Jeff Bagato

Popeye Pops a Boner

Fake tits filling Hollywood
out into silicon valley south
get Popeye in the mood
so he flicks a can of spinach
from his armpit, squeezes it open
in a muscled hand and down
the hatch—prompt effect produced
in trousers as a pup tent pops,
and it’s all Popeye can do
to keep his hands off it for the nonce;
it’s gotta hold
for an explosive vehicle
of blockbuster twister wombs
spinning, begging for implantation
by a real man and not some flea
flicker—so he drives along Sunset
to a red light, picks up momma
needlessly ripe—the time is now—
undoes his trousers
and just for her springs out
a muscled joint pinched and
swollen just like his famous
bicep—I can’t tell you
when she asks
how many implants it took,
but the Industry wouldn’t have
it any other way—movie
ends as he shoots silicon
load onto silicon thighs
and she evaporates into the street
with a fistfull of plastic cash
like a blow up girlfriend
deflating on a careless pin stick—
he guns Camero into setting
sun, leaving a squeal of blue
and a smell of white
jissom

 

John Grey

Filleting

Just make sure
you don’t slice your finger.
Everything else
will take care of itself.

Yes, that’s an eye,
but it’s really not staring at you.
And those are innards,
not guilt
you’re cutting into.

Off comes the skin.
Out pop the bones.
It’s filleting,
not desecration.

Pretend it’s
just a fish you caught.
Save its name
for the funeral.

Jeff Bagato

Point Blank

the lemon fresh in her mouth
as I kiss her, and the gun in my belly—
she’s a hot one;
the bricks at my back
have been baking in this sun
for weeks without rain—
you are the lover, this time,
stockings pulled up over knees—
and the sun gleaming
on the gun

this one
time I have crossed
the street without looking

the smell of her hair a net
to look through into the crowd,
the cars, shoppers—
gut tightening on the finger
of the gun and she
straightens it perpendicular
to my soul

lover, a peppermint
in your pocketbook is the only
release I desire,
your shooting of me will
have no meaning on a marked
sidewalk with chewing gum—

tigress rippling short fur, striped
beneath a high skirt, white
ruff at your neck, and
the blouse not sticking
to your breasts but I am
caught around your finger,
hooked into steel

have you come for me,
my blood

the lemon passed into my mouth,
and the bricks receiving

all the hot flesh of the world
in strips—this old
lady bids on a choice
rib and you accept
money for the fall

that was paradise, there and this
too could be called
a world

a short summer
love on a bed of nails

a hooked finger leaving
me hanging and the beefeaters
crowding around—
the lemon passing through
me to a crack in the sidewalk,
a taste of you on my lips

the history of man by men,
and the savage blows
to their own kind

redeems us,
as we have made
hell, like chatter,
a waiting room for eternal
reward

she was so right to walk away

J.J. Campbell

a siesta of beautiful sunsets
 
i’ve danced with the
devil a time or two
in my life
 
the problem always
was i had two left feet
and was whiter than
white when it came
to rhythm
 
but eventually i found
the right alcohol
 
the right drugs
 
the right muse
 
and life soon became
a siesta of beautiful
sunsets and the candle
burning at both ends
 
and as long as i can
continue to lie to
myself and pretend
everything is going
to be okay
 
it most likely will be
 
of course, i don’t sleep
much anymore and have
visions that my death
is rapidly approaching

Ian Copestick

Buried Treasure

Not far from where I live
There’s a little alleyway, only
About six feet wide, but over
One hundred yards long. It
Has no lighting at all
Which makes it hard to
Walk through after dark
Well, a drug-dealing
 Acquaintance of mine,
Who at this moment
Is doing time, once told
Me a story of how one
Night he was walking
Through this alley
And being paranoid
That he was being
Followed, either by
The police or other
Dealers, he hid a bag
Containing over
£800 somewhere
In said alley. With it
Being so bloody dark
And with my acquaintance
Being so off his face, he
Forgot where the money was
And it remains lost
To this day.
At the time I thought
Nothing of it, thinking
It a druggy version
Of a fisherman’s tale.
You know, the one
That got away.
But now and then,
When times get tough
And I’ve been living on
Frozen pizzas for
Over a week, I
Find myself hunting
Through bushes,
Feeling under fences
And digging through dirt
So far all that I have
Ended up with is
Dirty fingernails.
But I’ve got a feeling
That just maybe my
Luck is about to
Change.

Marc Carver

The Piano

I walked into the church
a woman was playing the piano
I went over to her
and told her that she played lovely
She told me it was Tchaikovsky
and then she told me her wedding
was tomorrow
and why didn’t I come
I never went to her wedding
but a few days later
I went back to the church
and thought about playing the piano
not that I can play of course
and when I went over to the piano
there was no piano
almost as if that magical moment
had never happened

Ben John Smith

Say you will remember me

I always wrote poems
But I never told anyone
That I wrote poems
But one time when I was
11 I drank half my mum’s
Bottle of port while I babysat
My baby sister
And I told the hot chick who
Lived next door to me
That I wrote poems
And showed her my note pad
Of love poems
Because I wanted her to
fall in love with me but she
Just she just comforted me and
Said her boyfriend
Wrote poems too
But he was strung out
On heroin and I was just an
11 year old kid
Drunk on port
Listening to Micheal Jackson
And Paul McCartney records
He could have kicked my ass
If he knew I was hitting on his
Woman but he got jumped
By some wog kids
At a playground near
My house and
They cut him up pretty bad
And poetry never got
Me laid
But it has always ever
Since made me feel
Like a little kid
In a world full of
Real motherfuckers

J.J. Campbell

no one gets to ride the unicorn without paying the fee

 
dance naked in the
neon glow
 
everyone can get
high
 
not everyone gets
to survive the fall
 
the great ones will
have you believe
this wonderful
utopia is right
beyond that ridge
 
the rest of us
understand there
is evil in every
dip in the valley
 
remember the lost,
haunted eyes
 
broken spoons
instead of sea
shells
 
a coup with just
one bloody needle
 
no one gets to ride
the unicorn without
paying the fee
 
god isn’t even a
fucking concept
on these streets
 
thankfully, my child
was aborted before i
ever had the chance
to think of a name

Marc Carver

A Boat Afloat

there she goes
the one with the big booty
around and around she goes
like nothing else or no one else.
I find that with all women
none are the same as another one
perhaps that is why I want them all
even at the same time would be good
we could live in a skyscraper
that touches the clouds but with all the doors and walls knocked out
like a giant car park
or a giant ark floating on the endless sea.
Just me and my girls and all that love to keep us afloat