Have another slice and see if you can pull it off didn't think we could make it up here didn't think we could get this stuck this far stuck asking how it is he was asking how things are the carpet mostly in our habitat full of the smell of routine we lobbed it out there onto the rug our grenade and act so surprised when it left its blackened attempts at whipping ourselves into a theater of expectations hot lights on the hot dirt our sandals thinning this roof over our heads and underneath our asses thinning out. Thinning out for a thin slice have another slice and see if you can pull it off didn't think we could make it up here didn't think we could get this stuck this far stuck asking how it is he was asking how things are the carpet mostly in our habitat full of the smell of routine we lobbed it out there onto the rug our grenade and act.
"Are you going to hang out your shingle?"
"I'll hang you out."
"You've been one to deal with me at arm's length."
"One of many who came before me."
"Rich in habit and poor in everything else."
"I do crave a drink."
"What kind?"
"What's the point? You know I'm getting tired of this exercise of of what cluster of muscles did you call them?"
"You can discard that one."
"Whatever happened to our deck?"
"Another abandoned project of yours."
"I don't mean the fiasco in the backyard, I mean the deck of cards. What happened to them?"
"I have no idea."
"What's happened to you?"
"I meant you could discard the idea of muscles as in hitting the discard button on a computer."
"What happened to our hardware?"
"Are you deliberately asking that way so I have to choose between wondering if you're referring to what happened to our computers or our own brains?"
"Only if you insist on imposing a mechanical model on human nature."
"Isn't that what remained unspoken when I said I do?"
"You're acting very cold my dear metal monster."
"I'm sweaty."
"Careful you might rust right in the middle of a bitch slap."
"Then I'll have to make it quick."
"Take your time. I haven't been able to nod off for the longest stretch."
"If you were able to manage a nod off you could actually lean into it and tumble over the edge."
"When it comes to my way of asking that would be asking too much."
"Even if you're able to miss those tall weeds there and hit the concrete we're not high enough and you'd at your best would end up paralyzed."
"That's an unpromising prospect. I'm already paralyzed at my best."
"Then again I'd dislodge what imagination you had left."
"I have to keep what imagination I have left in otherwise if it makes contact with the outside air it begins to mold and rot."
"I was thinking of putting something together."
"With our shit for leftovers?"
"A fragment of a story."
"How can you put together a fragment?"
Have another slice and see if you can pull it off didn't think we could make it up here didn't think we could get this stuck this far stuck asking how it is he was asking how things are the carpet mostly in our habitat full of the smell of routine we lobbed it out there onto the rug our grenade and act so surprised when it left its blackened attempts at whipping ourselves into a theater of expectations hot lights on the hot dirt our sandals thinning this roof over our heads and underneath our asses thinning out.
"I was thinking of putting something together."
"With our shit for leftovers?"
They didn't know how to pronounce her name with all their abbreviations and acronyms and nicknames that new arrivals assumed because they were too tired to discuss it any further with the more seasoned the pillars that salted the Earth with their ejaculations at the visitors and their being made to look silly at the visitors and their brokenness they had to swallow to coat their insides to stomach and say the right words to give the impression they were open to healing at the hands of those who justified the need for repair in the first place at the visitors and their being made to stay with nowhere else to go.
"Was that it?"
"I don't think so."
"What's happened to you?"
"I think it may have been a poem instead."
Towards nothing
Not even the horizon
Not even that
Uneven even now
Windows darkening
Eyes unable to close
Mind lit up with exploding hopes
Words that go boom
Expressions that are nothing
But duds
Hair tied back
Hair pulled out
Floats limply
In the filthy water
Thought it was water
Having nothing left
Having fallen
Having fallen back
Into this trough
Another trough
Reserved for what wanders by
Left for what gets stranded
The only meaning
Is what's meant for those
having fallen
fallen back
Into this trough
"Is there any more?"
"Remember what you asked about fragments?"
"I try not to. It only spoils whatever leftovers I can eke out."
"So you just settle for repeating yourself?"
"Pretty much. Speaking of, must you keep your hair pulled back so tight and all the time? It makes you look like a skid-mark hurtling at me."
"We've been over this too many times. You know perfectly well why I can't let it down."
