at the exit

I.

All I want in the sandwich is meat,

layers of meat,

three different types

10 legs

2 wings

6 eyes

In my spare time I design logos for companies that don’t exsist.

I fall asleep and wake up three weeks later

to a thriller on TV,

a gun attached to a detective,

set somewhere but not here.

There is a bridge connecting two places.

ii.

I’d have a cameo in my own life

(if it was ever filmed)

and I’d be ‘talking man in

restaurant’

Or, ‘man in the queue at the bank’

And from the list I remembered

“(24) fear gives way to anger “

iii.

She smiles a bit more genuinely now,

these days she can swim out to the markers.

The closest you ever came to kissing her was when

you shared a joint at that party.

iiii.

I memorised the A to Z

the roads, the names. I underlinedunderlined things

with magic markers,

but realised there’s no magic in pens anymore

and I underlined important places,

you know

like churches, pubic footpaths

bridal ways, hills with low gradients,

and I still take high doses in the right

measures.

40 comments

  1. multiplemichael

    MEAT SANDWICH
    IS THAT TELEOLOGICAL
    OR NON-TELEOLOGICAL
    ORIENTAL MYSTICISM
    SPECULATIVE
    and I think crazy thoughts
    WOULD I EAT A MEAT SANDWICH
    AND STARE AT GUSTAV JUNG’S BUTTOCKS
    WOULD I EAT MEAT THAT HAD VESTIGIAL
    GILL-SLITS
    POETRY ONLY WORKS
    IF YOU
    HAVE GROUP PSYCHE-MEMORY
    LIKE DRACULA
    SLEEPING IN SOFT RICH SOIL

    Like

  2. multiplemichael

    STIMULATED BY THE THOUGHT OF REWARD
    —————————————————————–
    THAT’S WHAT THE READER WANTS
    ————REWARD—————————————-
    DRAIN THE WATER FROM THE OCEANS
    GIVE US HAPPINESS
    WE CAN TAKE HOME
    —————————————————————–
    THE CONSCIOUS MIRROR REFLECTS
    THE OUTER JOHNNY BOY
    THE BEACH IS NO LONGER A BEACH
    WITHOUT THE WATER
    JUST A PILE OF SAND AND PEBBLES
    ——————————————————————
    UNMOURNED DEATH BY THE TONS
    THERE’S A DEAD GIRL OVER THERE
    GUESS WHAT COLOR HER EYES ARE
    *instantly you think…not without a reward

    Like

  3. multiplemichael

    CRAZY CONVERSATIONS
    ABOUT PAYING SOMEONE
    TO BREAK IN
    AND STEAL
    YOUR VALUABLES
    VIRTUALLY UNTOUCHED
    BOOKS
    FACTORY KEEPSAKES
    THINGS BROWN WITH BURN
    THEY FOUND YOUR MOST HIDDEN
    TRIBULATIONS
    GROUP PHOTOGRAPHS
    WHERE I WAS SINGLED OUT

    Like

  4. eatmorewords

    singled out in a group photograph – school image, you at the back
    left
    circled with black marker – teacher to the right
    fat kid in the middle
    all those eyes
    staring at the lens
    in a police line up
    your’ll never get fingered
    the detectives in disguise and missing the glues
    well rubbed lamp
    broken spine of both book and man
    ( the next best line is always on tip of your tongue, out of reach )


    I paid the man to keep the secrets
    secret

    Like

  5. multiplemichael

    you did not pay the man enough
    your secret is no longer secret
    internalized I admit
    lost childhood like
    look, mommy !
    mechanistic
    flarf—an effort to recapitulate and mimic
    unbroken stares at the market
    the flarf machine is not dead
    it leaks mockery
    poetry as a dry cackling
    perhaps too dry and cackling

    Like

  6. multiplemichael

    I GOT TOO OLD TO BE AN ALL-AMERICAN BOY
    RAISED TO A PREORGASMIC PLATEAU
    AND THEN DISCARDED
    A LIFE OF DENIAL
    DISPLACEMENTS OF INTEREST
    PLENTY OF SHADOW-PLAY
    PRAISE-WORTHY THOUGHT ACTIVATION
    WILLING TO SWALLOW THE ALTERNATE
    INNER EXAMINATION AT ART SCHOOL
    A CHARADE OF OBSERVING AND WITNESSING

