wanderer

by bofa xesjum

a road a tree a drop of rain

grand finale

by dog e relaford

i woke up this morning with nothing to do and nowhere to go though the sky was bright and blue i wrote a letter to no one in particulous my brain is dead and my story is ridiculous my story has no beginning and my poem does not scan my mom was a donut and my dad was a coffee drinking man my grandma was a jar of peanuts and my grandpa a loaf of bread i could ask them how the world began or if they are really dead it might rain this afternoon or maybe the world will end i could look it up on google if google would only be my friend i sit here in this little room like blackbeard on the bounding main but the mail will arrive at noontime so i can not complain it might have a check for a billion dollars or a catalogue for seeds or an invitation to a royal wedding that would be all i need do you live in a little room are you just like me? do you enjoy your captivity or do you yearn to be free? maybe you live in a palace a palace with palatial grounds if you invite me to dinner i promise i won’t make a sound

night shift

by dog e relaford

sandy was a justice warrior who possessed a righteous aura buddy was a boomer with a limited sense of humor jojo was a sad clown whom the world had let down of a happy face he had no trace in a town called drift they worked the night shift selling energy drinks and beef jerky to the exploited workers who came in from the wind and rain sandy felt their pain but buddy only laughed and said they did not know half of what he had seen which would turn them green when sandy and buddy disagreed jojo’s heart would bleed jojo had seen it all but to relate it he had no call buddy’s laughter caused him pain but he did not wish to relive again the sadness of the world’s destruction they had not called it such when he had had a vision of hell which did not go well in the confusion he lost his illusions but if buddy and sandy had dreams of glory jojo refrained from telling his story so the world continues to spin and the sky with its evil grin will throw buddy a nickel and sandy a dime until the end of recorded time

love story of natural children, part 2

by genghis gilgamesh

part two of two

for part one, click here

the familiar tale might have commenced in the pattern referenced by the late professor dunne as “human mating 101” but fate had another plan for the young woman and the young man harry lost his money in a friendly game of cards a development that he took hard he was forced to give up idle enjoyment and seek honest employment which he found behind the counter of the general store greeting customers who came through the door one day millicent found herself with no sassafras tea on her shelf she wished to have some more so she betook herself to the general store reader, you can guess the rest perhaps it was all for the best harry continued to live and breathe as did ella jane and millicent, you may believe harry had the barefaced effrontery not to flee the country millicent changed hers and ella janes’s courses and looked to fortune from other sources harry saved his earnings for a while but patient accumulation was not his style he bought a racehorse named captain ben and was never seen in the town again ella jane got religion, and millicent died they never had anything to hide their roads were straight, and never twisted but they were quite happy to have existed the end

love story of natural children, part 1

by genghis gilgamesh

part one of two

harry hicks was a natural child born to be free and wild he roamed the earth like a tumbleweed and was somewhat inclined to greed harry loved a girl named ella jane who lived in a house on a windy plain with her widowed mother and a black cat the mother was thin but the cat was fat harry came to pay his respects the mother looked at him through her specs she thought he might be rich her brain began to twitch ella jane was more astute and saw that harry was just a galoot with no more future than a hayloft rat but she did not care too much about that if harry was willing to earn a fair wage things might proceed to a next stage and ella jane encourage his advances because life is a succession of chances ella jane’s mother, whose name by the way was margaret millicent may thought from harry’s attitude that his background was not so rude that he was a scion of the upper classes having his way with country lasses but could be brought to heel by a woman who was real did ella jane have it in her to tame the randy sinner? margaret millicent thought she might because she had been brought up right for part two, click here

bill jones

by horace p sternwall

bill jones was a natural man he was part of the master plan if he could buy it, it was sold and he always came in from the cold one day he met a floozie when she asked him for the news, he responded with a grin we have all been saved from sin the floozie took her time throwing him a lousy dime she could have thrown him a nickel instead but thoughtfully scratched her head i have been all over the world, she opined and thought i knew the human mind but if you will pardon my ignorance from what sin have we been saved, perchance? i have one answer, bill replied with a smile that still was wide as he shook his head from side to side the things they taught in school - they lied there is no heaven up above there is no universal love there is no house at the end of the lane where we meet all our old pals again but all are saved from every sin when the wheel rolls round again - the floozie could only roll her eyes while bill happily pontificized though you think it not quite nice i beg to offer you this advice hesitate not, and do not blink if someone offers you a drink

walking in the rain

by genghis gilgamesh

jeremy felt the world’s pain and went for long walks in the rain he had a cobra for a pet which did not like to get wet when jeremy went on his walks the cobra mended grandma’s socks grandma was not properly grateful and devoured cream puffs by the plateful grandma had seen better days her hair was white and her face was gray alive, she had her hopes and fears but had been dead for many years she had ideas above her station and engaged the cobra in conversation the cobra mumbled brief replies and did not look grandma in the eyes meanwhile jeremy strolled along listening to the wind’s sad song nobody else was in the street except patrolman perkins on his beat perkins and jeremy went back a ways perkins’s cow had often grazed on the lawn of jeremy’s vast estate until it met a dreadful fate since then they had drifted far apart for jeremy had not the heart to elucidate the sad details of his years in the rajah’s crowded jails good morning, governor, perkins growled as the rain lashed and the wind howled the day is long and the government rotten and many things are best forgotten

