9.4.24

Four Poems by Mark Young

Medusa

 

Telekinesis raises an ugly eye-

brow & hits me between my

shoulder blades, not with a

 

fist but with a cudgel plucked

from the pages of a 19th century

novel. A selective choice. The

 

original paragraph was bal-

anced phrase by phrase; but

here only the most threatening

 

have been used. The season of

darkness . . . the winter of despair.

What the dickens is going on?

 

 

In excess of the posted speed limit

 

Everyone going 80,

& I got bagged.

 

What does ; mean?

Either Spring is here :

or : calling out a function

using dot notation.

 

Decompose the outline

of complex parts. Vehe-

mence, pure undiluted

aggro, trollism, & per-

sonal axe-grinding.

 

What does that mean?

A bag of poo formed

by grinding down a pro-

fessional achievement.

 

It's official: Rizz is the

word of the year. A lot of

our language is gendered.

 

What Does Peace Mean?

 

from 100 Titles From Tom Beckett

 

#33: Parts and Holes are Desire’s Templates

Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,

And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.

Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus

 

Bring your unique vision to life.

 

I shall be pleased to detail the procedure.

 

Mark the places you desire holes.

 

Take a pin, push it through the template to leave small holes.

 

You may never use them all. Enlarge those you need.

 

Befriending all the different parts of yourself will give you more choice.

 

Become more aware of the parts that respond to challenges in unskillful ways.

 

Parts are ever-changing, but don't let that burn a hole in your pocket.

 

Bending your metal & plastic parts adds just $19.00 to your cart total.

 

 

#88: Some of America’s Finest Malapropisms Stagger into a Bar

 

Gourds were everywhere around

Capital Hell.  Unformed, in an

chemo outfit of carkeys, that helped

them bland into the surrendering

centenary. Come shaft’s end, & the

disjunctive eunuch forms were di-

shed in flavor of moiety; & the girds

would celery force to sneak out the

menagerie of dunking bards insin-

uated in the outboards nearby. Ours

later, & the thinnest could steel be

fined, about to snigger into the only

bear that they hadn’t yet interred.