too much
If the jacket with holes in it
did not point out the sores
too much
If the never married
avoided being noticed
too much
the semblance of the finite
touched down on the dead phone
only a tad
pent up grandiloquent interpreter
turn around turn away
before it is too soon
nasty beating prints its splatter
on the worksheets
over a reactor
like you
like them
she was doing it
turning
and then it became so important
to mention the missing information
passed by the window outside
who said it was attached to the house
or the house was attached to who said
who said
she was doing it
turning
and then it became so important
to mention the missing information
passed by the park
dug out of the food
too old
Turn that off it keeps beeping and pretending to be a song to someone to something more like it it likes itself more than can be stuck with a weakening magnet to the fridge out back behind the where did that go turned off to keeping anything worth beeping yourself with your fingers with your hands up to the armpits the hairs are what hurts fuck the muscles in the independent nonsense of the ship sinking again why was it brought up in meaningless conversation where the absent half is the part of that building that used to be used to be there right over there part of that building kicked out by feet stinking of organ peddles hollow measures counting on black skirts on folding chairs where heads used to shake out great lengths they went to she went turn that off before the what if it wraps around your waist your mouth don't think about it turn turn that off turn
she was doing it
turning
and then it became so important
to mention the missing information
passed by the window outside
who said it was attached to the house
or the house was attached to who said
who said
In the land of interruptions they came upon a have you heard how she cursed at him again for his inability to pay attention especially when she was discussing she wasn't discussing she was retelling what she heard when she was very put out on the front steps after she had stepped down and her feet having forgotten her shoes or socks forgotten her slippers they were pretty fucking big and she had stepped down and her feet she kept walking in her barefeet back on Earth even though she and he had been on Earth the whole time while she lived if you can put it that with her having a what we'll try to crank out the expression while we do the thing the tangling the air motions with our hands these hands never mind put that back after when she was very put out if you must it was how the spinner landed on that house that crazy house with this man not this man that man however she's insisting and she looks very convincing when she insists the way of tugging on the edges of words to make them stand out stand up and not fall over like just about all the ones I've been using up until down she stepped down after when she was very put out.
"I have a habit," Porter went on as she dug in her pocket carefully for a cigarette.
"Which you're going to demonstrate for me," quipped Liverspots rolling dice in a box he had placed on top of a rock.
"Not this," she said convinced she had settled upon one in her pocket.
"Are you going to break it?" Liverspots asked trying to rid himself of the image of the toy spaceship the day it stopped working and the lights that didn't flash anymore and the ramp that would no longer lower to this alien planet this current alien planet.
"Break it? No. It wouldn't be a habit if I could break it," said Porter tilting her head curiously at the strange shapes formed by various garbage lying about that seemed to portray some type of damaged reed instrument receiving fellatio from a hard to narrow down polygon.
"What's in your pocket. Are you going to break it?" asked Liverspots pointing with his left index finger and crouching down to examine the dice he had rolled after remembering they had been lying there in the box on the rock.
"They have a tendency to break more often than not," complained Porter sniffing while toggling between musings of a not so distant stench and a bloody nose from overly enthusiastic quarrying.
"A tendency or a habit or a predilection or a bias or a conning tower or a con man pass along the breezeway," said Liverspots pausing before he rolled the dice again to consider any additional terms or insults.
"Breezeway or causeway, conning tower? Did you say conning tower?" pondered Porter wondering if she had used the last match.
"I'm sorry you have to craft your responses to my comments in the form of a sarcastic retort," said Liverspots rolling the dice into the box and making a grunting sound of frustration.
"What happened?" asked Porter seeing the image of a heap of charred wood and furniture in her skull.
"One of them one of the dice popped out," said Liverspots, "It transcended the wall of the box the what I initially embraced as a somewhat imposing wall. I mean how deep does it have to be? What am I to do find a vast enough canal and cast them in there and then start off on some journey to the bottom to search for my dice? Harder to come by depth in this hard ground."
