Thursday, December 25, 2008
And done
For the grip of dust
And under the raining brush
Split yellow with shards of green
Dripping down
Unlike the glass
It learned to cut from
Independent of previous talk
The chatter gone and done
A friendship born
To die
If not attended slowly gently
Like a fussy
Delicate plant
Or
A hyper tasty dish
That deserves
Or requires
Attentiveness at all times
Before
Ultimately getting consumed
Quickly, innocently
In the mouth of animal powers
And turned
To shit
A nice conversation
That lingers
Like a good dinner
You deserved
After a long week of listening
And never speaking
After a long week of waiting
And never getting your turn
Its coming slowly
Over the gray hills
Over the brown hills
Its goo falling down
And collecting the branches with it
It’s a half speed wind storm
With all the force
But slow
Painfully slow
Like watching a child
Untie an impossible knot
With no fingernail tips
For help
Like watching an old man
With a cane
Cross a busy intersection
Its here
Right in front of me
And it is
Not me
And I can hear it speaking
Under my skin
Between my lungs
It’s a collective burning
That climbs up
Rung by rung
To my throat
And soon
Maybe
I can tell it to you too
If you care
To know
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
11.5.08
straight to the face
covered by jolly fat
hahahahaaa
we laugh and we eat it up
it’s a cherry in my drink
it’s the many cherries in my very many drinks
and its readjusting my blood
its turning cherry red
and you can taste it on my lips
I see you looking, looking right at them
But you won’t
You can’t
You wouldn’t dare
So go ahead and stare and remember the taste of cherry
On your own lips
And hey
You can always go ahead and throw a punch
To the back of some guy’s head
Look, he isn’t looking
Go for it
All yours
And when he turns around I’ll say the other guy did it
And when he stays mad
I’ll make him taste my cherry lips
But he won’t forget
So get the fuck out of there
goodbye
For an old idea
Funeral
For a dying box
May the dirt
Remain on top
May the fire
Burn down
the fear, the expectation, the confusion
of the same
mistakes
time to pay respects
for how
these feet function
somehow
on ground
and how
this back can bend
without pain
here is my respect
to my sick ideas
newly departed
there is no heaven
there is no hell
it’s cloudy sky
with sun behind
that’s not a secret
its not mine
The killing instinct
As she wakes up
And pulls the chain
Towards the center
Revolt from the ground
Look up
Be blinded
I heard rumors that we develop eyes
If we try
And so I allow
Sun stabs
To swallow my head
In hopes
Of losing vanity
Don’t trust the thing in the ground
That growls
At you
When you begin to run
When you pick up speed
That seems to be beneath your heels
As you refuse
The temptation
To turn around and look back
Run
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The million to one
Forget-ability ratio
What a bet
It’s already gone
And I’m the millionaire
To one
Who reconsidered
And remembered
Today the sheet signed itself
A proclamation
With no author
No voice but it’s own
A sheet of rain, a sheet of voice
Drowning out the ink of words and letting them float back into the throat
By the process
Of reincarnated everything
The Long Countdown
it’s too late in the year
for a remedy
to dispel the facts as they surround us like barracudas
looking for a snack
it’s far too late
and the sun is nothing shorter than dead
nothing blacker than
her hair
staring at me
instead of her eyes
no one could say a thing
and I know this
‘cause no one did
And that’s all I needed to hear
For me to know
It’s time for me to turn my ticket in
And to
Give up the show
My witness is no longer needed
It’s time for hibernation
I can see the bear eyes closing
Slowly drifting in and out of here
Going back and forth
Between the living and the dead
Warm covenant of winter
Underneath and in the middle
A pile of consciousness snuggling
Rubbing noses against one another
Keeping the fur down
For my head
Loving sleep
Another answer for the quiet
Indispensable moon
That lets me dream in his bed
And curl between many downy sheets
Made from wheat, feathers, and foam
Until my eyes give
Up
All together
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Attempt 3: why what you have is never good enough
Partly it’s the education
I know things exist
They are all pictured, exquisitely, on the internet
On poster walls
Partly it’s the feeling
An ache
That says
That something else is better
Something else is correct
Partly it’s the knowledge
That I didn’t want it in the first place
Partly it’s the knowledge
That I have exactly what I wanted all along
There is nothing in a couplet
that exposes meaning
it’s only in the word
alone
or in the middle of so many other words that it’s drowning and waiting for something to stand out from the bunch and just say something anything really that would have the potential to get at the heart of any matter that matters to you
but all
the talking
but all
the words
don’t amount
to that thing that very dream you wonder about.
