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The clock needed to be reset. Needed to stay in step with everything else until a part of it somewhere where their expectations someone's expectations would get rubbed the wrong way somewhat whatever the some of it was or would be. Their expectations these expectations inflated arms hands fingers to reset the time before the instant glue of slathered and frozen palms could peel off the layer of stuckness that adhered to the body other bodies bodies of others.
Standing with the right thumb scratching the left palm unable to tear off imprints of images dim classrooms upside down young man young woman holding on to the floor the chair the desks voices interrupting memories what memories don't have any no matter what they compile in a pile it gets disposed and forgotten as they are resurrected when something else embarrassing happens these are the only resurrections for watering eyes and dousing the head in the depths treated with miraculous natural elements blurring vision that smoothes over others their silhouettes compiling in a pile until they unleash their sharp instruments for sculpting again what's left behind.
The model retreats and returns and retreats sculptors fill the marble scene a scene for chiseling out another story that goes something like this and it doesn't want to start not yet or maybe ever and yet it starts something like this anyway usually one way in many modes folding the same paper unfolding leaving creases returning to the edges of paper disappearing into spaces.
The young woman not so young call her Amanda when others call her Jennifer even though her name was changed to Lilith from another that lies in that frame that hangs on that wall somewhere in that house on the edge of that forest trimmed away that trimming away she has been trying to stay one step ahead of one foot two feet of hair ahead of nothing left to get back to. On second thought, don't call her Amanda. Whatever she leaves whatever she returns to should couldn't care less there is less of her to care more for them to be right less of her nonetheless.
Death where is death's long overdue pinprick? Death is being administered in smaller dosages numbing and dulling with inadvertent returning to something familar or unfamiliar can't tell the difference anymore. Typing faster with more what's the word with what with earnestness fuck those earnest payments in full full of it hole in the bucket keeps emptying nonetheless none the less less is this which is less than what it is which is this and will be less all things being more or less less typing at a steady pace pausing for the effects of life and its caffeinated deadlines procrastinating against oblivion.
Returning to pill calls with additional times and additional locations slinking of cables through the dirt of the desert tripping over stepping over getting it straight for lines for pill calls expectations that belong somewhere along these cables that get longer and thicker dividing up space for division for additional times and addition locations addition for subtraction adding memories that clench their teeth to return to the hole of zero with wide curving ellipse multiverse pre-empted by televisions inside televisions all the way back to the beginning of the program to the beginning of the seasion to the beginning of the signal returning to the reruns that return.
What's left is left behind and has left to return for what's left all these streets so rectangular and perpendicular boxing in these lives so circular stepping over cables curled up behind desks those classroom desks those voices echo in every cough every pill call on every street corner every corner of every room of every mind corners of circular rooms spinning in round minds rounded off to the nearest estimate of birth and death leaving returning leaving returning.
- Max Stoltenberg
Now there is a point with its quill going right through the hardcover softcover flaccid cover shivering with being penetrated. Slowly making for the ice maker in the garage what in the world is it doing in the garage? Put there when the roof leaked no the roof never leaked it was instead what was instead following the second hand around its course its online course following the seconds with a spray can dusting the dust and to no avail. When did that turkey maneuver the conversation toward beds and steamrollers? Crouched in the shingles with the shingles singing a tuneless unkempt mop of a ditty:
They played organs on their last legs
Last legs for playing
and being played
Lift up a flap and flap it over
Mouths that have dispensed with
dispensing
nothing connoting a point
on their last legs
no last legs
no first legs
no middle legs
between are the flaps
lift a flap and flap it over
mouths that have dispensed with
dispensing
nothing connoting a point
on their last legs
They stared at each other in front of the television show on the computer on the desk on the patio on something that made them especially distracted and even more contentious than usual nothing usual or even about as far as the turkey was concerned. The man the woman the man the woman asked implored deplored the man the woman to stop waving the turkey breast the turkey over the globe the demanding globe or the turkey's reprimand the breast's reprimand.
What channel was this?
Switch switch.
They sat still in their still life as commercials moved over them.
What channel was this?
Leave it. The turkey breast the turkey the breast that breast thumb muscle petrified. Dropping popcorn on the couch digging fingers in between cushions stilling the still life into the gaze at the show of the show at at of the show of the show the gaze of the show.
- Max Stoltenberg
It's hypocrisy it's an hypocrisy for them in their cars in their clothes in their skin. No such thing no such chance in the world their world as they thought about it forgot about it plodding along in it the raw polish the delible paint and its tone striking that chord to obey the present in all its past layered with all these strange shaped bugs and their parts separated and smashed against the windshields in their cars in their clothes in their skins where it's hypocrisy an hypocrisy.
