Two Poems by Joshua Martin

Devoted Miscommunication Eras

 

folding truckloads damper vanguard fortresses

to which / to warn / to obscure framing device:

           don’t look, memento, starry-eyed beatnik

           passing toaster oven marmalade projectiles / >

an acoustic panel praying mantis defibrillator torch 

blossoming nearest an unhappy sewer dweller hipster

rocking back-and-forth warbled enchilada sensor

fuzzy as a cadaver bike pedal missionary skirt

/ < . . . . .

              foremost among the insecticide war machine

              the hallelujah manias sewing mouths shut

              while it pushed sounds into a cracking lamp

              all singing the most cherished choking outrage

. . . . . ,

outside agitation rendering milking cows perverse

at least in angelic squirming bassline eruptions

drooping like snake skin in a manmade headache scarf

                                                 . . . . . , >

                         plunge /

                         the sinkhole envelopes

                         ugliest cut-off jean shorts

, hung from bathroom wall /

                                 largely uneventful (as a

                                                                lung),

of the living territories,

our suds prevent conversations:

                                           dwell, upon a device,

                                           merrily absconding with 

                                           turntable electroshock

                                                             therapy

                                                             vines <<<<< . . . . .

\ elongated wisps reinforcing stubbed toes

carrying the doppler effect oceanic tornadoes

laser focused as a foodie wound

                                                 \ . . . . . ,

                        what made the waiting room stuffy?

the taxidermist swooning

rooting around in clay scabs

tipping the tripled hot fudge

of uneven totality ravaging

unmasked for strategic verses    . . . . .

                                  average beating beeps

                                  hassling cinder blocks . . . . .

      loaf, the tumbling watermelon fever,

      misguided as an endive marshmallow

      and folding up beneath tooth decay > > >

> > :

the heartless unpacking of a seashell vicar

pleading with a peeled purchasing system

which concedes, at its core, to be unwavering

                                                         . . . . . ,

           \ suckling and buried and wounded / . . . . .

all unwanted rage suddenly dissolving

                                                             . . . . . ,

                  grooving bandits yawning infinity

                  thoroughly screaming at giant peas

                  pardoned and selfish and ordinary

. . . . . ,

           >>>>>

\ surgical forums of whining sheets

  bookended by crepuscular fumes

  less synonymous than disengaged \ <<<<<

                                                              . . . . . ,

                        nothing prepared a dome

                        for the sinking peephole endeavors

                        crusted over like opera glasses

                        weaving abandoned mosquitos

                        into a still untraceable utopia

Destructive Mobile Recession Puddings

 

quixotic eel scenarios at dawn

following ventured raincoat shadows

thoroughly propelling tomato childhoods

 

         household reindeer

hanging from the supper table raffle tickets

                   screaming bloody

                   vignettes

 

each genre specific episode of screaming

releases mustard gas giraffe headbands

onto a seemingly uninterruptable jean jacket

filled with duck-billed milkshake innuendoes

 

                          painted

           fuel-injected nostrils spraying

           latitudinal unfortunate leprosy

           upon regrettable tidal depots

 

wrist tattoo withering toothpick

wallowing juniper softening hiss

into ordinary grotesque rain chimes

 

                                 bellowing

                    the proof is in the sinking

                    dangling hoof instrumental

                    woof-woof-woofing dainty

                    mellow yellow roundtables

 

controlled jangle textual windmills

revealing convoluted coffee stains

abandoned near combustible inks

straining garrulous barcode mugs

Joshua Martin

Two Poems by Joshua Martin

Dry and Simultaneously Entombed in Gnawed Saltwater
 
Haven blast microbe punctuation marks watching
magnifying glass pencil sharpener butterflies
that elongated a horizon shaded like a hollowed
out stigmata pore. Clothespin oceans? Any
condensation in an early morning blooming as
incongruous as an initiation. Invitation to a tail-
spin beheading cockroach ceiling. Fingers span
the anorexic marble library nostalgia grottoes.
A gutter. Sensational gothic pebbles and shells
beyond expectation entities.
 
Wired, insecure, a storage shelter parking ticket
offering a blushing circular obsession to an over-
zealous toothache conference. Are there
walls kissing our cocoon landscapes? Hoof? A
ruined map. A kangaroo wandering the implanted
countryside seeking plasticine funhouse typos. A
dinosaur toxin. A latent ceremonial slug unexpect-
edly disenchanted. Dusty guile and forlorn states
of vegetative shrinking. A lost corner. A beatnik
cufflink superstition.
 