    Like

  7. multiplemichael

    YOU NEVER DISCUSS YOUR COLLECTION
    OF FACTORY KEEPSAKES
    MEMORY FLUTTERS
    A STRONG TRANSITIONAL BROWN
    ——REMEMBER THAT YOU WERE ALL JAZZED
    UP ON PROPHECY
    THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING TO HAPPEN
    DISSOLVING DAYS, MONTHS, YEARS
    DECIDUOUS POEMS HAVE LOST THEIR WORDS
    SCHEDULES TO OBSCURE ENDS
    *you stand outside the Rush Meat Market
    ——hardships and adventures only a zipper away

    Like

  8. multiplemichael

    sometimes I think that you got paid
    to erase me from the family photographs
    ——————————————————
    always arguing the meaning of the Genesis story
    Good Lord Son—it always ends in tragedy

    Like

  9. eatmorewords

    the pictures were sold to ‘interested parties’, friends of the one armed man – ( I won’t mention the price) –

    ends in tragedy like dead men walking

    Like

  10. multiplemichael

    THE PRICE—GRAPES OF GALL
    THE PRICE—BITTER CLUSTER
    ——————————————–
    preoccupation with biology
    human beings so rudimentary
    that they are almost animal-like
    erased from the family album
    rudimentary, dear Michael

    Like

  11. multiplemichael

    PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAMILY LIFE
    NEAR-CARTOON
    ACTUAL GRATIFICATION
    DOES NOT TAKE PLACE
    DILEMMAS THAT MOVE IN DEEPER REGIONS
    SAVAGE AND TERRIFYING
    WHAT CHANCE OF WINNING
    IN FRONTAL COMBAT ?

    Like

  12. eatmorewords

    the price the price the price
    always about the price – like a naked arse in a smut flick
    it goes up and down
    up and down
    rudimentary economics
    supply and demand
    I demand
    she supplies

    biology is always there
    the photo album of faces of families, relatives you’ve never met, knee high to a grasshopper

    dear John letters leave a bad taste in the swallow tube

    Like

  13. eatmorewords

    carton speech bubbles of empty rhetoric – gratification or gentrification – the myth of modernity
    biting the pillow
    Or bite the bullet

    either way
    we are marked men

    Like

  14. multiplemichael

    BLACKMAIL THAT KEEPS VICTIMS
    FROM EXERCISING THEIR RIGHTS
    WATCH STUPID SPORTS ON TELEVISION
    OR CAUSE EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
    IN A POSITION
    TO GRANT OR WITHHOLD
    endless reams of litigation
    70,000 INNUENDOS
    EACH WORD
    CAN BE FOUND IN A FAMOUS POEM

    Like

  15. multiplemichael

    PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAMILY LIFE
    NEAR-CARTOON
    MEMBERS OF A GROUP
    INFLATED DEFINITIONS
    ————-daddy——
    DADDY ZIGZAGGING
    TRYING TO SURVIVE
    MOCKING LAUGHTER
    THE HARDER HE LABORED
    THE SMELL OF BRIMSTONE
    DEEPER IN THE MUCK
    MOCKING LAUGHTER
    THE HARDER HE LABORED
    HIS WANG
    NO LONGER CASTING A SHADOW

    Like

  16. multiplemichael

    HALLUCINATORY FANTASIES
    GHOSTLY VISITATIONS
    PHOTOS OF FAMILY HISTORY
    TOUGH-STEMMED BROTHER
    YOU THOUGHT OF HIM
    AS A BOOTLEGGER
    YOU TRIED TO PURCHASE
    A SIMPLE APOLOGY