"My remarks about reusing toilet paper?"
"I know you said it was pointless earlier."
"You make it sound like pointlessness is subject to time."
"I'd still like to know what kind of drink you're craving."
Windows darkening
Eyes unable to close
"I'm not craving anything anymore."
"You always say that after you've mentioned what you've been craving."
"Forget I mentioned it."
"I won't."
"You what?"
"I said I won't forget you mentioned it."
"Then then . . ."
"Go ahead."
"Go ahead what?"
"Go ahead and say it."
Feeling a tad inside out throwing out cold shoulders into a little collar a little hot under the collar someone else had read it, too, and you did have it incorrect the first time and you're not sure if you get it now.
"I said I won't forget you mentioned it."
"Then then . . ."
"Spit it out. You didn't have to back up that far."
"What? I backed up that far because you backed up that far."
That was what what was was that was what was what was that what was that episode where there was the office and the girl the office girl the woman who ran the office she did everything for everyone practically ran the office or was she in charge? How old was she how old she was. She was actually the administrator how old she was still there told everyone that it was her career when her time there expanded her duties shoved the rest of her off the balcony not enough room for her ideas on the upper floor only what was lifted from below. What was what was that what was that episode?
"We've been over this too many times. You know perfectly well why I can't let it down."
"My remarks about reusing toilet paper?"
"I know you said it was pointless earlier."
"You make it sound like pointlessness is subject to time."
"I'd still like to know what kind of drink you're craving."
"I'm not craving anything anymore."
"You always say that after you've mentioned what you've been craving."
"Forget I mentioned it."
"I won't."
"You what?"
"I said I won't forget you mentioned it."
"Then then . . ."
"Go ahead."
"Go ahead what?"
"Go ahead and say it."
"Fuck you?"
"No not that."
"Fuck you."
"No."
"That's not it?"
"No, I said."
"What am I supposed to say then?"
"Say please."
"Please fuck me? I mean please fuck you?"
"No you dung-beetle. You're supposed to say please forget I mentioned it."
"OK. Please forget I mentioned it."
"I like when you talk dirty like that."
"What's dirty about that?"
"It's the only time you have that look like you've said something you shouldn't and I don't mean that you're being ridiculous although you are it's the only time you look like you're being something that hints of something hinting of something else and I try to give myself the idea you're being forward because with all my having no idea about anything and so that's what I think OK?"
"So you want me to say it again?"
"Damn it all. Forget I mentioned it."
"And that has more grit for you when I add please?"
"What's the point? What remained of that cocktail lounge is long gone anyway. What was it called? Hammered, I think."
"Plowed or was it The Three Sheets?"
"Someone plowed it away whatever it was named."
"Whatever."
"It's only a matter of time before we hear the machines coming closer in the next dust storm."
"It's just the wind my dear clanking artificial humanoid."
"You've cornered the market in artificial intelligence you elbow-headed ass."
"The wind and the noise of humanity: a match made in the restroom of existence. My over-ripe peach, just tell yourself it's hot air then."
"Every time you open your mouth or any of the other openings on you that haven't been completely clogged up with your shit."
"It's getting there."
"They've closed the gates for good."
"Shall we assemble a commentary tomorrow on the quality of the devastation we can see?"
"If there isn't a dust storm tomorrow."
"And if there is another dust storm? What then?"
"We'll assemble a commentary on the dust storm then."
"Assembling commentary is all we can put together from the wreckage."
"They've closed the gates for good."
"Tall fucking things aren't they?"
"They are fucking tall."
"What do you think they're made out of?"
"I think they're made out of what they won't admit."
"I'm glad success passed us by."
"Why?"
"So we wouldn't have to play pretend and keep acting for a larger and larger audience."
"Instead we cover our faces during the next dust storm trying not to pretend for a smaller and smaller audience an audience more less than one every other line."
"More or less."
A boneless blast fluttered between her pursed lips speckled with the crumbs of crackers packaged in his and hers matching bowels feeling a tad inside out muscles exposed messages mixed tamped down like tobacco into the bowl of a pipe sprinkled with the flame that won't catch and has only the remains of strings attached strings of smoke pulling pulling for no one. Blew it.
- Max Stoltenberg
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