Nothing answers the question
Especially when
Asking is unpermitted
Attempt 2: why what you have is never good enough
There was a thought
Rolling across my face
You saw it
I saw it
I can deny it
But the thought
It rolled
Slowly, creaking, stopped right smack
In the middle of my face
Undeniable
Tangible
Destructive
Space between what I know and what I don’t
Fills up with dreams
Tangible dreams
Asking me, slowly, what I think
Asking me, slowly, what I feel
(it’s the same thing)
Fickle animal, fleeing for the woods, on a whim
Following after rabbits, red and white
Behind cracked doors
Recreating the math
Why what you have is never good enough
Craggy river bottom
Pursues the top
Pushes her sea glass emeralds in all directions
Forces them to lose their edge
Before
Undressing them in front of the sun
But the effort
Is a loss
A thing changed
A pain
From a lost limb, a lost edginess
The sharp point
The collaboration of events
Urging each other together
Before splitting up again
Constant hum of a good song
One you’ve heard a million times before
The phrase that unarms you
Rhythmically
Needs compensation for the pleasure
Needs to take a break
While another newer thing is found
To take its place
Friday, May 30, 2008
Another attempt: Why what you have is never good enough
Work work working hard working
For the dream
Gold goal, pinnacle of gods
Little voices
Becoming the rabble of billionaires
Stallions running backwards
Back into their caves of coal and glass
They all know
They all work work and work and keep running
Because glory
Beauty and the love
is bathing
naked
in front of wolves
we run and run and run
the sword is clanking
guns are shooting
to save it all
to save it all now
because we know without looking
we all share it without speaking
we all know
exactly
what
we
want
Thursday, May 29, 2008
pride
Objectivism, it would seem, is among the few philosophies and/or religions that list pride as a virtue. According to Ayn Rand, pride is one of the seven main virtues. In The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand wrote
-
- The virtue of Pride can best be described by the term: “moral ambitiousness.” It means that one must earn the right to hold oneself as one’s own highest value by achieving one’s own moral perfection—which one achieves by never accepting any code of irrational virtues impossible to practice and by never failing to practice the virtues one knows to be rational—by never accepting an unearned guilt and never earning any, or, if one has earned it, never leaving it uncorrected—by never resigning oneself passively to any flaws in one’s character—by never placing any concern, wish, fear or mood of the moment above the reality of one’s own self-esteem. And, above all, it means one’s rejection of the role of a sacrificial animal, the rejection of any doctrine that preaches self-immolation as a moral virtue or duty.[3]
Pride is thus seen as a positive, correct life-affirming attitude to have, as it celebrates one's achievements and promoted selfworth. It is achieved by consistently practicing productiveness, rationality, independence, honesty, integrity, justice and all of the other virtues, and the end result is one of the three cardinal Objectivist values: self-esteem.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Reflections of a Dying May
When the owl blinks
I’ll give the signal
No one will be watching
It’s a blind flash
The whole forest
Of alpine
Will fall asleep
Together and think of nothing
While we wake up
While we let our eyes readjust
To black
You probably weren’t there
You were gazing with the ground
Seeking out a thought
That ended up all wrong
But I saw the whole thing
Unravel from my bed
I wish I had caught it in a jar
Before it was dead
Great white silence
Yelling back in hollow waves
Shattering against the hooves
Of things running far away
It’s not useless, of course
The corpse has a key inside
Its throat
waiting to sing out
But won’t
Until you give the word again
Thursday, May 22, 2008
fitter happier--by radiohead
more productive
comfortable
not drinking too much
regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week)
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
at ease
eating well (no more microwave dinners and saturated fats)
a patient better driver
a safer car (baby smiling in back seat)
sleeping well (no bad dreams)
no paranoia
careful to all animals (never washing spiders down the plughole)
keep in contact with old friends (enjoy a drink now and then)
will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in wall)
favours for favours
fond but not in love
charity standing orders
on sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants)
car wash (also on sundays)
no longer afraid of the dark
or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate
nothing so childish
at a better pace
slower and more calculated
no chance of escape
now self-employed
concerned (but powerless)
an empowered and informed member of society (pragmatism not idealism)
will not cry in public
less chance of illness
tires that grip in the wet (shot of baby strapped in back seat)
a good memory
still cries at a good film
still kisses with saliva
no longer empty and frantic
like a cat
tied to a stick
that's driven into
frozen winter shit (the ability to laugh at weakness)
calm
fitter, healthier and more productive
a pig
in a cage
on antibiotics
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
wonder
I wonder
And no one can take that away
No one can steal the wonder
The thought
I imagine
I can see it
I can feel it beneath my hands, behind my chest
I know it
And no one can take that away
Except you
You could steal my thoughts
turn them from magic into the real
help me feel it in my hands, on my chest
And no one could take that away
Except me
I wonder
triumph
Triumph
In the form of stillness
Disquiet
Corrupting itself
The colors shake and leafs fall while birthing
References to the sun
Winning while the competition is dead
Players take off
Their coats
And walk naked, pink, brown, and red
Eyes closed
And groping for a safe landing midst the fall
Here again
Spreading out
Away from the
Seed
Breaking at the tips
Crushed by the impact
Of directly careless fleet
Running
In triumph
2 moons
Sacred posturing
Laying down earth incense
Lighting it in praise of the hidden second moon
The moon’s lover
Constant within the sun’s shadow
Keeps the shining ardor of his lover
On the path
Of godliness
In front the tide, ruling birthing cycles,
Insisting on paradox
Between chaos and order
In her cyclical way
The other side
The dark side
So often unnoticed, so often written off
Feels the fire
On his back and stays warm
By consistent contact
With his dualism
Everywhere
still waiting...
