Sunday, July 28, 2013

COPIES

Because uncaused or not caused or just because nor unjust causes yet beyond what was gone over between them from outside their minds within those walls that surrounded them with ambitions that ended up in new dead ends.  Yet and still not yet beyond what was gone over seemed gone and over was or wasn't quite completely gone nor completely over.  Their ongoing basket tipped over and crushed their over and done with.  And this led to paint talk of paint which led to the worst illnesses or nastiest looking injuries talk of the worst illnesses of nastiest looking injuries which led right back to paint talk of paint.

Gwen: I don't.
Mull: I don't either.
Gwen: It's difficult.
Mull: Especially difficult.
Gwen: Especially when it's someone else somewhere else.
Mull: Who were we speaking of again?
Gwen: Yeah, who were we speaking of again?
Mull: (pausing) That no this is getting to me.
Gwen: What about who?  
Mull: Maybe it is that after all.
Gwen: Who?
Mull: No that mess of sticky notes over there.
Gwen: Sticky notes?
Mull: Yes, the sticky notes over there the big yellow mess of yellow feathers over there pasted against that monitor all that's left of a strange bird caught several messages ago.
Gwen: Do you think it's been long enough?
Mull: Maybe, but let's give it a little while longer.
Gwen: And what's a little while longer?
Mull: I say something and then you say something and then you say something and then that will be a little while longer.
Gwen: Why don't you have us alternating?
Mull: Alternating?
Gwen: You have me saying something two times in a row.
Mull: That's because I wanted to compensate you for me saying something first.
Gwen: That doesn't make sense for two reasons.
Mull: Is this going to be another one of your lists with numbered items?
Gwen: It's just barely more than 1.
Mull: What would be your minimum requirement for a list?

1. cellphone at the bottom of a pool infested with algae
2. a urine collection cup used for drinking coffee
3. brown top grey pants
4. grey top brown pants
5. desert
6. more desert
7. closed rest stop
8. more desert
9. need gas
10. got gas
11. lift left thigh
12. steer off of shoulder
13. next time
14. lift right thigh
15. end list
16. next time
17. lift left thigh
18. better sound quality
19. final notice
20. next time
21. toenail clippers
22. more desert

Mull: When you take meeting notes, do you try to make the letters fit in the squares?
Gwen: I don't use graph paper.
Mull: I thought you preferred graph paper.
Gwen: And who said I was taking meeting notes?
Mull: It was thrown into your lap, I know.
Gwen: Thrown?  I'd be surprised if anyone makes that much movement.  Preoccupied with forwarding shit around from one blood clot to another.  It's assumed into my lap.  Just like everything else it's assumed into my lap.
Mull: Franny doesn't complain about taking notes in in what department is that?  They keep changing what it's called.
Gwen: That's because you haven't heard her complain like she does to me about the notes about the meetings about her boss about her job about her dick of a husband about whether or not to reject the null hypothesis about tracking space debris such as nosecone shrouds and hatch covers.
Mull: What is that?  7 items?
Gwen: 8 items if you break up space debris.
Mull: Breaking up space debris is hard to do.  
Gwen: Do you think it's been long enough?
Mull: Maybe, but let's give it a little while longer.
Gwen: And what's a little while longer?
Mull: I say something and then you say something and then you say something and then that will be a little while longer.
Gwen: Why don't you have us alternating?
Mull: Alternating?
Gwen: You have me saying something two times in a row.
Mull: That's because I wanted to compensate you for me saying something first.
Gwen: That doesn't make sense for two reasons.
Mull: Is this going to be another one of your lists with numbered items?
Gwen: It's just barely more than 1.
Mull: What would be your minimum requirement for a list?