johnny and jenny

by dog e relaford

johnny woke up he was just a guy he loved pretty jenny in the sweet bye and bye he got up and got dressed because that is what he did he got a jar of instant coffee and twisted off the lid he made a cup of instant coffee which was not very good he had been raised in a lower class neighborhood he wanted to call jenny but it was not yet noon if he woke her before that she would cal him a goon johnny looked out the window the sky was blue he sipped his instant coffee and wondered what to do with his day and with his life they were both the same thing he did not want to dance and he did not want to sing he wanted to take jenny away to a desert isle but getting her to do that might take a while he stood at the window and looked out at the sky life is sad and that is no lie

promised land

by horace p sternwall

my mama told me when i was just a child men get lonely when women run wild or maybe it was the other way around life can be confusing i have found my uncle john told me when i was just a lad they get you in the end so don’t be sad they sent me to school and i won first prize for being the most uncivilized they gave me a book and said it was the scriptures but i could not even read the pictures sharks have teeth and snakes have fangs some are born to be drowned and some are born to be hanged i ran to the highway and walked by its side the sheriff pulled up and said, let’s take a ride he drove me to the desert and put a shovel in my hand and that is how i made it to the promised land

favorite

by anonymous

different people are different different people have different favorite things with some people it is another living creature like a cat or a dog or a python or an alligator or a goldfish or even another human being like a husband or wife or maybe a pop star or media star like the rock or kim kardashian or a famous person that they read books about like winston churchill or che guevara or a person they have a poster of, like einstein or marilyn monroe or chairman mao or maybe their favotrite thing is a crossword or sudoko puzzle they do every day in the newspaper or maybe a favorite food like a pizza from a particular place or an omelette they order every day at a diner most of these these things can be replaced if you lose them or get tired of them you can always replace a husband or a wife or a cat or a dog or do a different puzzle in a different paper or online or go to a different pizza place or diner or try something new or even suggest some change in the way something is cooked like, tell suzy the waitress to tell the cook this omelette could use a little more cracked pepper or purple onions but with me it is a little different my favorite thing has always been my brain i have always tried to take care of it as it is hard to replace or at least would be very expensive to do so but lately it has been letting me down it does not process the clear crisp images it used to and that i really liked and also i have a hard time following arguments which is specially annoying as people argue more than ever about more things but what can you do? that is enough about me and my problems what is your favorite thing? maybe you do not even have one but most people do it is a scientifically proven fact

on and on

by genghis gilgamesh

i had a dog named windy pine who was born under a bad sign and an old orange cat named uncle phil who slept on the archbishop’s windowsill the bishop had a maid named mrs crumb who kept the poor man under her thumb he kept a bottle up on the shelf because he just couldn’t help himself they all went to church in a leaky boat until they were old enough to vote they voted for mckinley in the last election after much thoughtful introspection the town went broke when they burned down the mill if hoover doesn’t get you, roosevelt will william jennings bryan was a friend of mine they let him out of jail when i paid his fine out in the desert they built a bomb and dropped it with a suave aplomb they say things will never be the same and that would certainly be a shame i have roamed the earth since it was flat if you know this, i know that i taught moses everything he knew and some of it was even true if you see me sitting under a tree know that my wisdom is all free some day it will all be gone but the road keeps running on

run and hide

by horace p sternwall

al had a minute sally had an hour they went down to the graveyard but did not pick a flower johnny had one jenny had two they came to the end of the road and did not know what to do alice was a vampire benny was a ghoul between them they knew everything because they never went to school moses built a pyramid to hide the pharoah’s bones he woke up in the desert and he was all alone i got a cat named thirst and a dog named hunger neither of them are getting any younger ben franklin was a preacher abe lincoln liked to talk when george washington saw them coming he went for a little walk a nickel is a nickel and a dime is a dime you can rub them together when st peter says it’s time you can run from the rain you can hide from the wind but your pockets are empty because brother you have sinned

a particular time and place

by nick nelson

nothing is real yes it looks that way take me for example i used to be considered quite a guy then i lost everything i looked out my window one morning and there was nothing there my so called friends had vanished in the night like mist in the moonlight i never expected such a thing it was all i could do not to laugh but i pulled myself together and made myself think there is a right way and a wrong way oh i know what you are thinking could i be a little more specific? how can anybody make any sense out of my ramblings? that is a valid point i am a very particular person i am myself and nobody else i am also the embodiment of a particular time and place what do you want from me anyway have i not suffered enough? excuse me for a minute while i change my brain darkness is fallling a killer is on the loose you find it amusing do you you would - i know what you are like