tried to bore me to death.
I had to switch up the board.
I had to bring the color
and bend over for something 
that could keep me awake for once.
You can’t be lazy if you wanna play
with me.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, checkmate,
blah, blah, blah…
Boredom is a pathetic way to die!!!
So, I can’t hang around you, honey.
Well, spin the dial, it’s your turn.
Wait, wait, wait…
Can you play Twister without a backbone???
Nope.
You gotta go back to your board—
back to your black and white world.

***

Eddie Woods

Mary

I am Mary,
mother of the true god
of cosmic adventure
and queen of the libertines.
I give myself to all comers
regardless of race, creed and size of penis.
I am available to women as well as men,
to plants as well as animals.
I fuck for nothing
but freely accept all tokens of appreciation,
negotiable or not.
I have no inhibitions,
there is no form of sex
to which I am not partial.
I will even talk to you over a cup of tea.

I am Mary,
patron goddess of all prostitutes,
the only true saints
humankind has ever known.
They give what others are unwilling to part with,
subject themselves to cruelties
others will not endure
and abide the scorn of their less liberated sisters.
Were all women as free as I,
as unattached to their mythical egos,
as unburdened by likes and dislikes,
as unadorned with vanity
and conditioned notions of the body’s needs,
then harlotry would cease to exist,
never again would desire be exploited.

I am Mary,
loving sister of all men,
provider of all their needs,
destroyer of all their wants.
Having seen with my inner mind
to the very core of all their frustrations,
I have also witnessed
the seeds of their aggressiveness,
the twisted roots of their hardened ambitions.
Sigmund Freud has taught me nothing,
I have learned all by opening my cunt,
exposing my bosom
and allowing the whole world
to massage my heart.
Were all women like me,
no man would need play
his ego-inflating games of seduction
nor sublimate his desires
by seeking to conquer the material world.
I deflate egos by hardening cocks.
I take the wind out of all masculine sails
and recycle its potency as a tantric generator.
By making lust sacred, I make men divine:
true gods never need prove themselves,
they live secure in total self-knowledge.

I am Mary,
anarchist princess of spiritual revolution,
scarlet perpetrator of crimes against ignorance,
debauched ascetic
in a cruel world of self-righteous gluttons.
I am the unprincipled advocate of sexual Tao,
I conquer hate by offering pleasure
and quell violence by permitting pain.
I am an empty well of immortal flesh
within whose depths only love can abide.
I am the golden maiden of carnal alchemy,
transforming all vice into highest virtue.
Because I am God I live without fear.
The devil is not my enemy but my self-created lover,
I embrace his darkness with arms of pure light,
giving human sensations their reward for being.
Live as I do and you shall never die.

I am Mary,
calling all my sisters out of their houses,
all my brothers out of their armies,
all my workers out of their factories,
all my admirers down from their temples,
all my lovers out of their shadows,
all my revilers up from their miseries,
all my ancestors out of their heresies,
all my descendants out of their destinies,
all my dreamers out of their fantasies.

I am Mary
and I am real.

J.J. Campbell

with the blood of a virgin or two

another day with 
only four hours 
of sleep
 
i’m sure the wax 
from that candle 
will burn me one 
of these days
 
but until then
enjoy the pain
 
trace your scars 
with the blood 
of a virgin or 
two
 
laugh in the face
of danger 
 
and remember 
there is no better 
taste than a well 
earned death

Alexandre Alphonse

Updated Ruin

The poet wrote a poem
About a black-eyed dog
A pink moon on its way
A fruit tree flourishing on the ground
And a road that’ll see him through. 

Not many understood.

He sung songs about
The things behind the sun
Local clowns, tramps
Oceans finding their shores
And a troubled cure for a troubled soul.

Not many understood.

Now we all do.

