Sex Doll Gumbo Poetry Event!

To celebrate this book’s release, HST is hosting its first-ever online poetry event, and you’re invited!

Part 1: Friday April 14th, 6:00-6:45pm (US Eastern Time)

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82338942374?pwd=KzY1d0hRbzF1bEZ5aitmVllaRWNHZz09

Passcode: r483Vy

Part 2: Friday April 14th, 7:00-7:45pm (US Eastern Time)

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/81595418754?pwd=RXd0UGw2UUtqV0Q4S0lNd0tvUkpvQT09

Passcode: n5Txa8

“Seating” will be limited to 100 per session. Please get in touch if interested in reading some poems of your own, and we’ll see if we can slot you in. Otherwise, hope to see you there!

Cheers,

AG

Jacklyn Henry

Addicted

i chase my addiction
in the dark cool embrace
of midnight,
hidden deep within shadows,
behind doors locked with
libidinous keys.

there is no need for commerce,
no exchange of crumpled bills,
no crushing of rocks,
no back-alley shenanigans,
no needles nor spoons,
or lines of sweet transgression,
no fear of vagrancy
or the stamping flat foot of the LAPD.

there in darkness, bathed in flickering light,
i watch others in transcendence,
in desperation, in the clutch of chemical ecstasy;
writhing and mewing with false pleasure,
deep in a dance of denial, thrusting and fucking,
tearing at flesh.

faster, faster,
yes! yes! just like that!

just
like
that

and a blink of a sorrowful eye
i am one with them, i am a
part of them, captured and chained
and tied for gossamer thread,
a participant from afar,
static and solitary,

i am a part of scene, my degradation palatable,
my shame and misery complete,
blood rising and rushing, an addict in the arboretum,
my skin crackles with fire.

i am burning.
burning, burning.
i am
burning.

eyes dilate,
heart beats fast to a strange kind of music
and
soon

i collapse,

only to feel the hunger rise
once more
from the base of my cock
into
the pit of my soul.

John Yohe

los ombligos del mundo

the girls in Sevilla
smiling and laughing
on this cool friday night
baring dark inies and outies
in the old cobbled streets

touching a Buddha statue belly
is good luck
though some people make fun of buddhists 
who
they say
gaze on navels too much
that navels
are a path to wisdom
or self centeredness

how much wisdom
in a girl’s navel?
how much wisdom
in keeping distance
from a girl showing off her navel—
that wanting that much attention
they must have nothing inside

but I remain unenlightened enough
to want to kneel
and work my tongue
into each warm hole
to taste for myself

Noel Negele

How Was Your Weekend

after three weeks
of non-stop
12 hour shifts
you suddenly have 
a Sunday off
and you don’t know
what to do with your hands

Saturday night
you’re exhausted 
but wanting
something to happen

life tends to become 
too quiet 
with free time 
the silence is
deafening

you call Martha up

“well, well, well” she says 

at the pub she gets
too drunk 
as she tends to do
kisses you too often
too aggressively

the taste of her saliva 
lingers for days

she gives the middle finger 
to waitresses 
because she thinks 
every bipod with a vagina 
wants to fuck you—
something that 
couldn’t be further from the truth

“there is no reason
for any of that”
you tell her

she doesn’t listen 

brandishes an empty 
Asahi beer bottle
in the air

a door man grabs her 
by the elbow
tries to be nice about it too

You put your palm
in his sweaty armpit 
and push him away
as if he was a toddler 
even though 
he’s three times your weight 

“they’d think 
an animal got a hold of you 
not a human being”

you’re hauled outside 
of the lights and the music 
from three pairs of arms
like you’re somebody’s 
dirty laundry 

blood’s coming down 
your nose,
your right eyebrow 
bleeding too

she sobers up all of a sudden

pulls you out of the 
violent confusion

you go back to your apartment 
with three bottles of Italian wine

she talks so much 
without saying anything 

it’s more noise
than your deafening loneliness

she’s so young 

she’s noise and tits 
and thick lips
and a poorly shaved pussy

sometimes you get so drunk 
you come across 
the charging elephant
in the room—
your sadness spreads 
all around everything you touch
like an oil spill
smothering wild life

she puts your dick
in her mouth 
as the room spins 
like a shred of cloth 
caught in the blades
of a chopper

all you can focus on
is the yellow stains 
on the ceiling 

you think
you need to call the plumber
one of these days 

you think
one of these days
those yellow stains 
will start to drip
something awful 
onto your bed 

you wonder if 
something like that might 
be the thing to make 
you angry enough to pull
that trigger finally 

you think of suicide letters
and how many of them
cried while writing them

you think 
you’re so lonely and sad
or sad and lonely 
or sad because you’re lonely 
or lonely because you’re sad
that perhaps no matter 
how many people you 
introduce to your misery 
they won’t help it

