Joshua Martin
—Poetry by Joshua Martin, Philadelphia, PA
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
I drag my limp cross your racist uncle
I drag my limp across your racist uncle
the margins spill
a crablike repression of an octagon
shapeless in a girdle
w/ sunglasses shading hurricane pinwheels
where a ventriloquist dummy sputters
into a caterpillar we go
heigh-ho! heigh-ho! heigh-ho!
& across the wooden junkyards
carloads of fishy fire escapes
a not so sudden long hit
accompanying a tomb skull gong
cataclysmic brain fart like a drain clogged
just enough gap toothed flour to bake an anvil
screwdriver fornication
inside a body cam ritual
every device a dictator
every code a monstrosity
every manifestation a Frankenstein’s monster
in vogue
out of breath
played out harpsichord soda
drinking lame duck fascists
pestering your racist uncle to be quiet
there’s no peace
there’s no flinching
w/o the subtle coloring book of a cult
tho you may chuckle at my pince-nez
& puke when sirens wail
& did not need to pump iron
or run in place for an hour
to know an asteroid when I see it.
I drag my limp across your racist uncle
the margins spill
a crablike repression of an octagon
shapeless in a girdle
w/ sunglasses shading hurricane pinwheels
where a ventriloquist dummy sputters
into a caterpillar we go
heigh-ho! heigh-ho! heigh-ho!
& across the wooden junkyards
carloads of fishy fire escapes
a not so sudden long hit
accompanying a tomb skull gong
cataclysmic brain fart like a drain clogged
just enough gap toothed flour to bake an anvil
screwdriver fornication
inside a body cam ritual
every device a dictator
every code a monstrosity
every manifestation a Frankenstein’s monster
in vogue
out of breath
played out harpsichord soda
drinking lame duck fascists
pestering your racist uncle to be quiet
there’s no peace
there’s no flinching
w/o the subtle coloring book of a cult
tho you may chuckle at my pince-nez
& puke when sirens wail
& did not need to pump iron
or run in place for an hour
to know an asteroid when I see it.
Pencil-breath glaciers
A small maskless store of beehives
situated beneath werewolf lunch counter
exposed as fraudulent bubblegum
a flavor of lipstick unspooled
parting such sweet suckling verb tense
left to lift lust
saved from savior shaving
pencil breath glaciers
eyes eased like urine in the pool
front piece codified academic suicide
less meaning than anemia
further afield than astonishing sand
perfunctory as a podcast eligible to squirm
a vampire lesson
unprovoked chaps
assless / formal /
forced to divide
nature up
like colonial miseries
& in
honest altitude
you make a plus/minus
amendment
collaged in a
cabinet
curiously
a country mouse
more frantic than a cloud
less remote than an everywhere
setup as much to lose as a heart
collapsible at once grizzly as on shore leave
A small maskless store of beehives
situated beneath werewolf lunch counter
exposed as fraudulent bubblegum
a flavor of lipstick unspooled
parting such sweet suckling verb tense
left to lift lust
saved from savior shaving
pencil breath glaciers
eyes eased like urine in the pool
front piece codified academic suicide
less meaning than anemia
further afield than astonishing sand
perfunctory as a podcast eligible to squirm
a vampire lesson
unprovoked chaps
assless / formal /
forced to divide
nature up
like colonial miseries
& in
honest altitude
you make a plus/minus
amendment
collaged in a
cabinet
curiously
a country mouse
more frantic than a cloud
less remote than an everywhere
setup as much to lose as a heart
collapsible at once grizzly as on shore leave
Parachute
Fangs
demented mannequin coffin
nearer to sunglasses than warts
an anthem of calligraphy
touched down on roving
footprints staining muscles
(loosened /
blared/
straining to induce ridicule)
as soluble as fish are slippery
then at most
the mist spews monkey paws
until flamethrowers kneel
to PRAY
Fangs
demented mannequin coffin
nearer to sunglasses than warts
an anthem of calligraphy
touched down on roving
footprints staining muscles
(loosened /
blared/
straining to induce ridicule)
as soluble as fish are slippery
then at most
the mist spews monkey paws
until flamethrowers kneel
to PRAY
Mysterious zoning variation exposed
August crunching
snappy zapping
buzzing sawblades
made reasonable
everglade fade to burnt
crisp crispy crisped
zooming inward
gesture gulp
nope a rope w/o hope
both Bobs tickle
robbing sore footpath
footbridge a fridge
monumental tonal
shifting shift
zippy zipper zipping
then August cracking
sapling sampling sap.
