26 August 2012

Featured Poet: Ji Yoon Lee

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Pomposity is my favorite city
But my god didn’t like my Pomposity
& now it’s a discontinued product
& now it’s a sad old song
& now it’s i’m sorry ma’am we don’t carry that model any more
w/ brimstone and fire
w/ limestone and salt
w/ teardrop diamonds
but w/ rhinestones
now w/ rhinestones








Pomposity is my favorite city
&Pompeii is my favorite peiwei
Proletariat maybe dead but my Pomposity will live on
w/ its legacy of never-decaying brown sauce
w/ its cheap liquor in plastic cups
w/ their youngsters forever frustrated
w/ their oldsters no longer longing
4 here is nothing but furious
4 there is nothing but weather forecast
4 there is nothing but frustration
4 there is nothing but four of us







Pomposity is my favorite city
& Bombay is my favorite sapphire
Pilgrims maybe dead but my Pomposity will live on
w/ india that is not india
w/ my gin and tonic weak on gin
w/ my plastic cups made of recyclables
w/ my frustrations made of discontinued products
my needs
O my needs







Pomposity is my favorite city
& Sodom is my favorite flavored condom
Chivalry maybe dead 
but my condominium is designed for my needs
& keeps me satisfied & in need
& in need
& in need
So so long panic attacks at night
So long my dissatisfactions
So long my customer queries







Here’s to my metropolitan Pomposity
where sewers clog & my throat mottled
& my refreshing cuppa coffee & my maximum hydration mineral water
that don’t wash down anything but buy one get one free came with some clean window smashing & fresh curb biting that almost were satisfactory& that smashing ad campaign against the window that doesn’t tell me anything but is still smashing & colorful & exciting & enticing & saves my life in a way that makes me vomit in my trenchcoat pocket dripping into your french roast and i am so sorry.
*
are yr beans well roasted
is yr coconut water satisfactory
is yr egg sandwich delish
does anybody say delish any more
do people say smashing any more
can I smash yr teeth a little more
& break into your throat a little more

*
coconut water is so in
but you are just so out
in a way that makes me sob
into my trench collar
& do anybody say fad around here anymore
should my mottled voice care
should my muddled poem care






IMMA POMPOSITY
imma stuff my pocket with paper napkins so i can use them later
to stuff your mouth & throat& nostril & you have to cry through your deaddead eyes against your will or body function that is not ok but Just do it
*
imma stuff my pocket with plastic knives so I can use them later
to stuff your mouth & throat & cunt & you have to bleed through your deaddead eyes against your will or body function that is not ok but oh fingerlicking good

*
imma stuff you like a thanksgiving turkey
but do i really care
should i really care




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© Copyright 2012 Jiyoon Lee


14 July 2012

Featured Poet: Evan Nave



Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy


I was born
in a pile of mirror
shards under a ladder
on Friday
the 13th honest
and said something
isn’t right
here and is it over
yet?
        There were old
testament prophets standing
on the ladder steps
maybe screwing
in a light bulb and telling
a joke about it. My new
born ideas were fluorescent
and tasted like
yeast and sour breast
milk.
          What is the name
                                              of this
man
        child?
one of the prophets yelled
and rent his clothes with ashy
fingers. My father and my father’s
father lay their hands on
my shoulders and said Jack
the ripper
                   Richard
the lion heart
                        and a used
car salesman but it’s all
in his head nothing
written in stone or any
thing.
Postmodern cherubim
sat on the ledge
of a dumpster and
laughed about the red
mud of identity and all
the nudity involved
with childbirth.
Mean
while my shriveled
everything was cold
and my mother sensed
it and swaddled
me in a big
mac wrapper she found
on the ground. In the moment
I understood at least
conceptually convenience
and I thought it smelled
like diarrhea.
Everyone saw my sneer
face and took it
wrong.
A high priest
looking man in
strapped sandals rushed
over grabbed a mirror
shard stooped
down and sliced
off my foreskin
tossed it over
his shoulder into
the dumpster while
the cherubim flew
back to the north
pole.
          Men take
what they are
given and pretend
to like it
til they die it’s like
being a rodeo
clown get it he said.
Circumcised and destitute
there was nothing left for me
to do but wait
out the sting
so I bled and baby
babbled a lamentation
if this is how it feels
to start how bad
will it hurt
to end?
            (Alley cats dry
humped to the existential cricket
chirp silence.)
The prophets over
heard me twisted
their beards whispered
together looked at
me sad and said
wanna hear
a dirty joke?
                       There’s no rest
                                                   you know
not even
on the sabbath.