You worry 
you’re going 
to have to put the
scaffolding around 
your broken heart 
yourself 
and try to build it 
back up again 
on your own

you think 
about the only woman you ever loved 
and how probable
it is she’s a mother now
five years after your break up

you lose your erection
and
she takes it personally

“What’s this?”
she asks
holding your shrinking cock
in a tight grip 
like an inflatable thing 
losing shape 

(you imagine 
a butterfly turning
into a caterpillar )

“it’s not you” you say,
“it’s me. I’m empty. 
there’s nothing there.”

your soul is
an infinitely empty 
chasm

but try to explain that 

“You soft peckered nonce!” 
she screams 
jumping out of bed

her clothes 
in a ball
against her tits

“don’t ever call me again.”

she tries to spit at you
but it never reaches you

you get hard again
all of a sudden 

“something terribly
 wrong with you”
says a voice 
at the back of your skull

you step to the window
to watch her go
and you see her
key-ing the side of your 
shitty Honda 
before disappearing
into the night 

you smile— 
hurt makes for
ludicrous characters 

you notice your
reflection in the window—
a pale face 
with wine stained lips
like the lips of a clown
halfway from taking
his make up off

You drink 
the last of the bottle 
and slip into a restless sleep
littered with nightmares 
of dogs tearing you
to pieces.

Monday morning 
coworkers ask you 

“How was your weekend?”

It was alright 
you tell them 
what about yours?

John Grochalski

millionaire

leaving
the job
for the weekend

to spend
forty-eight hours
on the couch

acting like
a drunken 
millionaire

without a care in the world

until i wake up
into the horror

of the monday morning
work day

beholden 
to america again

nothing
but a pauper 

with cheap vodka
and stale wine

on his breath.

Nathaniel Sverlow

bedside manner

“I’m going to put
a finger 
in your ass!”

moving her other hand
down my balls

“the hell you are!”
I say, jumping up

“c’mon, it’ll feel good”

“so help me,
if one cuticle
makes it in,
I’ll slap you
into next year”

her fingers trailed down
my taint

“you think I’m bluffing??”

“I think you’re curious”

she pressed against
my hole,
pushed in,
and I slapped her 
off the bed

“what’d you think?”
she said,
climbing back up

we both looked down
at my cock
twitching
and spitting
like a madman

“ah, hell,” I said,
“let’s give it 
another shot”

“I told you
it’d feel good”

“you sure did,
baby”

and she shoved it in
this time

and I squealed 
like a stuck pig

and she laughed
like I had it coming

for my poor
bedside manner

Damon Hubbs

The Last Romantic

he spoke about her pussy 
in terms of art—
a dampness like Vermeer
a Monet water lily
from a certain angle
on the cheap four-poster bed
like Van Gogh’s severed ear

she sighed 
and lit a cigarette
said she didn’t care for art 
and kindly told him 
he’d have to pay extra
if he wanted to leave the lights on 
next time 

R.M. Engelhardt

In the Last Days of the Obvious Unknown Words

Here lies the voices:

The visions
The repetitions

Of a generation
That cannot
Move on

Let go

Or
Find truth
Beauty or
Meaning

On their own

As they follow
And worship the
Already well known
Well worn paths

Looking for
Fame

Or a
A status

Perhaps
Some brilliant sign
Like a star in the sky

As all the artists
Poets & rock stars

Have already
Left the building

Checked out.

Bowie &
Frida

Kerouac &
Bukowski

Had nothing
To say

With no likes, sad frowns
Love

Or comments

Thoughts
Transcendental or
Heartbroken

No meme
Comes with this
Poem

No new movement
Or a revelation

Wisdom or
Solace

For these are
All the things

You must
Find

On your own

In your own soul
Own words

For
Here lies the voices:

The visions
The repetitions

Of a generation
That cannot
Move on

Dead &
Unnoticed

Unremarkable
& unremembered

In their own
Fire &
In their
Own time

Unknown

Ben Fitts

The Cactus

Dirty Joe was in love with a cactus. He knew he loved the cactus from the moment he saw her in the barren Arizona desert. The cactus was the only living thing in sight, and Dirty Joe was all alone with her, the sand, and the brutal afternoon sun. 