    Like

  17. eatmorewords

    no apology given
    boots left at the door
    dinner set at the table
    roughage and moonshine
    recipes passed down from generation to generation, poachers pockets filled with birds and feathers
    – bootleg shack run down rocking chair veranda shotgun security – round them parts family trees mingle – the web toes cousin and the six fingered niece

    all fodder for the carnival

    Like

  18. multiplemichael

    to be on top of a hierarchy
    head-counting at the table
    the boys get served first
    ——-unable to interrupt a swallow
    hunger translated
    *wait and die suffering

    Like

  19. eatmorewords

    simple daydreams
    beaches and lottery roll overs
    tour bus blues
    when you say my name
    whisper with reverence
    I’ve told strangers on the bus about the strange lights at the Curie house – I’ve drawn pictures with pencils, poor attempts to capture a crystalline moment before the abduction –
    behind a wall of perfect numbers – in the canteen they discussed cold cases and the perfection of maths –
    – she unloaded her brain of unwanted tittle tattle
    – Johnny Boy flying through space with a ray gun

    Like

  20. multiplemichael

    ALL I WANTED TO DO
    WAS SOMEHOW PEEL OFF THE MEAT
    AND STICK IT BACK ON THE ANIMAL
    THE MEAT WANTED TO PULL
    ME CLOSER
    A TAD APPREHENSIVE
    EMBEDDED IN THE MEAT
    TINY CHRISTIAN MOUTHS
    PRAISING THE LORD

    Like

  21. multiplemichael

    BRIGHT THREADS
    FROM A TAPESTRY OF MEAT
    UNREQUITED BLOOD
    NEVER CONSUMMATED
    HEAVILY BRUISED
    FROM THE HONEYMOON
    GENITALS LIKE ANGRY PUPPETS
    THE GRAVEN IDOLS OF THE PAST

    Like

  22. eatmorewords

    tapestry trousers
    meat mask replica –
    discarded album title #4 –
    recorded underwater
    welts on left hand –
    snorkel bubble blues
    she played the oboe**

    – genitals like spatchcock chicken
    – like a champion fighters pummelled profile

    ** carry on poetry

    Like

  23. multiplemichael

    I TRIED TO GOOGLE SPATCHCOCK CHICKEN
    AND HOMELAND SECURITY
    CAME ON THE SCREEN
    AND TOLD ME
    IN RATHER HARSH WORDS
    TO MOVE ON
    HOLY MOLY LAD
    I SLEEP UNDER THE STAIRS NOW
    NOT MUCH ROOM TO DROP

    Like

  24. multiplemichael

    I WAS KINDA PRAISING THE LORD TODAY
    WHEN YOUR PLASTIC SURGEON
    CALLED WITH THE BASE FIGURE
    FOR THE PROPOSED WORK
    HE SAID THAT HE COULDN’T
    MAKE YOUR MOVABLE PARTS
    MOVE BETTER
    BUT THEY WOULD BE MORE PLEASING
    TO THE EYE
    I WAS THINKING MAY BE
    WE COULD CHARGE PEOPLE
    TO LOOK AT YOU

    Like

  25. multiplemichael

    ——————–I WAS THINKING MAY BE WE COULD
    CHARGE PEOPLE TO LOOK AT YOU——————–
    —————–all that man could be—————————
    STANDING ON A STACK OF VALENTINES
    DISOWNING THOUGHTS OF MARRIAGE
    GOTTA PUT A FOOT ON THE BRAKE
    TO START THE CAR
    HER GIANT BUTT
    HAD ITS OWN REALITY SHOW
    *take up the needle
    sew me into your life
    I can fit inside the screen

    Like

  26. multiplemichael

    HOW MUCH WOULD READERS PAY TO SEE BLOSSOMS ON A DEAD TREE ?
    IMAGES OF ASCENSION
    IMAGES OF REACENSION
    VAGUELY INCESTUOUS THOUGHTS
    CONVERSATIONAL POETRY
    “outdoors is full of unbearable reality

    Like

  27. multiplemichael

    hey baby bird
    your plastic surgeon called again
    all new figures
    the staring eye of money
    ——————————–
    the vagina turned inside out
    please Lord sanitize

