Deep in the Oh-Oh

Referral

—Poems and Visuals by Smith (Steven B. Smith), Cleveland, OH

Welcome to the Armageddon
one-way ticket
to the soul

* * *

When I am dead and cold
I will be eaten by warm worms
and I will shiver in delight

 Caffeine Smith

SO TO SPEAKEASY

Of wrinkles of sorrow
and lines of laugh

The puppy reality against
the dog catcher

Wants
versus gets

More moos per gallon
or grim and bear it?

It's all comin' round the corner
hot in a Dodge Ram

For in land of blind tiger
the blind pig profits

You can chew the chicken
but you can't bite the bone

 iheartcoffee

MR & MRS SISYPHUS

Wife sick on couch
brought on by stress
of over-work and money worries

The daily rolling
of the worry rock
up our uncivilized hill

In this country
we eat our own
after we eat everyone else

But don't worry
every sale comes with
a conditional warranty

Nothing will break
until you get it home
and through your front door

Break two
get third break free
for thrice initial cost

All ingredients
guaranteed toxic
shoddy, bad for the body

Step right up
get your new uselessness here
no need to wait

Small initial payments
which rapidly bloom
bigger than your eyes, head, or check

There's a chump for every trump
small hands optional
truth not included
 

 Against the Flow

UN-ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY

My goal has always been to live ALONE.

Yet
1946-1963 I lived with my parents
1963-68 US Navy
1968 roommate
1968-69 finally lived ALONE for half a year
1969 first wife Robin Redbreast
1970 county jail
1971-75 first wife
1975 six months ALONE
1975-76 roommate
1976-77 brother Cat
1977 three months with my adultress and her husband
1977-1981 ALONE
1981 brother Cat
1982-3 ALONE
1983-85 artist Masumi Hayashi
1985-90 ALONE
1990-2005 mom Mother Dwarf
2005 three months ALONE
2005 till rest of life with Lady wife.

Score: 11 years ALONE, 63 not.

 Penetration

MULTIPLE CHOICE

Some say answers come in dreams.
Some say we are but dream.

Some say we come from God,
but don't say whence God came.

Some see us rise from ooze
and godless walk to dust.

Some insist we're not here at all,
just part of programmed hologram,

bits and bytes of code
to keep the godz amused,

or self-replicating slapstick sitcom
on perpetual renewal with no residuals,

and if we have a sponsor
they must be from the madhouse.

 Removing the Mask

DANCE-OFF 19 (for Virus-45)

Fighting up the food chain
forever fearing fail

Masks hiding people's faces
shielding who's inside

We fling bleach at our boundaries
hoping not to snag a sneeze

So bring out your dead
we got this nice dirt box bed

As we limbic low
down here below

Where lobsters boil low and slow
and the frog water's hotter

So what's it to be—eat? or eaten?
flea? or filet?

Sometimes it's the nipple
sometimes the t'ain't

This time may be serious
next time maybe ain't

We danced The So-So
then did The No-No

Now we're deep in The Oh-Oh
heading for Apocalypso

This may not be our final fatal fuckup
but we're getting there

 Mothership

MIRROR MERE ON THE WALL

They call me Mr. Klutz
I keep falling on my butts
I drop my keys
On food I sneeze
And all the wrong things clutch

At parties I don't talk
At success I balk
At first I fail
And then I bail
And go alone for walk

They say I always pose
Am looking down my nose
But they don't see
The inner me
And never will I spose

I have empty billfold
No money does it hold
I can't buy that
Cuz wallet's flat
And clothes are shabby old

They keep me from their room
Because my social gloom
When I cry why
The falling sky
It darkens their new boon

They like it when I clown
Or when I'm not around
Please go away
They often say
Cuz we don't like your sound

But yet the joke's on them
When I sneak back again
I eat their food
And mock their good
As I their lies condemn

So leave it as it is
Their life's an ugly biz
They lie and cheat
And then repeat
While I work higher bliss


(Recitation, with music by Peter Ball (1949-2015); hear it at
www.reverbnation.com/mutantsmith/song/20179431-mirror-mere/.)

 Owl Glass

Today’s LittleNip:

Driving cross
our concrete culture
skidmarks all the way

—Smith

 Made in China

______________________

 

—Medusa, thanking Smith for his fine word-play and visuals today, as he helps us swim through The Oh-Oh of current events—and also thanking Lady (Smith) for her oh-oh-so-fine art-piece (see below).

 Art by Lady

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.