37. Separate ways
38. Visiting the same planet 
39. Everyday putting shoes on
40. Preventing roots from
41. one step after another
42. stopped making faces
43. end list
44. stopped making faces
45. knock it off
46. might as well
47. they have all
48. been knocked off

Mull: Where are you going?
Gwen: I'm going to make a try of it to the next office.
Mull: So much for my measurements.
Gwen: Now's the time to go while the lens is pointed the other direction.
Mull: I'm coming.  There we made it.  Whose egg carton of an office is this?
Gwen: It's the same size as yours.
Mull: Seems smaller with all the crap they have in here.
Gwen: Those are procedures manuals.
Mull: Is this Blepperitsky's office?
Gwen: Blepperitsky is two more offices down make a right at the copier room and then take the elevator down 6 flights.
Mull: Couldn't we just head straight for the elevator and have done with it?
Gwen: Too risky.  What is that?
Mull: They have a bird with yellow feathers also.
Gwen: No, that sound you're making.
Mull: I'm running my fingers along the sticky notes.
Gwen: You're making a sound in your mouth with your saliva.
Mull: Oh, I was trying to recreate what it was like when it used to rain. Nostalgic, eh?
Gwen: That does not sound like rain.
Mull: I was going for a steady downpour.
Gwen: It sounds more like after your cough medicine has kicked in.
Mull: This is interesting (pulling off a sticky note and reading it).
Gwen: What does it say?
Mull: It says, "Do you remember leaves?"
Gwen: That doesn't make sense for 3 reasons.  There, I've added an item to the list.
Mull: Well, do you?
Gwen: Do I what?
Mull: Do you remember leaves?
Gwen: No.  That's a stupid question.  And don't make any repulsive attempts at weather phenomena with your body.
Mull: With nothing but needles and thorns you'd think that you'd at least be with me on this.
Gwen: He leaves she leaves she leaves is more like it.  You know, metaphysics.
Mull: How is that metaphysics?
Gwen: The basic foundational structure of reality.
Mull: Don't forget to include the other vital building blocks.
Gwen: Is this is where you go on about particle physics or biological approaches to information?
Mull: I was going to say embarrassment.  Can't leave out embarrassing moments strung together with all those other blocks of time waiting for others to have their embarrassing moments.  
Gwen: Do you think it's been long enough?
Mull: Maybe, but let's give it a little while longer.


- Max Stoltenberg



Friday, July 26, 2013

SHAVINGS OF EARTH

Blink tight
Eyes almost refuse to open
Nut thermometer drops into the lap
of emptiness overlooked
harshly eccentric 


and carved into a rigid daze
sitting at a slumped attention
fucking morning

An image virus
Stick figures drawn in the layer of vomit
Legs and arms toppled 
Felled park she wants to return to
for caressing a slipped disk 
for a slipped tongue 
slip of the tongue
tonguing a slip
fucking morning

another day of
what to call it
what
to call it
another day of
looking up and the thumb this time
digging a smile into the face
that never opens
having some
having some day
having some difficulty
logging into it
another day of
what to call it
what
to call it


- Max Stoltenberg



Sunday, July 21, 2013

SLICK SURFACES

If that if that's how they want to put it how they put it together their thing guess it's their thing put kept together with things those connecting things making connections all and all of them growing growing closer and closer together and this is coming from one bag to another if that if that's how they want to put it how they want to put it together their thing guess it's their thing put kept together with things those connecting things making connections all and all of them growing growing closer and closer together and this is coming from one bag to another each coming to this point a lot alike in its own way coming with all that coming together all that back to back back to basics getting on each other's backs if that if that's how they want to put it how they put it together their thing guess it's their thing put kept together how together with those connecting things making connections all and all of them growing growing closer and closer together and this is coming from one bag to another each coming to this point a lot alike in its own way coming with all that coming together all that back to back back to basics getting on each other's backs if that if that's how they want to put it together.

They tucked themselves in for the night between one day and the next between the anticipation of the future and the disappointment of when it finally arrived between the desert and the dump between the expanding and narrowing shafts between the dry and waxed tallow lips between the oiled cogs and the parts they played.

