POPCORN CEILING

Is it? Has it? So it has. It has what with it what is unnecessary and with this and there it went away to the hemispherical unconscious to render the goat illiterate for another duration of the pulse of the colon pulsing from within the digital display of the time in the dark kitchen of the rusted trailer. Maintaining. Maintaining. Maintaining.

Maintaining. Maintaining. Maintaining. Maintaining what was it? Is it? Has it? Underneath or all around underneath like pounding out the ground like playdough spreading it out flatter and wider all around underneath like pounding out the ground pounding with all the pounding of the eardrums sliding an eye to one side to see if the cellphone lights up with a call lights cellphone lights muted by the pounding of the ground pounding with all the pounding of the eardrum skins stretched across peripheral vision to gag the incoming.

What’s the gag? Is it quite that much of a stretch of the eardrum skins stretched across peripheral vision to gag the incoming? Incoming outgoing exercising social skills chocolate-layered and frosted with friendliness to practice in circles that get around and go around and around the circles in circles and end up in cul-de-sacs of respiratory infections breathing in each other’s germs of belonging and affirmation painted into the make-up of sandwich board people. Bored people trying to fill their sacs with loose change of leftover sock puppets turned inside out. Dependency gasps as it misses a breath or more or more and more and more and more as it is maintaining maintaining maintaining maintaining with the popcorn ceiling leveled at its guests leveled at its guests be here be here as the now has it underneath all around underneath like pounding out the ground like playdough spreading it out flatter and wider all around underneath like pounding out the ground pounding with all the pounding of the eardrums sliding an eye to one side to see if the cellphone lights up with a call lights cellphone lights muted by the pounding of the ground pounding with all pounding of the eardrum skins stretched across peripheral vision to gag the incoming.

The celery has been shortened at the top or bottom depending on which end is up depending on which end is down depending on who is depending on who depending on which end is next to be tried on for size connected by the lubricated short cut dug through the tunnel right down the middle from end to end. The lettuce fell to the floor not realizing someone had ripped the bag open already not realizing that the someone who had ripped the bag open already had not realized that they were that someone who had already ripped the bag open already not realizing that the lettuce had gone bad already not realizing that the lettuce that had gone bad already had been eaten after the lettuce had gone bad already not realizing that they had spent most of another night already tossing and turning while trying to rip their thoughts out of another bag of already fermenting lines of thought concerning concerns they had about connecting reasons for circles that remained welcoming and impervious within gestures of each other’s gestures of each other’s comments of each other’s inflections of each other’s reading of the situation within the situation each was situated within and had been situated within already for another sleepless night beneath the popcorn ceiling.

- Max Stoltenberg