Wait, don’t tell me
I’ll find out anyways
Tomorrow
The day after next
At some point within the spread outside
I’ll enter that point
And never return
Monday, April 28, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
THIS is the great American
Right here
Doing this
On her ass
BEHOLD the greatness
That is this American
Plugging away the dollars
Sleeping with his eyes open
Contemplating dead options
Again!
HOORAY!
I said HOORAY!
For the nothing and nothing and the nothing
Reading the Onion
Passing time over the clock
Ignoring the ringing
Letting the alarm
Become a rhythm to live life by
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thursday, April 03, 2008
True Story
On the day of april 15th
An hour after sunrise
A giant tree, the one in the front yard
Starting whispering stories
About a collapse
About splitting in half
No one could hear
But it so happened
I was sleeping
under a lazy sun snooping through window slits
But I heard no tree
I don’t remember dreaming trees
Only the simple tone
of my friend
telling me to go
To go in her car
To drive away
“its ok”
Next to the lot
Where the car was parked
A branch the size of a tree
Hollow and buzzing
Lay on asphalt
Looking innocent, out of context
My three roommates
Questioning me
“where did you go?”
“who said you could take my car?”
I don’t know, I don’t know
The branch teases me
Nonchalantly mixing with gravity
But the branch lay next to the car’s former spot
And not directly
Where the car would be
Teasing meYoung people who wanted you
Fade away
They move for the mountains
Slowly stay where they lay
But their colors become gentler
Don’t take it personally
Everyone who speaks
To you
Means the words they say
Even if you cannot decipher the meaning
They mean them any way
But don’t take them personally
Days are inches on a hem
Growing slowly towards the floor
The light grows quieter
In the late afternoon
As it softly surrounds former half shadows
That once framed your face
But don’t take it personally
It is all obliged to grow dim
The closer
You get
A gaseous mirage of oxygen
followed me
under water
I slipped down
closer to dirty sand
My hands
gripping rubbery vines running towards the sun
allow panicked breathes to escape
My lungs sucked out the air
from between sheets of
glass
I awoke tasting
a transparent film of juice on my lips
trickling to my tongue
There is a thought across from mine
faceless, opaque,
demanding that I follow
to the bottom
where I find
unpredictable doors
Monday, March 31, 2008
telos
“its gotta be about something”
looking at the his hands
Not looking at his hands
Simultaneously
“meaning. Maybe it’s a wall we can’t pass”
“maybe, but probably not”
Both looking at their hands
Both not looking at their hands
In a single motion everything acts
Exactly the same
Without touching a hair
The world reacts by feigning non-action
Or so he thinks to himself
Or so he is tempted to try to find common ground
About with
himself
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Authority withers
Descends into the hubris,
The hermeneutics
Of cloudiness
Blocking UV murderers as they penetrate
The green
Giving way to life
shuffling from one plank to the next
Chased by shark abandoned pirates
Gyrating with a million eyes
And patched knees
pre-given to falling
Into the ground
And becoming the delicate, long, finger pink brown worms
that work their way up,
their way around,
their way to a path
A moving from end to end
Traveling without traveling
Just traversing a span
On repeat.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
maybe
bi-directional, eyes on the back of the head
one on top,
for breathing
in with a blink, out to shut off
another on bottom
for rooting
gravity to the sky
Seen
between blinks
accepting and denying the unpreventable
absorption
of what the sun has to offer
The less enlightened the more smarts
maybe
The thinking brain
creates a cloud
wringing itself
for rain
quitting while