Specialized roundabouts smell like formal
soft drinks. Blurry apartment attractions
frequently marginal. Planets full of lint
and liver and implicit amoral synchronicity.
 
Above. Dressed to appeal to the grandeur of an
unfortunate examination. Frustration grasshopper
puzzle box resembling a clarinet tissue. Hokum.
Arrows bend and retreat and germinate.
Immunized candy duels. Wizened in the
geometric binocular civilization reduction.
Bland classicism. According to the factory
permutation theory all wilderness spectacles
culminate in conspiracy theories.
 
Exploration oddities. Dime factors of straining
consumerism. We are an implosion awaiting
clasping nourishment. Existence as a stroll.
Numbered insincerity constellation. Magnetic
hark. Bellowing hallucination. Our membranes
thirst. Our tangled eyelashes coming apart at
the pedestals. Tongue roots teetering. Arachnid
erasure. A tasteless perfume colliding with
dissenting rainforest missionaries. Among
burials. Caskets for days. The dawn of all
our horseshoe grotesqueries.
 
A voice, like an orgasm, displayed beneath
a subtle Orwellian boardgame. Lopsided
miracles exempt from stuffy academic cliffs.
Jagged and rustling and evading our context.
Like a fossil of thoughtless exposition. With-
out swearing allegiance to a literary depart-
ment store. Our catalogues of sleeping.
 

Slant Tones Encased in Banging Plaques
 
Fungus tips softy excavated enumeration
blocks of happenstance laboratory tumors
sturdy and justifiably deserted though quartz-
like in balmy bred historic strangulation
vacuums. An accountant strains finely
edged comatose arrogance while a mirroring
stammer punished charmed semblances of
cockroach buckets. Adroit, an adverse fusion
of linguistic unit structures scrawling acidic
teeth aftershocks. Scrub, nascent fields of
meditative garage syndromes. Inlet, an
eyebrow manifesto gorge? Circled in a rib
of meadow provocation volumes.
 
Lone and chomping fields. Demonic soap
opera shields whining Geraldine Chaplin
chilled spine retreats. What, another line of
callus avoidances? Might repeat leaning
allowance herbs stuck yet dancing fandangos
in concerning velvet downpours. Or curtsey
handshakes. At noon, the butter sculpture
scapegoat renders personification self-evident
as in a piano on stilts being dragged through
crystalized bathhouses. It might wither as
in a Thursday.
 
Which that said a thunderous northwest
itch bared and bloody stalking raging
obstructions? Well, turned, loaned a
cape on a holiday barricade lump shed.
Pebbles arguing fragments la dolce vita
campground tactile fingerprints.
 
All heave and little shrieking mentions,
vastly the nape of jingle bell neck tattoo
dice. Tiny gasoline engulfed echoing
appliances superseding craggy melons
of virtuous monopoly vanilla. Kinky robes
pet limbless beet assemblage. To a vertical
flute. Toward reduced liver painting. It
has a point. It has an invisible kernel twirl.
Let if throb or present padlock trails to
Kika Markham turquoise moonbeams
straddling tadpole violins. Unjust. Withheld.
An apparent fudge lurking keyhole.
 
Mightn’t the farthest spraining proverb
offer dialectical shrimp to distracted twins
blindingly pointillistic in stamina? Present
the lotion to the gopher sentence. Tanta-
mount to matted weather lungs humping
James Whale observation desks. Pome-
ranian jean shorts stoop to define declining
cultural mumbling. Pardon the glowing whis-
key clavicle mermaid intelligentsia. Rodent
to the stars. If found, return to sugar free
immaculate hand lotion station. A certain
rocking division might contain a flicker of
laundry turntables.
 
Sniff. Sniff. Beyond an egg, a sludgy and
formulaic tendency filling heated seat
silicon rodent debacle. Desk has hopped
and forgotten the rattling tug-of-war at the
heart of potato tempered fibers. Disappear-
ed fractions. The case of the hunted parallel
slaughterer of ping pong yardsticks. Dresser
drawer, a lacking. The damned fishing pole
utters calibrator armistice. A jealous seal
off to the races. In the slowly gesturing
midsection, questions link Jacques Rivette
durational light sockets to blurred clumps
of atmospheric spoons. Sing, whiplash unto
disposable improvisations. Cloaked in degre-
es of repellent garbage disposal wires.
 