To Calvary


Sunday school shoelaces
waxed in maple syrup
against the rug burn
if it rubs it
starts the fire in
the chafe. Melt into the cream
carpet puffed up pink in the palm lines.
One bunny ear hops in circles, dead drunk through the meadow
all the way home to strangle bunny
two with its hear listen close. Thou shalt
shout ‘til the red from the cheeks ripples ‘cross
cartoon soothe giggles animated presto lips
shout the tick tock upside the hush
puppies from Payless. Moses parted the sock seam
across the crushed toe cuticle, deaths drowned there in
the salt, in the plagues pumped to the ankles
tied up tight to choke the slip from the sweat hell
and high water rain
                                      reign
                                                go away
back into the cool between ice water
coos from mother
                                 goose
and her brood of tickle fingers
up the side stitches to the tongue
                                                             tied
pockets dropping tithe quarters.
Pay the devil. Cross the trickle into no man’s land
scribbled peach with crayon and scratched
crooked with the minivan bump.





Memories of Generational Anxiety


8ish

I am playing
baseball in a maroon
t-shirt. The white elastic
collar is overstretched and
itching my neck. I think
this collar droops
because I have too big a head.
There is something wrong
with my head.


3

I am in
the pediatric wing
of a hospital holding a stuffed
horse. My father has a six-pack
of 7Up cans on his lap. He says
you had surgery on your
ears. I think I can hear
that and how did I wake up
from that crocodile pit?


4

I am crying
from a cut
on my index finger holding
my grandfather’s pearl
handled razor blade
from the Philippines. I think
World War II has ruined
everything and I am
selfish.


9

I am reading
the Methodist hymnal in
a back row pew.
A woman with a rhino
plasty looks me in the eye
and I decide that there is beauty
in the world and her nose is
not it so I should throw up.


12

A plastic figurine of Pittsburgh
Penguins great Jaromir Jagr sits
on my father’s oak desk
shelf. I had my mother buy it
for him because the J and J
sounds felt good to me and I
thought dad would like it. We
are not a hockey family.


11

I am watching
the world’s
strongest man on television
in the family room.
My mother hollers something
down from the kitchen. I holler
something back up. She comes
down the staircase and says
I shouldn’t holler at her.
I should walk up to the kitchen
and speak at a normal volume.
She walks back up
the staircase and I think what
does Thomas Jefferson have
to do with any of this?


11ish

I am standing
in the staircase.
My parents have sent me
to my room and I am giving them
the finger and mouthing
the words fuck and
you. They can’t see
me. They watch
television and I worry
about the ten
commandments.


4

I am in
the backyard my father’s
friends are building a tree
house for me and my sister.
I crack my head
on a gas-powered generator
and think there is pain
in my head where
is dad?


14

I am hugged
against my aunt’s
breast. My grandfather has forgotten
how to play our favorite card
game and has given up
trying to remember. He starts
shuffling the cards and
mutters to himself there
will be blood my aunt says
don’t worry his mind is else
where. I say where.
She says in the war our
family’s minds are always
at war it seems. I think
is it in my veins my
mind to war worry and
we used to play
cards before all this.





With Weather Like This, Who Needs Prophecy
For Mom
Your permanent smelled
like Kip’s Burger French fries
on account of the umbilical cord being filled
with coleslaw. I heard you pipsqueak
from your love handles, the pinpoint
above your left hip, and merci beaucoup
for ice chips from a basement
bleached cafeteria fridge. Water
on the tongue numbed
the labor in the arches
of your feet. Thanks
for the name.

The doctor flipped a coin
for plug or outlet, electricity in
my crotch crackled like a Christmas
tree and when George Washington landed
face up I sprouted a man and choked
out purple. People in moustaches
cracked about college football and
wrapped me in a Midwestern
onesie made of cornhusks. Organic,
gluten-free garments still diaper rash.
You rubbed gluestick on
my ass cheeks and put me
back together again. All noses
against cheeks and promises
against neck skin. Breath gripping
the base of the skull and between
the shoulders. Still from the ice
chips cold. Support circle of busy
bodies bustling around my blood,
my blood.

Even with new eyes I stacked
the hospital floor tiling in columns
of eight. Rows of eight and outlined
the constructions with spittle
from my soft spot. Order,
order. Night Court played on the hospital
TV fuzzy with tax-paid static
and generic Sprite. You ate oyster
crackers and burped up the answers
to my questions: “Are the stacks straight
enough to keep us safe or are the rows
wish-washed in ammonia and sponge
bath? Should you have called me
out as Samson in spite of all this
hair?” Never mind, Delilah, your gypsy
jewels shone pretty in the wheelchair
chrome, and we rolled out in chariots
of amniotic fluid, baptized
into this war. 





© 2012 Evan Nave

27 April 2012

Featured Poet: Urayoán Noel




Arizona SB 1070: Una Traducción Homofónica de la Traducción Homofónica (con software y apps)


Sapiens ahora / Arizona, / sin / aún leyes, / inaugura el acecho / guantes? tu / voz no adivi / na.

