Author: admin

  • This poem is with stupid

    We were so lucky
    to be kids
    right there
    in the sticky sweet center of
    the golden age
    of t-shirts
    Mall-store walls plastered to the sky
    with receding rows of iron-ons --
    too many to pick just five
    And when one of my older brothers
    wore that shirt that said:
    "I'm so happy I could just shit."
      Well I was that happy too.

    We were so lucky
    to be kids
    right there
    in the sticky sweet center of
    the golden age
    of t-shirts.
    Mall-store walls plastered to the sky
    with receding rows of iron-ons —
    too many to pick just five.
    And when one of my older brothers
    wore that shirt that said:
    “I’m so happy I could just shit,”
    Well I was that happy too.

  • The Lactating Detective

    She’s a stay-at-home mom pulled back into the biz by circumstance.
    “Who stole the binkie?”
    “I’ll tell you who stole the binkie.”
    He stole the binkie!”

  • The “Pale Fire Deathmarch” Pause That Refreshes

    One week from today, the PFDM kicks off. Job one for this week: make sure you have yourself a copy of so-called “Pale Fire.” Job two: don’t read Pale Fire! Oh, you can read the cover copy. And you can read the spine. Please, read the spine. But as we learned with the GRDM, one of the biggest challenges in these DMs is not getting too far ahead o’ the pack, so be sure to leave them innards alone.
    Over the next few days, getcher booties polished and yer canteen cleansed. Shake out the old pup tent. Next week: we ride!

  • Three perspectives on my lost wallet

    My four-year old daughter:
    I thought it was under the couch and
    I also tried to look for it everywhere, but
    I was having so much fun that
    I couldn’t find it.
    So it was very sad that you lost your wallet.
    My wife:
    Well, I was perplexed that we couldn’t find the wallet anywhere in the house.
    I was worried that you were so depressed about it.
    I felt blue about having more paperwork. And then,
    when Chris showed up with the wallet,
    I was so happy, I gave him a hug.
    Me:
    I want to thank everyone.
    This has been a wrenching experience.
    And now, I’d like to take watch TV.
    Catch the game.
    Eat a big chocolate model of my brain.

  • Shaved My Beard

    I shaved my beard today so, hopefully, we can put our feud aside.
    You thought I was making fun of the ’70s, but I wasn’t. I love the ’70s.
    That’s why I wore the beard in the first place. Can’t you understand?
    It was starting to tear the block apart, our feud.
    People were taking sides. Mostly they were taking your side. And that made me angry.
    So I yelled at your cat. So I took your mailbox.
    So I rubbed my butt on your car. So what, right?
    Really. I mean, we’re grown ups, you and I. Look: I shaved my beard.
    Let’s get on with our lives.

  • Don’t

    Don’t think of it
    as me
    eating your sandwich.
    Think of it as
    your sandwich
    hiding inside me
    for a day or two.

  • Sanity

    Rising to greet you.
    Pulling out a chair.
    Licking clean your plate.
    Sanity bread crumbs sticking to the side of
    your mouth your chin your shirt until
    wiped away soft backhand skin.
    Sanity letting you sit down first.
    Beached and bleached into blue-white seashell fragments.
    Crushed and sprinkled over a wide path.
    Then sanity taking a nap.

  • Spin

    There’s a bench by the Santa Cruz merry-go-round
    where you can sit and watch the brass-ring jockies
    as they spin past at high speeds
    watch their faces shift from
    crazed release last miss to
    tight mad joy next shot
    hook swinging into view
    watch hands pull back
    fingers snap from
    loose, curved noodles to
    crooked
    ready
    reach.

  • “The Pale Fire Deathmarch” Exhortation!

    A few weeks back, we wrapped “The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch,” in which some 13 or 14 of us went screaming across Pynchon’s notoriously challenging uber-book.
    Mark yer calendars. Two weeks from today — on May 31st — tanned, rested, and ready, we’ll be starting up Deathmarch 2. This time out, we’re tackling something a wee bit lighter and a whole lot shorter. By its rep, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire is a wild, one-of-a-kind read. Anthony Burgess says it’s a “brilliant confection.” Mary McCarthy, never one to be out done by Anthony Burgess, says: “This centaur work, half-poem, half-prose . . . is a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality and moral truth. Pretending to be a curio, it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century.” And various folks I know who’ve already read it say: “Great stuff!”
    Here’s how the PFDM works: every Tuesday, I’ll leave a short post here on the site. If you’re reading along, drop by and post a comment — something insightful or erudite, random blather, or just a quick “hey now!” That’s it — that’s the whole deal. The book looks like a great ride. And the whole adventure should take around 7 weeks or so.
    All are welcome — good friends, new acquaintances, and outright strangers. And yes, my old enemy, my nemesis: The Man with Five Hands: you are welcome too. The Big Idear is to use the momentum of the pack to get into books we might otherwise miss.
    There are two main bargain editions online — The Everyman’s Library edition (an inexpensive hardcover) and the Vintage paperback. Either will work — I’ll include page references for both when we set our weekly targets.
    And say, if you’re thinking of marching along, why not be here now and practice commenting at this very moment, by leaving one on this very thread. As an added bonus, it’ll help us get a rough head count so we know how much food and water to pack in. Metaphorically speaking.
    See you out on that winding road…. -CV

  • My New Future Fantasy

    Not so long ago, I was just like you —
    sitting around, waiting for the scientists
    to discover cheap and safe nuclear fusion.
    So they could take us off to Mars.
    In ships the size of Delaware.
    Now all I want is
    a machine that can make a
    big chocolate model of my brain.
    It’s true!
    I want to watch
    the game on
    a plasma TV
    and eat a
    big chocolate model
    of my brain.