Mather Schneider

The Performance Poet

He was a drama major
took voice lessons
studied the art of gesticulation
and facial movement
(he can say volumes
with just an eyebrow.)
He combs his hair
dresses tastefully
doesn’t want anything to distract the audience
from his art
wants to connect with the largest number of people
like a real estate agent
or a car salesman.
He’s got a nice smile
a complexion a 24-year-old girl
would kill for, damn
does he sleep in a vat
of Vaseline?
And he stands erect and confident, the microphone
is his best friend.
He doesn’t read his stuff, this mo-fo
has memorized it!
He’s practiced
he’s trained
he’s not messing around.
He PROJECTS 
and scans the audience
back and forth
to and fro
totally natural 
no one feels left out.
What a performer!
He gets them hootin’ and hollerin’!
The applause, oh lordy
deafening
2, 3 minutes long, people
are on their feet, 
creaming themselves,
their heads are spinning, 
they’re speaking in tongues,
they’re crawling around 
on all fours, 
jumping up, saluting, drooling,
reaching out, arms waving, 
smacking themselves in the face, crossing
their chests,
shitting their drawers.
Sing it brother!
Preach it man!
He supports arts and teachers, he’s very
supportive, he’s passionate.
In fact he IS a teacher.
He loves his job.
He’s like a supercool teacher
on a PBS special
who treats all the students fairly
even the poor and the ugly
and the stupid ones.
He is severe when needed
and compassionate when needed.
He’s a good guy, he’ll loan you 
a dollar
or a pen.
He corrects his friends’ grammar
at barbecues
he knows how irritating that is
but he still does it.
It’s cute, he can
laugh at himself, he’s a regular
fella.
People adore him, he is simply 
adored.
I watch his Youtube videos
and am in awe.
My mouth drops open
and I laugh 
and nod my head at the perfection
of the openings
and closings. 
The middles are good too, it’s all
soundly cadenced 
and crafted, like a symphony.
The occasional cuss word, you know, 
for effect.
Polished, sober, sane, what the hell
planet is this guy from?
How to Win Friends and Influence People
is sticking out of his back pocket.
Firm ass.
He’s a kick at cocktail parties.
His wife is pretty
but not too pretty
and his kids are cute
but not too cute.
The man is talented, no getting 
around it.
Probably jogs.
Perfect teeth, I’ll bet
he flosses.
Does he have a shed
out behind his suburban house 
lined with newspapers
where he cuts up stray dogs
wearing nothing but a 
pair of flip-flops?
The sonorous, handsome 
bastard, 
we’ll see how big he is
when I post my one-star review. 

Judson Michael Agla

UNDER THE RAVENS’ WATCH

The streets are vacant; only the dead walk this eternal night. Packs of hounds are hunting and educating themselves from horribly written books and scattered coupons that blow through the alleyways.

Corpses are piling up in community parks and the rats have come together, massing and breeding at unbelievable rates, forming unions and delegating sections of the city. The black rain never seems to run dry.

Why has the daylight left us? Is this some sort of divine insurrection?

Long ago, traveling in Mexico after the tourist season, the ocean started to throw up all of its natural and man-made garbage onto the beach, the quantity of shit covered everything like a blanket, and the stench was fucking unbearable. I asked a friend “what in all fuck was happening?” He simply replied, “the ocean is cleaning itself.” Apparently it happened every year around the same time.

I wonder, in these troubled times, if the earth isn’t cleaning itself of us. We’ve had a good run at it, but we upset the balance, and for all intents and purposes we’ve ripped the living shit out of it.

We seem to forget that we’re only guests, and under the ravens’ watch. 

William Taylor Jr.

Either Way

We’re here awhile and then 
we’re somewhere else

we’re confused and sad
we fuck around

we’re often ugly

occasionally (arguably) 
beautiful 

mostly something between

the most important thing
is that there’s not much 
time left

so best not to get too 
worked up about it 

the sun and the moon 
will do their thing

the poems will come
or they won’t

it doesn’t matter much
either way

lean back, open a 
bottle of something

listen to the music
of the rain

breathe it in 
and out

remember and forget

remember 
and forget