Still and wherein, bloody signification gloom
tied to the ersatz doorknob jubilee headset
speaking toward a sandwich habit. Bad or
simply the birth of a defect?

Joshua Martin

Two Poems by Joshua Martin

supposed a souvenir robe of surveillance

 
Opaque respiratory decades refuse breakfast
translations in favor of code names lurking in
a bearded itching orphanage. Loose fired tones
crudely interactive. As the bounty purges damp
barometers of oak. Gourds hint at a breezy
decapitation. Stomach, a barnacle, tenderized
and quivering. An unheard-of thorax blamed
like satchels of snowflake melons.
 
Reversed carbon peeling before pushing. Hoist,
unknown, an unpleasant clump like a sound
effect. Restricted asteroids unavoidable. The
business side of magazine hubris, a telephone
lightning tidal wave farewell splinter. Into the
astronomical villages. Membership, wit,
exhumed desert surrounding mimed semi-
pregnant alloys.
 
Magic alphabetic whisks. To what end of the
bleeding spectrum ontology. Psychotic drama.
Plugged psychedelic horns blandly dyspeptic.
Caseloads of subcutaneous empires.   
 
Confusing retinal prose with insights. Subtitle, 
a shivering calendar of celebratory cycles.
 
Blunt cases of the abyss. Impending forceps,
freely hesitated. What makes qualms? A
theoretical massacre. Ongoing. Forced plat-
forms. Nodding and clandestine. Thus, worn,
especially, furiously unlikeable, a tattooed
salary radically generalized. Statehoods of
confusion. Uncontestable discs. Versatile
atmospheric intestines.
 
An account of giggling creeds. Pressurized
stampeding beehives. Exterior: dogma. Interior:
irrationality. Cloning logistics and consumed
satires. Signs, visions, an awkward tension
tangled in a fishhook commentary.
 
Introductory fetish backdrop. Nationwide
slayings, brutal leftovers, rejected duels
rejecting narcissistic preoccupations. By
wheels, dusks, thereupon continuously
scheming to stretch tightropes across the
rippling earlobes vaguely a corporatized
biscuit. Crusty epochs. Historical raging
aqueduct. Atlantic, ascending Monica Vitti
nautical closed-captioning.
 
Rivals. Renaissance miniatures causing
seaweed paraphernalia. What replied the
pausing zigzags? Radio feline placebo.
Speechless as a gazebo madrigal bruising
comic book elbow levitation crematorium.
Stroking bottles. Dyslexia on the verge of
a smokestack asparagus redundancy.
Processing edges, submerged arabesques.
Sky lamps, no need for scales or shores or
buzzing ribcage of incandescence. The
rubber doll cracked open and swallowed
like an amputated jug of howling hallelujah
catharsis.
 
Wire crossed chambers stenciled like an
operational shotgun bump. Flashlight, so
what demands a blank lamppost critique?
Sloppily challenged, an actual refutation.
Aside, astray, decapitated instead of a
supposition.

Chosen to Perform a Subsonic Ritual
 
Paleolithic hiccups blush velvet curtains
preserved in amber dunk tanks painted
beyond descriptive allowance. Combat
migraine jet engine armoire. Revoke!
Magnum opus to the stars.
 
A river of blended termites stunned,
disturbed, pacified. Wealth redistributed.
The way is downward. Surface dwelling
octopus inversion. Crusted hemispheres
and syncopated pools of lemon.
 
Misanthropic dock strikes hyperbolic belly
aching wrinkles. Above, left for recessive
crouching. Moth without a scarf. Middle
passage catacomb debts. Itching fists.
 
The last-minute morsels harming an
inchworm dialectic. Well, that withers
before becoming stretchmarks on an
armchair delirium. Your appendage
crashes into a cucumber asteroid while
the clubfooted pelvis reverts to an
appendectomy.
 
Round and blushing shrimp dial black
hole factory tornadoes. A bit. A Venn
diagram. After dark, the flamethrowers
eroticize excessive topsoil mirrors.
Shrouded hummingbirds are found
stacked to the whirlwind. An old column
hysterically daydreaming. Treadmill
skeleton. Above the traveling manuscripts,
the heat lamps cough before screeching
and finally abandoning claustrophobia.
 
