Saturday, July 8, 2017

WE THOUGHT YOU

And then it struck 14 was that the number the next number from the way her hair fell or shined not from the light but from the dark the dark things time and others had done snails stay in until it's wet again and we stay in until it's dry again when we know how much we need water tastes less bland when you get older or really close to death and then you wake the fuck up the next day with a dry mouth and a wet pillow. He went about his business under the auspices of someone else's chummy volunteering you to life's dead ends that make the back of your head collide with the foot of your eyes like the sound of a chair dragged across tile. Walking on eggshell white noise perhaps it was bound to re-emerge and the little thin man in the light brown shoes bringing persuasion into it again like it's some kind of way to grab one's attention one's side one's way of looking at things and finding a part of you was next door all along and coming back coming in between knees all caps has become your type of defense your method of argument now when auditioning for a more laid-back approach is something you can take off your list was it ever there to begin with with the wrong person you know the one inside of you go back go back to the corner and wait for the car with the windows rolled down and the faces and their big eyes that shout at you as you shake and twist yourself into a shape that acts like nothing startled you until when they want you to act like you weren't expecting anything lowered that bar many ages ago not that long, but you know or are very good at acting like you didn't know or just that kind of whatever leaving the front door far behind and the expanse of nothing the clutter from ear to ear.


- Max Stoltenberg

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

CONJUNCTION LAXATIVE

Making for the distraction almost there stuck to concentration on the dark spot on the carpet that time you watched the man put his foot in it the one wearing the blue dark blue shirt like the shirt you have you wore when it was you who stepped into it. The chase to get the bus before the light changes as the dark clouds break up and the Sun on her face those eyes blinking as she finds it harder for herself to breathe. The building is paying no attention even though he wants it to look at him and know about his reservations regarding missing dinner for as long as he was in the barren expanse that grew between work and the place where he was evicted no he just forgot where he lived and the time expected to clock in got a little longer that day.

to the tollbooth
close your mouth
the doubts still banging on the door
inside your head
close that as well
long time ago it was 
needle threaded and the street
is slanting towards my anxiety
over the limit
burning in my stomach
blankets sticking to human food
left over night
going bad
and still chewed on
sheltered by their intestines
passing through never passing
just passing through


- Max Stoltenberg