Dirty Joe slammed the breaks of his Jeep and fished around in its backseat. He withdrew some plastic flowers that wouldn’t wilt in the cruel desert and his beat-up old Martin guitar. He sheepishly approached the cactus and laid the plastic flowers at the base of her stem. He got his old Martin in tune and strummed it as he sang the cactus a pair of Hank Williams songs. Sensing that his opening move was complete, Dirty Joe tipped the brim of his Stetson to the cactus and returned to his Jeep. 

He waited two days, as is appropriate after a first date, then drove his Jeep back to the cactus. He brought a six-pack of Coronas and a pair of beef burritos for himself, and a bucket of rainwater and some fertilizer for her. And of course, his old Martin guitar. After they finished eating and drinking and conversing, Dirty Joe picked up the Martin and sang the cactus another Hank Williams tune. 

The cactus was a shy and quiet girl, but Dirty Joe was pretty sure he was getting the signal from her. Dirty Joe asked if he could kiss her, and the cactus nodded gently in the desert breeze. He leaned in and planted his lips on her spiky green hide. Dirty Joe eventually broke off the kiss and grinned as he plucked the needles out of his face and wiped away the blood. Considering the second date a success, Dirty Joe returned to his Jeep and drove off through the Arizona desert.

Dirty Joe continued to date the cactus. He’d drive to her lonesome spot in the desert and bring food and drinks and his Martin. At the end of each date, Dirty Joe would lean in for another prickly kiss and would withdraw cut and bleeding and overjoyed. The cactus was a traditionally minded girl who wouldn’t surrender her virtue until she felt their relationship had developed to a certain point, and Dirty Joe respected that. He was satisfied with their bloody kisses for the time being.

On the night that the cactus finally let Dirty Joe inside of her, he found that the wait made the experience all the more special. He spent the night thrusting into the cactus, his Wrangler jeans and flannel shirt and briefs and cowboy boots and Martin guitar in a pile beside them on the sand. The frigid desert air goose-pimpled his bare flesh and the cactus’s needles dug deep into the entire front of his body, but Dirty Joe didn’t mind. He was in love. 

Dirty Joe awoke the next morning naked on the desert sand. He had one arm wrapped around the base of the cactus and he was covered in needles. A pool of his own blood had formed beneath him and he was pallid as a vampire’s victim, but none of this bothered him. He stood up, wiped the sand off his ass, pulled the needles out of his body, and squirmed back into his clothes. He leaned in and kissed his lover goodbye, causing a fresh injury as a needle pierced his upper lip. 

Dirty Joe drove off in his Jeep and whistled along with every song on the classic country station. He went about his day unable to think about anything other than the love he and the cactus shared. Nothing else mattered. There was only him and the cactus.

Unable to play it cool any longer, Dirty Joe drove back out into the desert the following day. He slammed on his breaks as he reached the cactus’s spot, and stared ahead of him in disbelief. He crawled out of his Jeep and rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed. The cactus was gone. 

There was a little indent in the sand where the cactus’s roots had been. A trail of soft footprints lead away from that indent, but Dirty Joe was no tracker. And even if he was, it was beside the point. The cactus didn’t want Dirty Joe to follow her. If she wanted to be with him, the cactus would have stayed rooted where she was. Dirty Joe fell to his denim-clad knees and wept. Once he had cried all the tears he could spare, Dirty Joe got up and went back to his Jeep. 

He pulled his Martin out of the backseat and tuned it. Leaning against the side of his Jeep, Dirty Joe sang his favorite Hank Williams song, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”. 

The sounds of Dirty Joe’s singing echoed through the Arizona desert but fell short of reaching a beach on the coast of Australia, where a woman was at the end of a third date with box jellyfish. It didn’t matter how much the jellyfish stung as she took him inside of her or the damage his venom did to her body. She was in love.

Anthony Dirk Ray

Woodstock Doc

I recently watched a 
documentary about Woodstock 99
it was appalling how quickly
things got out of control in
regards to the riots and fires
especially after being given
peace candles nonetheless  
I was extremely saddened by the 
blatant groping and fondling of 
young women brave enough to go 
topless or full nude in
front of 400,000 people
300,000 of which being young
white, sex-starved, angry males
think someone who believed “Nookie”
by Limp Bizkit was a good song

then the dismal reality hit –
I was 23 in 1999
a poster child for the 
aforementioned class

so with poignant regret 
I have to admit
if I had been in Rome that weekend
I possibly could have thrown
a propane tank into a fire 
looted a bit or squeezed a 
crowd surfing passerby boob myself 

but as far as the LB…
they lost me after Three Dollar Bill, Y’all