in knots
The less delicate the uglier
maybe
Dirt wombs shout birth
for dying
intricate webs of dung
made gold
after baring the light
above ground
In Preparation for Later
Deep inside a mushroom patch
Constructed from band aids stuck
Patiently
By the semi focused minds
of twin sisters
waiting to rediscover their grove
of feelings
of meanings
in the space where
men
usually expect gold
or
time capsules ready to send them moonward
More Juice
Because I said so
Because I keep saying it
Because no matter what I say
It keeps happening
Repeating, swerving
The same day
Over and over
Like a spiral moving forward
Revisiting the same arches
But in a different
Space, a future space
In comparison
To a past
artificial objects
sweet and sour drops
under the tongue
twisting
Past is in my left hand
And with future in my right
I juggle
And lick up the juices
Made from dropping
It all
Hopeful Monster
Goldschmidt speculated that big changes like this could be caused in one step by a mutation acting on the developing embryo. Most such mutations, he suggested, would produce individuals that were plain monstrous, and doomed to die without issue. But every so often, one of these mutations would happen in an environment where it could be beneficial. Then, the individual sporting it would be a hopeful monster, because it might have an evolutionary future as the founder of a new lineage.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
more beer for me Bee aches (all nytimes)
Blind Tiger Ale House, 281 Bleecker Street; (212) 462-4682; www.blindtigeralehouse.com.
d.b.a., 41 First Avenue; (212) 475-5097; www.drinkgoodstuff.com.
Jimmy's No. 43, 43 East Seventh Street (downstairs); (212) 982-3006; www.jimmysno43.com.
Standings, 43 East Seventh Street (street level); (212) 420-0671.
Burp Castle, 41 East Seventh Street; (212) 982-4576.
Heartland Brewery, multiple locations;www.heartlandbrewery.com.
Chelsea Brewing Company, Chelsea Piers, Pier 59 (at 18th Street); (212) 336-6440; www.chelseabrewingco.com.
Ginger Man, 11 East 36th Street, (212) 532-3740; www.gingerman-ny.com.
Waterfront Ale House, 540 Second Avenue (30th Street); (212) 696-4104, also at 155 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn; (718) 522-3794; www.waterfrontalehouse.com.
Spotted Pig, 314 West 11th Street; (212) 620-0393; www.thespottedpig.com.
Borough Food & Drink, 12 East 22nd Street; (212) 260-0103; www.chinagrillmgt.com.
BEER B*TCHES!
Brasserie des Rocs Blonde $9 *** ½
25.4 ounces
Perfectly balanced, beginning with lively citrus, fruit and malt flavors and ending with refreshing hop bitterness.
(Importer: D & V International, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.)
De Ranke XX Bitter $4.75 ***
11.2 ounces
Brisk and lively with great hop bitterness and saisonlike complexity. (Shelton Bros., Belchertown, Mass.)
Petrus Aged Pale $4.25 ***
11.2 ounces
Complex citrus and herbal flavors, refreshingly tart and sour.
(Win-It-Too, Santa Barbara, Calif.)
Orval Trappist Ale $6.50 ***
11.2 ounces
Spicy, bitter and very dry with a lingering touch of orange zest
and funk. (Merchant du Vin, Tukwila, Wash.)
Corsendonk Abbey Pale Ale $4.50 ** ½
(Agnus Trippel) 12 ounces
Brisk and refreshing with fruity flavors and a crisp bitterness.
(Phoenix Imports, Baltimore)
Brugse Zot $4 ** ½
11.2 ounces
Lightly fruity, smooth and refreshing; Pilsner-like with an ale texture.
(Win-It-Too, Santa Barbara, Calif.)
Affligem Blond $2.10 ** ½
12 ounces
Light, foamy and gulpable with well-balanced malt and hop flavors. (Star Brand Imports, White Plains)
De Koninck $3 ** ½
11.2 ounces
Amber with a malty, mineral earthiness and refreshing bitterness. (Belukus Marketing, Houston)
St. Pieters Zinnebir $12 ** ½
25.4 ounces
Light and lively with floral and spicy citrus aromas and flavors.
(Shelton Bros., Belchertown, Mass.)
BEST VALUE
Grimbergen Blonde $2.35 ***
11.2 ounces
Light, foamy and fresh with lingering fruit flavors.