"All the more reason I need to tune you out when I permit myself to become aware of your little annoying things you do while we're having a conversation no less," complained Porter rubbing her nose on the rim of the nostrils trying to not go in trying she was really trying to don't go in.
"In case you weren't wondering the controversy hinges on whether to count the roll of the die that landed where it was supposed to and re-roll the one that did not or to insist on re-rolling them both and starting off fresh," said Liverspots trying to ignore the reek of dead things and human waste.
"A fresh start? Have you noticed the gross stains in that box?" said Porter retracting her nose from some dark chunk she had discovered hanging in her hair and tossing it away.
"I think it was a delivery box," speculated Liverspots examining the box by lifting it to have a closer look and then realizing he possibly upset the die that was in there. He removed it and then placed it back in the box and looked up cautiously at Porter pretending that none of the previous 30 seconds had occurred the nearest 30 seconds rounding to the nearest dried out condiment packet of meaningless time used or unused gone bad nonetheless looked up cautiously pretending the examined box there is another cough coming really dislike this feeling that holding on to the inside of the chest this holding on getting tired corner of the mouth bunching up squeezing into this have been tired got to loosen sometime life your sting is everywhere.
"Delivery box?" asked Porter noticing Liverspots trying not to cough and his hands tightened into fists little fists grimy little fists never probably operated anything only producing shit wiped with his own little grimy fists.
"Probably a food delivery box you know for delivering food," said Liverspots both sad to think about food and its absence and sorry for bringing it up and nervous about Porter's imminent umbrage.
"I wasn't good at history before and now anthropology has been overtaken by its unconscious competitor all along homelessness. There was a lot of lamenting even then about saving him and saving her and saving this and saving that. It didn't seem too long before misery set in again after they popped back up. Couldn't rest in peace with all those tears dripping on your face and the noise of grief. Holy crap kept going for what? What were we thinking? What a mistake? All the endless pushing to regret one thing after another when the only thing that one needs to regret is not quitting in the first place. That saving led to nothing but leftovers where their stink gets into the least significant cracks in every block."
"I know what you mean about competition and pathology," said Liverspots, "I think that's why all my dreams have me walking after someone I think I recognize and never quite catch up - that's me always playing catch-up - and I'm never able to put my hand on their shoulder and they never turn around so I can see if it's actually them. Drove me insane actually insane started with thinking my thoughts were forming those floaters on my eyes and something was growing inside my head like a tapeworm curled up in my skull but I kept myself busy doing this here and that there rolling and re-rolling making sure the rules were followed and now my insanity is gone it's crazy."
"I used to think," said Porter not able to take her eyes off one of the larger stains in the box that the die was stuck in and have the umbrage build up around its sides sides taking take out taking sides umbrage had holes in it jacket did not point out the sores, "I used to think that it was putting the cup of coffee to your lips that did it and then I used to think it was putting your hand against the side of the cup and feeling the warmth and then I used to think it was the putting of someone else's hand over the back of your hand and then I used to think it was the putting of the back of someone else's hand across your face and then I used to think it was the putting of your face into a pile of shit by the bottom of someone else's foot and then I used to think it was the putting of the back of your face into the inside of your own brain and then I used to think it was the putting of myself back on the track back on track back to it I used to think that."
In the land of interruptions they came upon a have you heard how she cursed at him again for his inability to pay attention especially when she was discussing she wasn't discussing she was retelling what she heard when she was very put out on the front steps after she had stepped down and her feet having forgotten her shoes or socks forgotten her slippers they were pretty fucking big and she had stepped down and her feet she kept walking in her barefeet back on Earth even though she and he had been on Earth the whole time while she lived if you can put it that with her having a what we'll try to crank out the expression while we do the thing the tangling the air motions with our hands these hands never mind put that back after when she was very put out if you must it was how the spinner landed on that house that crazy house with this man not this man that man however she's insisting and she looks very convincing when she insists the way of tugging on the edges of words to make them stand out stand up and not fall over like just about all the ones I've been using up until down she stepped down after when she was very put out.
- Max Stoltenberg
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