"Is my hand stuck in your hair?"
"Is one of my hairs wrapped around one of your knuckles?"
"Has my coffee breath squelched your scent?"
"Have I underestimated my body or overestimated our surroundings?"
"Are we asking too many questions?"
"Am I not giving good enough answers?"
"How about I move my hand?"
"What if I turn my head this way?"
"There.  It came undone.  That was fun."
"Untangling?"
"Well, that, too, but I meant that we were asking continual questions."
"Were we?"
"Yes, I think so, and you can stop now.  OK?"
"Are we going on with the questions or are you actually inquiring about me?"
"What was that?"
"I said are we going on with the questions or -"
"No, did you hear that?"
"Is this where you start again about the footsteps and those from above looking down around the storm drains for us?"
"Am I still the only one who notices it?"
"Do we only notice anything when our waste mixes with the other's?"
"Is it that I'm exaggerating what little reflection I imagine I can muster?"
"Is that what we're calling it now?  Can we point our fingers at it and say that's reflective thought when it's really more a matter of obsession with disentangling and how things reflect on us?"
"Is that what you think of my obsession with you?"
"Is that what you're obsessed with?  Are you more obsessed with sticking your penetrating questions in and out of me or that my stack of shit might fall over and get confused with yours? Do you really like my hair like this when we don't know when I'll ever be able to wash it again?  Is anything I'm saying not ending up in one of your parentheses?  With so little room in this dark smelly hole how often do I show up in your mind?"

They tucked themselves in for the night between one day and the next between the anticipation of the future and the disappointment of when it finally arrived between the desert and the dump between the expanding and narrowing shafts between the dry and waxed tallow lips between the oiled cogs and the parts they played if that if that's how they want to put it how they put it together their thing guess it's their thing put kept together how together with those connecting things making connections all and all of them growing growing closer and closer together and this is coming from one bag to another each coming to this point a lot alike in its own way coming with all that coming together all that back to back back to basics getting on each other's backs slipping and falling off of each other to end up back together at the bottom of the grease trap all and all of them all of those grease traps growing growing closer and closer together growing into one another if that if that's how they want to put it how they put it together.


- Max Stoltenberg

Saturday, July 13, 2013

FRAYED BLOTS

Pulling on the tag ripping another tear in the back of the shirt stop there's a tag and its directions can't read them must read them stop there's a tag lost hold of it and its directions can't read them can't make them out making out there was that tree against it against her why why did things end up against her not this this voice this is a voice the sound tapping on the glass reflecting that tree there was that tree against it against her why why did things end up against her not this this voice pulling on the tag ripping another tear in the back of the shirt stop there's a tag and its directions can't read them must read them stop there's a tag lost hold of it and its directions can't read them can't make them out making out there was that tree against it against her why why did things end up against her?

Have become so manageable fuck what's on the inside gets blown away from off the top before the ride is over what a cut remember before you forget to use a condiment say what the day is and maybe maybe recall dinner or was it lunch lunch lost that remember recall what you do what have you done what have you become have become so manageable fuck what's on the inside gets blown away from off the top before the ride is over what a cut remember before you forget to use a condiment say what the day is and maybe maybe recall dinner or was it lunch lunch lost that remember recall what you do what have you done what have you become have become so manageable.

Came across her and coming to my senses asked her no told her of the storage facility a building with windows that looked upon metal doors that rolled down to shoulders where hair hands once tangled into children so much more so much more articulate than me came across her and coming to my senses told her no asked her where she was coming from and she said, "Divorced."

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's a good thing."

Have become so manageable fuck what's on the inside gets blown away from off the top before the ride is over what a cut remember before you forget to use a condiment say what the day is and maybe maybe recall dinner or was it lunch lunch lost that remember recall what you do what have you done what have you become have become so manageable fuck what's on the inside gets blown away from off the top before the ride is over what a cut remember before you forget to use a condiment say what the day is and maybe maybe recall dinner or was it lunch lunch lost that remember recall what you do what have you done what have you become have become so manageable.

Came across her and coming to my senses asked her no told her of the storage facility a building with windows that looked upon metal doors that rolled down to shoulders where hair hands once tangled into children so much more so much more articulate than me came across her and coming to my senses told her no asked her where she was coming from and she said, "Divorced."

"And that's a good thing?"

"No, the asshole had to make it such a prolonged nightmare of unending torture."

Pulling on the tag ripping another tear in the back of the shirt stop there's a tag and its directions can't read them must read them stop there's a tag lost hold of it and its directions can't read them can't make them out making out there was that tree against it against her why why did things end up against her not this this voice this is a voice the sound tapping on the glass reflecting that tree there was that tree against it against her why why did things end up against her not this this voice pulling on the tag ripping another tear in the back of the shirt stop there's a tag and its directions can't read them must read them stop there's a tag lost hold of it and its directions can't read them can't make them out making out there was that tree against it against her why why did things end up against her?


- Max Stoltenberg