(Scottish & Newcastle Importers, San Rafael, Calif.)
ahem, new year, new weird, new face of politics
In cyberspace, no one can hear a disembowled libertarian scream
by Chris Thompson
January 8th, 2008 7:09 PM
Lettuce B-Free won't give out her real name; she prefers her World of Warcraft moniker. She grew up on Staten Island and moved to Florida, where she shares an apartment with a friend and works in retail. There are two things that get her up in the morning: online gaming and the maverick libertarian politics of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. "He's an amazing man, and I agree with almost every one of his positions," she says. "I was raised to have a deep respect for the Constitution, and wow, he wants to bring it back!" On December 26, Lettuce B-Free found a way to bring the two together: organizing a Ron Paul rally in the World of Warcraft universe.
"One of our members, who went by the name of whoisronpaul, came up with the idea," Lettuce B-Free says. "And we just jumped on it. . . . So at like three in the morning, me and a bunch of people got together and signed a group charter. And it's been really fun chaos ever since."
Ron Paul's supporters have already distinguished themselves by their unorthodox campaigning—the blimp that's been floating around the South for the last month, the Guy Fawkes Day fundraising blitz. But running a virtual-campaign rally in an Internet gaming site must surely rank as one of the highlights of the season. The word went out through the online magazine World of Warcraft Insider, ronpaulforums.org, and the Wired blog. Soon, hundreds of people pledged to don their chain mail and shake their broadswords for Paul.
Unfortunately, there was one small complication one rarely encounters on the campaign trail: In World of Warcraft, you can get killed, usually by slavering beasts eager to rip you to shreds. Since all the Paul supporters would be playing new characters, they would be weak and all-too-vulnerable to monsters waiting to ambush them on the way to the rally point. In the days before the rally, Lettuce B-Free and a few other organizers hit the World of Warcraft universe, frantically fighting zombies and ogres in order to beef up enough characters to protect the newbies and act as bodyguards during the rally. Meanwhile, other players who hate Ron Paul's politics followed them around, taunting them and spitting on them (virtually).
Finally, the hour arrived: 8 p.m., New Year's Day. Almost 300 characters—barbarians, elves, gnomes, and green, mottled things—assembled at the small town of Kharanos, near the great dwarven city of Ironforge. They had to pick a rally point outside the big cities, because assembling so many characters in a crowded environment would slow the server down. Just before the march, Paul supporters milled around and typed snippets from the Constitution into their computers, where their characters bellowed them as text bubbles in the game.
Dozens of Ron Paul opponents donned characters of their own and milled around the edge of the crowd, where they challenged players to fight to the death.
"Unfortunately, there were folks who were there to harass us and try to stop the march," says Lettuce B-Free. "They were trying to get us to flag for [player vs. player mode], so they could kill us. They were spouting negative things, but we had already decided that we were going to be quiet and respectful and stay focused."
At 8:30, the march began, and Paul's supporters lined up single-file and tramped into Ironforge. Hecklers dogged them along the way, twirling their battleaxes and typing text bubbles like "He can't win," "He's going to ruin the economy," and "A vote for Ron Paul is a vote for socialism." The marchers chanted slogans as they boarded the tram for the human city Stormwind, and then it was on to the hamlet of Goldshare. Because she had pumped up her character to level 19, Lettuce B-Free was too busy fighting off flesh-rippers and other random beasties to look back on the crowd. But in Goldshare, she turned and gawked at what she'd created. "There was just this sea of names," she says. "The entire town was filled. That's when I realized how huge this was."
But soon Paul's supporters stumbled into more dangerous territory, and as fish-human hybrids tore the players to pieces, priest characters frantically worked their resurrection spells to keep the crowd from breaking apart. Finally, they reached Orgrimmar, a ghastly, reeking city of the orcs, which Paul supporters had agreed would serve as a stand-in for Washington, D.C. If they could storm its gates, Lettuce B-Free says, they would be symbolically taking their country back from the Beltway elites. Unfortunately, an army of Ron Paul opponents waited for them. They knew that once they got too close to the gates, all the characters would switch to player vs. player mode, and they could slaughter them at their leisure.
The bloodshed was epic. Orgimmar's guards automatically waded into the crowd and slashed left and right. Poisonous snakes slithered from crevices and sank their fangs into libertarians. Ron Paul opponents charged and struck a blow for the status quo. "I died twice," says Lettuce B-Free. "There was so much chaos. It was a mass battle." But Paul's supporters won the day, as characters breached the gates and stormed the city. The Constitution, it seems, was triumphant.
According to Lettuce B-Free, Paul's supporters plan to storm World of Warcraft again before the campaign is through. They'll have to use a different server, because the strain of accommodating so many characters slowed down the game. But they'll be back, she says. "This was great, because it was a bunch of mature players who were able to express themselves and talk politics." And maybe decapitate a troll or two.