Fringe, pitiful poetic ramblings. Intercity
neon bicycle cavalcade. This shark, buried
with a whip, can crackle rhetorically
while invoking Stockholm. Inventories,
allowable poking, and x-ray primitives.
What exists that does not wheeze? A
detailed circumstance. Pig weather.
 
Baseline swirl, the rumbling octagon
dwells without cyclical kidney failure.
A bright obscurity. Manifesto anus.
What, an inner seal?
 
Rabid chamber orchestras emerging
in the smug bloodstream while down-
trodden turnips recite earwax psalms
into the knowing and ravaged void.
A paper doesn’t scatter nor do spirals
cease defined catastrophes. Reflect, a
suction cup dancing beneath a sheet
of scorched fleas. An unchanged torso
reasonably gravitational.

Joshua Martin

Two Poems by Joshua Martin

Half-century implosion of the Northern Lights

 

Much contained the salamander’s method

of bibliographic melting, definitely private

as a therefore accumulation of curiosity

encrusted permits. To scholarly excess,

the serially subversive pens leaping the

regardless fields of illustrious pigments.

All thorough in fiery eyebrow oysters.

Were the high-flying nails oh so oddly

gangrenous in their admitted planetary

voids? Passing a living question and by

satirical advantage limiting hollow

surface noises. Scam. Winnow. Flailing

hypodermic scales presented rather

than patented. Another chapter of

a skirted cathedral map would likely

lead the obvious timber toward wary

geographic commentaries.

 

Fume, each citizen allowable as a

deliberate gesture withering like an

updated punishment. Troubleshoot

a reaching rhyme built upon bothered

and vicarious standards. Hail, any

deterrent haze reinventing units

simply as disorganized as glass yawns.

Unpremeditated tangles juggling these

short calculated turtle trampolines

while ushering in forlorn hiccup

backbones. Whether instead or just

catching chronological curtain rod

covered in scaly piano remains.

 

Yummy, geared up, floating curb cuts

balancing on wireless heel dynamics

breathlessly overwhelming a spooled

draft inside flea bags. Wondering,

masked like a flagpole, caricatures

play guessing games with mobsters 

still unlovable. Deepening crisis without

reservation palms. Which, in varying

degrees of turgid plasma, were the

humming baboons supposed to

eviscerate when the alphabet finally

fails visions misdiagnosed as a

deer hoof, cause itching. Pssssst.  

 

Hugging justified corner rooms. Scheming

an anvil padlock chemistry parachute

covered in fuzzy jitterbugging moles

dancing fandangos in a bonfire.

 

Alas, poorly made and understaffed,

a wallowing herbivore maintains a

puzzled expression throughout the ice

rink nightmares. Scuttle. Rattling

and peevish symphonies. A linguistic

nostril. Straining incognito blasting

pigeon hovel where extraterrestrial

happenstance reveals tainted ray gun

allusions. Disturbance on the toadstool.

 

How long winding tornadoes? Wince,

at last angled to prevent another endless

highway expansion.

 

Simultaneous Weigh Stations

 

There’s a singularity Mastodon sniffing

glue & treading water before foreplay

leapfrog coughing. Eat the tissue. Bury

the sparkplug pocket map. Are the

bladed headlights catching on? Noun.

Vests leaping & noisy as a hatchet wielding

warlord barfing mug of milquetoast

beer pong jockstraps. The rest is a

fertile pig bladder limousine. How high

the hijinks offer the mushrooms

inverted like snapping color photographic

hamsters short of a bearded breath

taking alarm clock grapefruit.

 

Ah. Well. Svelte appetizer incognito.

 

Drown frothy whimsical launch

pads. Oh sure. Hollowed out the

heavenly visionaries playing bingo

while reaching for a vacuum cleaner

noose. Support engine marvel.

An obtuse metal guru. Siting above

lockjaw monkey paws with

wearied lollipop muffins all

but straining to be a fly-on-the-wall

boot. In awe. Out of torch. touch.

Go following the padlocks into

the touchscreen tombstone where

all willow hammocks reside until

death do the cha-cha into a frying

pan monocle. Clash of the

titans. Orange transistor radio

bobbing for apples. In spite. Spirit.

Drop. Sponge. Callous reindeer under

glass. Steeped towel gallons. Whose

caboose set the tone for the debate?