Mala es la flor Arizona, o visita estatus norte de tu flor en Arizona, o visita estatuas ofrendas feces nadir norte, dar entierros aúreas fosas, tattoos o flor terror en Arizona, órbita estatutos botos, sed, turno ah! dar turno a tu fénix o ir igual afuera, igual ufana huera flor adónde, orbitar a Arizona de visitas tu voz, activar chopos ahí hallo furia Arizona, ahora vistes tu disección de reventón, sobras de relación tu locuaz presente online.

(hisopo blanco y ley)

          
1         Guía pero son cubano ley y sexo.
2         Huerto fijo y da al fin dólar,
3         de violencia repita, jugo de mora ay! liga ley.
4         Inspirar en abyecto youtube facebook
5         reverso Los.
6         y si tú a ver, ahorros, por bolsos tú. Izan en la red
7         hombre veloz sin empatía. Isla o grupo no hu-
8         bo foráneo volumen n-
9         exo. Asilo nudo insidio arri-
10       bo a media fe.
11       Al empollar charlo no en inglés empollan una
           autora alguien. Y
12       fui ni mi rey, contractan poder guardar dr-
13       ivers, drag reinverso
14       tu web foros—auguren, ahorrar y tú
15       personas, aun con tracción, url en, auguro flor.
16       Auguro útero a dios lee esto, voz, voz.
17       Vi deber carrito ver. Levitra ripio pena flor en
18       violaciones coma
19       auuchh veía social se cura y ti? Ameri-
20       cana Eva arriba da son google medicina rí-
21       o duero, o raza! google me y leguleyo, a no un—
22       aguileño un—ah fiera! rey un de churros
23       uva este id. Url feed, blogger. South Valladolid en
           tren.
24       Hay poca ser, sobre himnos el vergel, es crédito
25       forastera, for our country. Mecanismo ver coche
26       el bayoneta fleta onzas bien. Di con fracción sal-
27       ve con sud tu pro ibid. desfilan o voz an-
28       ao. Mai fiar iza arvid google-
29       flow en ahorros,
30       ahora nacional originas, y veo huero
31       voz alzo, hundir a hornos. Hola
32       un auto alienar oeste man red INRI ver-
33       so for agencia, me hice soft este instru-
34       mento. Juan o voz izan a toro ni hola hurto con
35       triunfo o hurto hartos, autoriz-
36       an water go verme foros, juguete dos.
37       Derribos dos reloca te, en pie
38       nena bien jean rhys foro + nación, sworn in, liv-
39       ing intuyo vos, in mi, o? Al sur del
40       autor danos uy lo bebí fallo Ur gobernad person-
41       u. Seis diez es el reenvío voraz es el
42       mediador voz. Sé guiar disección oh feces a tr-
43       es sin guard.



1         Alteran sin vestir gratis son, te adoro mi general
           orange county atoro ni
2         determina son plan. Di cinta frívolo US
3         nido mejor lo! rememoro tu fin
4         esta tos. Migra tú en tu voz sin formación. Autor
           voz alien.
5         Voy arriba con riesgo con son
6         uva ahora mini adónde horizon-
7         te? sur no foros no tú trae tu c-
8         raso ver, tu no sí y delante
9         is riel y fiel fui de horror
10       aun revulsión. Ah son! sé tonos o-
11       ír, a gente de Arizona turisteo,
12       de raíz alien empleos Ur lo ayer son
13       a tornasol dolor rechina twitter obvio En-
14       gels. Recibir oscuro por si ver. Show es bien.
15       Ah tu odisea sin base una oliva un autor alien w-
16       ord da morbo tu rumbo ha hecho r-
17       evolución o disección, Ur sección, Ur sur
           secciona.
18       Afuera un actor risa de char-
19       ol Django en arribo a
20       practicar data.
21       Y un río Tiber de todos
22       uno, arriba o fue online voz describe aunar grafo
           ir, cuates
23       son de sur.
24       Absurdo orden: Reto nación
25       ángel alien.
26       Vea sur, raído, foros. Tejer yo
27       furia tu era afuera, flor detonante online
28       perforan tu ropa. En arribos fui flow huero
29       carie de una forma provino tu tierra US fe-
30       roz me abro éter. Dis dis
31       locación, aura autor delinear fuera de radar.
32       Color atrofias tu ruido o fui. De
33       contra un aura es zafiro, orden red
34       o faz de este. De re y reman-
35       de re indicio. Sé ya. De flor o el
36       ancho huey, Ur king son de horizonte.
37       Corte desorden reapropien ejército U.S. online,
           sujeto
38       a esta división torear to' real id. Fe arre ere iz-
39       a ciño autor. División entrenada cine
40       foro dar. Ay y sal ay, la nostra suspendida donde
           dice.
41       Da y ve en hebra, en U.S. ven de arriba, en
42       audio odio a what country no contra a mí huey.
           Aura
43       vio defensas, aura estadle
44       terror fianzas, foros o es divid-
45       í. Auras pena re visa aura I es you.


© 2012 Urayoán Noel