    Like

  28. multiplemichael

    STANDING ON A STACK OF VALENTINES
    DISOWNING THOUGHTS OF MARRIAGE
    ———————————————————
    ———————————————————
    A LIFE BUILT FROM PAIN
    THE WINDOWS MISSING
    THE SMELL OF THE BULLS
    BLUE-BLACK
    CHALK AND CINDERS

    Like

  29. eatmorewords

    readers would pay a sack of magic beans to see blossoms fall from a dead tree
    scented raindrops
    gnarled knuckles dragged across the ground – simian gait – throwback to early evolution
    ape man with gun

    constitutional rights and blind alleyways

    Like

  30. eatmorewords

    scalpel surgeon does it for the kicks
    potato models of before and after
    the male doctor ridiculed at school for wanting to study penises
    – everything is inside out
    – the world is upside down
    A thousand nose bleeds a day during the menstrual cycle

    Like

  31. eatmorewords

    stacks of valentines
    self published like the flarf man
    desire to be the best next door neighbour a vat of salt waiting to be lent
    black bulls behinds barbed wire
    feed at a distance
    no windows and just the frames to access a view
    at angles
    of mountains and factories if dead machines

    our marriage is based on shifting plates
    slow moving icebergs
    jazz town melodies where the Otis men cut a rug

    Like

  32. multiplemichael

    OTIS MEN OFTEN PARALYZED BY SHYNESS
    EMBARRASSING SHOWERS
    AT THE SHOP
    WITH BIG FINGERS LOUIE
    AND THE CAVEMAN CLAN
    WATCHING THE SUDS
    AND BUBBLES
    PUBIC COLOR WAS A MINOR COMEDY
    SIZE WAS A DIFFERENT HORSE ALTOGETHER

    Like

  33. multiplemichael

    jazz town melodies—no mention of the dark city
    Otis men with their highs and lows
    constant challenges
    stairwells promoting free exercise
    perhaps a stolen kiss or caress
    a single toke pipe
    traumatic graffiti from Oedipus
    anything to stir memories
    a hard stick for mother
    the taboo of bodily limits
    daddy with a gun
    to the back
    of your head

    Like

  34. eatmorewords

    gun daddy in cities far flung
    from family ties – seed spread like the spray of rampage bullets
    stolen kids from stolen lips he keeps in a box
    velvet lined like a million dollar coffin

    measured miles with magic sticks

    Like

  35. multiplemichael

    WHAT WOULD STEAL A BABY ?
    CHURCH MEMBERS
    AUDIENCE MEMBERS
    AUTOMATA FASHIONED IN A CUTLERY DEPOT
    UNCANNY PEOPLE LIKE ANCIENT GRAVEN IDOLS
    SOMETIMES I BECOME MOSES
    MAINSTREAM MOSES
    AVANT-GARDE MOSES
    A SON OF THE LIVING FIRE
    READILY IDENTIFIABLE MICHAEL
    ————————————————
    ————————————————
    SMOKING SMACK
    AND METH
    FROM PULSBO, WASHINGTON
    GOT NO TIME FOR JUVENILIZED
    HALLOWEEN LEGAL BUD
    BABY SKELETONS PULL UP YOUR DIAPERS

    Like

  36. multiplemichael

    RESORT TO DRUGS
    DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR
    ADEQUATE MOTEL FACILITIES
    ZILLION RULES
    PILLS STOLEN OR MISPLACED
    SORRY—NEXT MONTH
    SECLUSION IS A GOOD THING
    HALLUCINATIONS
    AND ODD BEHAVIOR INDOORS
    WITH FAMILY AND LOVED ONES
    NO SCHIZOPHRENIC STUNTS ON TV
    NO TOUCHING POLICEMEN
    OR POLICE DOGS
    OR POLICE CARS

    Like

  37. multiplemichael

    SECLUSION IS SUGGESTED
    ————-REQUESTED
    ———————-EXPECTED
    PEOPLE FEAR “FOLLOW-UPS”
    PAINFUL CONVERSATIONS
    PERPLEXING THEMES
    PARTICIPANTS—when did I stop being a
    PERSON ?
    PSYCHIATRIC POETRY
    POCKETBOOK POETRY
    PONY AT THE NURSING STATION

    Like

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