Looking looking away tuning in tuning out in and out depositing what affect the affected overtures and notes and tunes tuning in tuning out in and out depositing what affect the affected overtures and notes and tunes noting well not so well and the unwell out of holes and into holes hiding and issuing onto the back a back covering the absence of music silent atonality skinning alive participants in the stripping away of conversation as words accumulate and disappear into orifices regorging among the purges and the whispers dark clumsiness tangled cues and poked vision taken aback.
Getting up and out to use the bathroom bumping the right kneecap the under part of the knee cap on a corner of the corner table where the magician's hat sits full of soil on a plastic plate son of a bitch variations on grammar's spray into the black flashing with bulbs of exclamation. Feeling for the magician's brim checking for its upset and finding it not there displaced crawling on the floor flattening a cheek against the side of the bed approaching the corner as it sharpens into arousal deflected variations on deflections. No dirt hands sliding along carpet soaking up sweat and unintended maneuvers.
Standing on top of the building with her dog watching the dark purple sky forming cracks of red and orange both fists aglow with their own tight bristles of hues dipped in chapped lips. Enough stories up choked up fed up diving across it to make the sash. Just another segment of the rollercoaster front car sticking toes in the sprockets of celluloid this film another sequel inflicting its variations those fucking variations.
"Up here high enough as high as it will get those levels those stories plenty of stories to go around fall down through descending into some kind of bypass bypassing something passed by. Stuck stuck stuck on a word a word a clump of words open these fists at those fists opening to let fall as they slide and drop off of the what exactly is this supposed to be is this supposed to be? Questions are sprung over the edge of this strangled majestic summit for defacing only facing the sky as it ignites another realm along its reflections igniting with fueled illusions flammable and ovulating with reproducible meaning. Should have brought up that poem or essay was it one of those things that used to be written once when there was or wasn't the things that have miscarried. Will it be a scream will it be the usual speaking under the breath so no one continues to continue on paying no mind no minds paying anything to continue on instead of that poem was it an essay was it one of those things that have miscarried. Drop it spit it out drag teeth along the tongue seed for discharging this existence one burst at a time caught on the bottom of teeth grinding to a stilted manner of being used to it being used for being used. How does it start? How does it end? How does it go? How does it stop? How does it move impatiently and sluggishly unending in its duration without duration just at the least expected recognizable patch of carpet bristles of hairs of surrounding caverns invaded welcoming incomprehensible words assembled into narration so hesitant to find here this here lost again embedded in between waves of neurotic curves disguised as something else other than what it ends up not bringing into focus among the exhibits. Exhibits was part of it
Exhibits along the way
For them they posed
Ventures in liquid
in liquid
Exhibiting was what it was
Exhibiting tubs of no
No not starting there not here
Veils exhibiting stares
Covering messages unsent
Building up expression
An eyelid behind a painting
Of solitary crowds
Or maybe the solitary in crowd
Then that might make it in as inhibit or inhibiting.
Inhibiting it in bit by bit
This is it
Inhibiting it in bit by bit
Speaking at length
No amount of content
Content or discontent
Does not matter
Could be might be what no longer could be could be longer than it needed to be being of sound mind unsound mind mind of too much sound no sound at all to cross it all out crossing to reach for the sash no more comments regarding someone that someone else who misinterpreted so much as if trying to make someone else out of this here than no more comments regarding someone else reminding not minding anymore no more no more comments regarding that uncertain someone else misinterpreting so much left it at or for a time don't really know can't get a handle on it while considering reaching for across for that sash no sound at all not even imagining imagining no more no more comments there it has to be here not there for someone else caring for no one else not here nor there nowhere no name not even nothing uneven leaning towards the sash no more comments for that certain uncertain indecisive misinterpreting someone someone else has someone else in their mind never mind no matter not to leave it at or better this than no more comments regarding that certain uncertain someone else mistinterpreting most things about someone else reminding of someone else minding someone else's matters not a certain someone's just an uncertain someone's inhibiting it in bit by bit."
- Max Stoltenberg
All right all right hold on stop repeating running through this familiar encounter running through us thus jumbling it all together all right all right hold stop where was the point of entry exit exiting for just a short walk that might extend as far as that this wall. Fill in fill something in a picture of something towards some idea of something someone some less of some more of what passes for that which passes gases out of asses more chronicles from the bottom closed and closing slowly ever so less than poetically poetry has no time for this shit or maybe it does when is not known as the pieces missing whole sections chunks of passages links between subsections and subparagraphs fine print all caps to shout at the sky the blue film drawn over caged drawings.
Drawer #1: Was that water?
Drawer #2: It doesn't last long or too long.
Drawer #1: Where is it coming from?
Drawer #2: Leaking or pooling.
Drawer #1: Is it coming from outside or inside?
Drawer #2: Dehydrated or inundated.
Drawer #1: Precipitated or fluoridated.
Drawer #2: That's more like it.
Drawer #1: More like what?
Drawer #2: Stock answers.
Drawer #1: More interested in the questions.
Drawer #2: More interest accrues for those who have invested in the stock answers.
Drawer #1: And who are those?
