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Monthly Archives: August 2024

nub

August 31, 2024
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inside my mouth/and near the left corner of my mouth/there is a nub of inner mouth tissue/raised enough so that my left canine

and the sharp tooth below it can gently notquitebite it/and they do notquitebite it/in my times of nervous contemplation

there is a counterpart nub/ near the right corner of my mouth too/ but i tend not to notquitebite it/probably because of my handedness/for as it turns out/in addition to me being left-handed/and left-footer and left-eyed/it only stands to reason/that i would be left-mouthed too

I have wondered over the years if my fellow human beings have nubs like these/or if i am a mutation

if you/have a nub or two/please comment/for you are not alone

Mildstone

August 30, 2024
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I sit at the bus stop

A fingernail moon rising east of my left shoulder

On my seventieth birthday

Glad to be heading for work

And not stewing in a hospital bed

Nor snoozing during the first millennium of a dirt nap

Glad to be here

With a serviceable body

And a still-questing mind

And the peacefulness that comes

With all bills paid

And the self-granted license to drink

All the chocolate milk I want

As long as it’s 1%

And it’s still my birthday

greenery

August 29, 2024
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the green of greens differs from that of the fairways/and that of algae and bankvaults/and there are thousands of distinct hues of green in every rainbow

the green from the oxidation of copper/is not found in any rainbow nor blade of grass/and I read somewhere that the relativistic effects on the electron arrays of metals/have a profound influence on the colors we see

of course green is not all lushness and eco-friendliness

some shades are associated with sickliness and corruption and death

best not to overthink it

we might get jaded

the canoer

August 29, 2024
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she is in a canoe in a trough and she has a virtual reality helmet on her head. She rows steadily but the constant-flow current pushing against her and her craft keep her stationary

while the vr changes what she sees, which are ghosts against a backdrop of dizzying riverbank

mountainscapes. the ghosts are the real-life characters in playlets plucked from her memories, moments good and bad from her relationships, that through biofeedback were chosen

as appropriate “life lessons.” they serve to distract her from the ache of her exertions

and, it is hoped, help her to process what happened between her and her lovers

so that she might move on. the lining under her eyes inside the helmet is of a material

that wicks away her tears and sweat.

two good cries and 90 minutes of strong pulling, and the bell chimes and the images fade

and the current ebbs to stillness. she wonders

when the apparatus will deem it non-traumatic and therapeutic

to show scenes of her with carlita

and jules and marcus.

quiet

August 29, 2024
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if you want quiet

it might help to listen to the right things

like a ladybug on a leaf

or Antares.

sometimes you have internal noise

but if you realize you have heard those strident, scolding messages before

they may become mere grumbles and murmurs.

here a swish to hear, there a siren to ignore.

closing your eye completes the equation.

olden ew

August 27, 2024
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my 70th birthday approaches my friends/and though i rejoice my alivedness/the upped crepitation encroaches my friends/and meds make existence contrivedness

young folk call me boomer in scorn-condescension/implying i’m taking up spacing/how useless my latin nouns with each declension/how t u r t l e s l o w dull is my pacing

i need no revenge though there’s some to be had/with hourglass watches and mire/ their years will flash by like a stripper unclad/and eternity dims all desire

fix

August 27, 2024
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fix is fuzzy fix is funny fix mix definition/a junkie’s dose a quick repair your target in position/and prefix suffix affix transfix mix the fixes more/o postfix infix crucifix a fixture with a corps

it lends itself to oxymoron try this on and check it

the finest way to fix a bad guy’s wagon is to wreck it

drifter

August 25, 2024
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something is forming in the cloudscape/that defies the nature of cloud/for it seems more substantial than fluff/more angular and designed

as it coalesces/it takes the form of an alphabet block/with a capital B on all the sides/slowly drifting and tumbling/across the sky

it is insubstantial yet holds its shape/except that the letterforms shift/and the Bs become 9s

then the faces become blank

then the Bs come back/hold for three or so minutes/change to 9s/hold (all the while slowly/drifting and tumbling)/for three or so minutes/go blank and stay blank for seven or so minutes/then the sequence repeats

dusk comes and the hard-edged shadow/of the block/melts into the shadow/of the earth

B°9 B°9 B°9 keeps repeating/with the two alphanumerics/becoming subtly contrast-lit/in the growing gloom

then the block stops tumbling and drifting/and takes on an egg shape/oyster-pale and pulsing

and within the egg a sort of 3D cartoon/of a stereotype flying saucer/with a stereotypical humanoid alien/half out of the hatch on top/waving/in looped animation

after a minute of this/the block reforms

but this time the changing alphanumerics/go from B to Y to E to hyphen/twice

then the block vanishes

without a trace