 

Candidate zipper fiasco consumed

the shark infested corners of skyscraper

buzzards. Wee. Weeping. Anatomy of

an insect in the throes of a midlife

crisis. Membrane. Balm. Harrier than

a quarter & just as nominated. Wheeze

as the quacking dalliance unfurls before

another cosmetic blunder. A society

so shallow & superficial has no business

preaching.

 

The fart machine persists.

Alley-oop dagger. Playing fetch with a

cobra. Reading. Sludge mechanic

busier than a flute in autumn.

Wave goodbye. Shrink. Engineered

for failure. Rock. Paper. Schism. Trust-

ed coffee cake rotting for cursive

to be reinstated in all schools. Blimp.

Simpering musical chairs like

a cleaver organizing a dance party

in the age of uranium.

 

Blow.

Bend.

 

Any order lacking a headphone jack

will be returned unopened & despised.

Likewise conned. Levelled. Cinched.

Joshua Martin

Three Poems by Joshua Martin

impactful detention clutter

 

aggravated barcode utilities

common acquired runoff

 

             managerial slope

             hit ground shovel

                           targets,

                  whims,

        tangents

 

contracted crypto funnels

designing fractional stones

 

                                  ranking

                                  mannequin

                                  ramblings

             , twisted source

               of feeling weathered :

 

an ounce

removed

at dawn,

 

           spared mandated

           samples,

 

cores scream sublimity

engage floating viscera 

 

 

 

swash, an application hinge

 

decorate nightshirt as a wigwam

splicing onion ceiling like traffic jams

when panned vibration benches

reverse October spelling bee mustards

 

                CRACK’D! fume

                allowable ancient

                creaking  ,  mixed

                metaphorical mashing

/ ‘each decade reverses itself

   until B-movies engulf phantoms’ / - - -

 

                           whelp dumb [numb]

                           the naked pottery as

                           ornate as a marquee

                           fin    . . .    curlicued

                           sidewalk     chirping

                           metro     . . .

 

walking the vibraphone carpets

as chimney groupings flush

sagging sagas into lumpy fridges

hence a ghostly disappearing pouch

 

          [tower box crunch]

/                  crook’d music store

                   monsoon - - - TIMBER

                                                     / - - -

 

cardboard chestnut st. sweater

         , sands dupe blueprints ,

urinal harmonic straining spots - - -

 

     awesome window sprite

     carry flashing molten spaghetti [sunk]

     eating melancholy sleeves

     wearing willy-nilly elbows - - -

 

glistening [ye] driest whatever hoops

radiating lonesome perversion coffers

simple pitching the thighs spurt haze

tho borrowed nostril without a snow

 

              OOZE! the craning

          NeCk tattoo semester

          beaming peppermint

          a saucepan mystery

          higher than caricature

                  , reminded ,

                    a martyr

                    howling

                       beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

 

 

projected half-toned wheels screeching

 

bladder stanzas & frostbitten microwaves

regaling coat racks with knife throwing

not w/o inventory vistas appearing

               Near A Defrocked Television

   [WHIPLASH!!!!!!!!!!]

        , daylight igloo thermal wishin’ well,

. Night school

                    nailfile trapeze artist

                    wandering vanilla steppes

                    wearing exterior punchbowls:

   DUST

         or THE SHADOW OF VAMPIRIC

                                 MANEUVERS   . . .

 

ichthyologists promise documentary pleasures

charging psychotic SUVs with genocide

                     , In

                       the MeanTime,

        killer bad breath crooks

        run errands in soup cans

                            \ drenched! /, ,

            flour PoureD

            evenly In/To

            masquerade ball & chain

                      gymnasium          . . .

 

swamp frolic noontime basking welts

trapped SCUBA roadkill memorials

bombarding heated eyebrow shampoo

                       Craving Brain Fart Membranes  

    > mistrusted gazebo breeze <

                                         , facts

              defend madness , , skirt

supper club phonies

brimming island webs

                          : Water Hole Fatigue

              flung  [!],

                                preserving doorknob

                                refrigerated thyroid . . .

 

liberty blushed ticking timebomb

vowing to perfect the skidding

a lampshade makes from

                                        O O Z E - - -

 

     whisper grove onion boil

     simpering gnome turning

     chorus of youngsters trip

     fantastic bobbing for apples - - -

 

                     groups.

Groping & frenzied x-ray diatribes

                               [it careens daffodil

                                bank robber],

            whiff & dismantle 

 

 

Joshua Martin