Drawer #2: Something to do with an arrangement an arrangement of furniture and spaces and the nature of disagreement and the nature of interest and the naturalness of fascination with interesting things gathered and carried around in sacks of personal interest and the nature of the somehow when one sack was let go and what spilled out was hosed away by forgetfulness when between installments and updates of protocol brief periods of flushing of more replacements while transitions from one protocol to the next as names of those who used to be around and use the furniture drift off like smoke making their getaway while they can before the next arrangement some smoke some line not so thickly pressed disappearing and reappearing in a mind that is sometimes working and sometimes not working on what is the world and what is the room and what is the room and what is the world and what is the wall as far as the wall.
Drawer #1: And how long has this been going on?
Drawer #2: Since the loop was started to make more room for the traffic to orbit around the enclosed area so it can be expanded into more enclosed areas.
Drawer #1: And that's the plan?
Drawer #2: So to speak. Grab that book over there.
Drawer #1: Over where?
Drawer #2: Over there.
Drawer #1: This one?
Drawer #2: No, the other one.
Drawer #1: This?
Drawer #2: No, that. The bigger one next to the ashtray. Yes, that. Turn to, think it's page 1214. Wait, actually, it's page 1412 or 1421. Try both and see which one it is.
Drawer #1: Page 1421 says, "Typically word has it beginning with the nature of those who work themselves into a corner and are often identified as being perfect for their positions for corners and niches digging ditches digging graves for those like them the less fortunate like them more fortunate than them like them unlike them as word would typically have it beginning with the nature of those previously mentioned those memorialized on tracking lists until they are thrown into the box in the corner for the to be shred." Who the hell writes like this?
Drawer #2: Who the hell knows? Couldn't find where the author is on the front at the back or maybe it's all over by matter of implication.
Drawer #1: By matter of implication? What does that mean?
Drawer #2: Don't know. Just made that up kind of like most of what's in there. Anyway, that was the wrong page. Then, it has to be page 1412.
Drawer #1: Should have said so earlier and save a lot of grief.
Drawer #2: Grief can never be saved only buried.
Drawer #1: Page 1412, "The passenger buckles down for the drive as the driver tests the vehicle's adherence to the wheel that turns with the loop testing how it hugs the road hugs its curves testing the shape the room the room for them while it is new while there is still room before the testing spreads to others alleviating traffic elsewhere and filling the space on the loop. Along the way, the passenger might remind the driver of where their exit is to re-enter the enclosed space of their town the town expanding the plan." See, it's all about the plan.
Drawer #2: Very perceptive. Read on.
Drawer #1: "The passenger might also remind the driver to turn on the radio where (see page 1421) what is what word will typically refer to as the nature beginning with what starts as shortcuts end up being dead ends and so forth as far as routes go or don't go or end up being end up dead ends." Which begs the question depending on whether it's worth asking in the scheme of things and stock answers hovering about.
Drawer #1: Take a whack at it.
Drawer #2: Would it fall too shy of the objective to consider how this evokes the sense of confusion when entering another room with others and not knowing who the conversation is regarding?
One prompted the other to keep reading on the matter. And the other prompted the one before to continue prompting the reminders the landmarks the same stains on the walls and the conspicuous efforts to remove them never removing them just ignoring them pretending they weren't there pretending where they weren't was that which they could be reminded of and the result of driving with the top down and feeling the air the hot air returning to the spaces and passages of recirculating air. One prompted the other to keep reading on the matter.
- Max Stoltenberg
Dark black dog lying down in the dark the black dark with a dark black dog lying down somewhere very old and very dark black dog resting somewhere on the bottom of the darkness the black darkness very old and very tired and very weak and very interrupted with legs dark black legs shaking and twitching inside some dark dream inside this dog's dark black head this dog dreaming and running from something could that be it could that be what is happening to this dog this dark black dog's body inside it's dark black head inside on the bottom of this darkness somewhere on the bottom.
Listening for a sneeze a rustling noise from the black dog in the darkness where sound is absent smothered somewhere under thick blankets of this darkness black darkness seeping through the folds the starless folds bathed in the atramentarious. No sound not a sound and yet life the dog's life places itself along the surface of the unnoticed. Will this will will go unnoticed until it is noticed by feet that trip over and stumble in the dark the black dark at the bottom of this pit of the nightfallen pausing in muffled breathing breaths narrowed shallow below capacity capacity that floats up to the surface or gets tangled in the algae of thoughts in a corner dark corner menaced by thickened walls of the labyrinth sinking to the bottom the deep blackened bottom to press down on the dark dog's weakened lungs pressing out what life stays up in canine dreams and scenes where what light timidly suggests the possibility of a mediation to enter is snuffed out to darken the last gap the last void of darkness fit to be resigned to as two steps attempt to become re-acquainted with each other trying not to bother to startle the dark black dog aging even more as it chases and gets chased in its dream which one is it which one?
- Max Stoltenberg