August crunching
snappy zapping
buzzing sawblades
made reasonable
everglade fade to burnt
crisp crispy crisped
zooming inward
gesture gulp
nope a rope w/o hope
both Bobs tickle
robbing sore footpath
footbridge a fridge
monumental tonal
shifting shift
zippy zipper zipping
then August cracking
sapling sampling sap.
Emptied basement passport
email contagious victim
duplicate numbing agent
undertaker weather
splendid sorry
visitor who melts
stage appears sudden wide
without pacing cricket house
habit made
river flying
little wretched cabin
transformed cell laughter
bunched pot a snail
same tortoise moan built
astonished euphoria burned quotations
email contagious victim
duplicate numbing agent
undertaker weather
splendid sorry
visitor who melts
stage appears sudden wide
without pacing cricket house
habit made
river flying
little wretched cabin
transformed cell laughter
bunched pot a snail
same tortoise moan built
astonished euphoria burned quotations
Notwithstanding swarming idiom
Prodigal fragments of a hung jury
contrary primitive empty chairs
until facile jokes emerge alienated
all didactic in advantageous music
used to reach obligatory concentration
denied ciphers of prison industrial germ
conditioned not human but flat
merely ideologically dense sonnets
cycling horizon blames ball drama
letters skinning heartbroken plastic
disintegrating oyster thread systematized
baffled allergic rhinoceros scene
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
Fungus
Prodigal fragments of a hung jury
contrary primitive empty chairs
until facile jokes emerge alienated
all didactic in advantageous music
used to reach obligatory concentration
denied ciphers of prison industrial germ
conditioned not human but flat
merely ideologically dense sonnets
cycling horizon blames ball drama
letters skinning heartbroken plastic
disintegrating oyster thread systematized
baffled allergic rhinoceros scene
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
Fungus
—Joshua Martin
An unblemished dispensation
the modernity of a beatitude
internet outrage perfected
drenching opportunities
TORCHED /
SCORCHED / AN
IDIOTIC
childhood phenomenon
perversely added to
a stonewall
charted /
maps pieced together
& sunk
_____________________
Joshua Martin is a Philadelphia-based writer and filmmaker who currently works in a library. He is the author of the books, Pointillistic Venetian Blinds (Alien Buddha Press) and Vagabond fragments of a hole (Schism Neuronics). He has had pieces previously published in Coven, Spontaneous Poetics, Ygdrasil, Expat, Selcouth Station, RASPUTIN, Train, Fugitives & Futurists, Otoliths, M58, Punk Noir Magazine, Beir Bua, and Scud, among others. See more of him at joshuamartinwriting.blogspot.com/. Welcome to the Kitchen, Joshua, and ya’ll come back!
An unblemished dispensation
the modernity of a beatitude
internet outrage perfected
drenching opportunities
TORCHED /
SCORCHED / AN
IDIOTIC
childhood phenomenon
perversely added to
a stonewall
charted /
maps pieced together
& sunk
_____________________
Joshua Martin is a Philadelphia-based writer and filmmaker who currently works in a library. He is the author of the books, Pointillistic Venetian Blinds (Alien Buddha Press) and Vagabond fragments of a hole (Schism Neuronics). He has had pieces previously published in Coven, Spontaneous Poetics, Ygdrasil, Expat, Selcouth Station, RASPUTIN, Train, Fugitives & Futurists, Otoliths, M58, Punk Noir Magazine, Beir Bua, and Scud, among others. See more of him at joshuamartinwriting.blogspot.com/. Welcome to the Kitchen, Joshua, and ya’ll come back!
•••Sat. (11/6), 7-9pm: Sac. Poetry Alliance’s First Anniversary Celebration at LowBrau, 1050 20th St., Sac. (20th & K Sts.; see www.lowbrausacramento.com). Info: sacramentopoetryalliance.com/.
___________________________
—Medusa
___________________________
—Medusa
—Public Domain Photo
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Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
photos and artwork to
kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world, including
that which was previously published.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
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