Dance, Data, Deception

 Lighteater
—Poetry and Visual by Smith, Cleveland, OH
(next to the Zoo)

 

 

Sunlight slips between the leaves
sparkles in their shadow

Spring slides into summer
aspecting earth side flow

Seeds grow apples fall
rot returns as red

All hail Schrödinger's box
in bet on life and dead

 

 

 

The Way is Not Straight

I live at the corner
of Crooked Tree & Branch
near Random Avenue & Marginal Drive
not far from Lost Nation Road
though no one knows how to get there
or how it was named
there's no there from here anyway
so when I go I'll go real fast
down Vroomin Road
foot heavy on the petal
mind easy in its load

 

 

 

 Webwork

Young groundhog that side of glass
playing on our deck
kitten this side crouches
wanting
I turn to net, news
too much stupid
go back to deck
groundling's gone
but squirrel scampers atop rail
kitten quivers
I in I eases

 

 

 

Set

Love blood mars my arm
like bad unreadable alien poetry
from soft paw cat claw clutch
and fang
and believe my thin old man skin
love hurts

 

 

 

 As Was Foretold

Outside Heat Dome hot
bath window open
in tub
water steams
sweat oozes everywhere non-stop
purging sin
of my human verminal destructions

Oh credit card country
give me plastic or give me waste

 

 

 

I Want

Go until pooped
then sit in charge body reboot
getting old's a hoot

Weary, worn, and wary
hopeful, but not unworried
now next unscary

I used to drink
until I turned to blood
woke in Intensive Care

First I drank to go out
then drank at home
then stayed home to drink

Thrashed about
in and out
acted lout

There's dance
there's data
there's deception

Now 33 years sober
15 seconds since caffeine
10 minutes from toke

 

 

 

 Comfort Station

WALKING EDGE OF EASE

Add some caffeine to that THC, Mr Smith
and we'll get down to bidness

You can bid on this you can bid on that
wins depend on which what fed

You're alive, so something's dead
that's the Ying Yang yodel

Here just means another want there
their's the selfish model

Entropy regrets us high or low
so toke and sip I follow

It's the moments between sear and fear
I use to soothe the hollow

The rest? perhaps tepid, to be tasted
tested

A bit of abyss, please

 

 

 

Meatbeast

THE COFFEE BIN
(18 pocket notes for future poems)

Does one consume the reflections
floating atop one's cup of black coffee?
If so I'm only drinking
at the Neon Diner from now on
get more buzz per cup

Ching ching ching goes the coffee
slow slow slow goes the will
must coffee clink before brain links

That's a poor pour
so pour more
more caffeine
pour faster so I'll walk faster
and won't fall
gotta go gotta go gotta go
can’t stop can’t stop
or rat wheel will rust
and we'll all fall down
like sadsack clowns
limp in limb
laying around
let's fill my form with vroom
gimme some Zen zoom
caffeinate me over the hill
in mind/body will

3 pm
time to lose or chose
third cup of coffee or no
knowing I've no weed
to slow caffeine's carom

My, my, hot milk and honey chai
stained masala beige
a dance for tongue and caffeinated mind

Thanks for the buzz
Thanks for the love

Coffee, marijuana, cat, and wife
I have a nice life

Caffeine rings my ears
buzzes brain
electric exclaim

Weak cup coffee to pry my weary lids open
this freezing so-called spring morning
with weed running out and money not enough
and wife stressed with boss-lady worries
and the cat wheezing much and vomiting often
and the politicians in a race downhill
to dumber meaner cheaper
and decent folk so amazed not to be
locked away in concentration camps
they keep their head down and fear unsaid

Ahhhh, the first sip of pre-dawn coffee
the first toke of pre-dawn grass

Black pool of night before sun
surrounds as I drink black pool
of coffee in cup

Caffeine in my brain
need in my node

Drinking coffee from Kathy's cup
it's another day in Paradise
in the temple of the ample

Brain fuzzy cuzza not enough coffee

The push of coffee, the pull of grass,
the swoosh and soothe all bound
around untight to firmer ground

A black cup of black coffee
raised to my white face

And if you really want to up the ante
try a cup of cowboy Costa Rican pan coffee
Fair Trade of course.

Neon Coffee, please

___________________

Today’s LittleNip:

If there's life after death
first thing I'll realize
is WOW no flesh pain

And I wonder
does brain pain go too?

Looking back it's miraculous
almost scandalous
that that-me survived at all
that I got to be me-me
though me-me ain't next-me
so far

I've seen too much magic
not to have a bit of belief


—Smith

___________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Smith (Steven B. Smith) for sending us glory in the summer. Steven, who lives by the Cleveland Zoo, writes to us from his own zoo, and we’re mighty grateful for it!

 

And we're glad to hear that yellow lab Marlowe Smith is recovering from his recent illness.

 

 

 

 Mean Smith Blue

—Selfie by Smith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reminder that today is
action-packed in NorCal poetry:
Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest
deadline; Poets & Writers Workshop
in Cameron Park; and Poetry Night
in Davis, featuring Rina Wakefield
and Carol Lynn Stephenson Grellas.
For info about these and other
future poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
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Find previous four-or-so posts by scrolling down
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