Thrust a screwdriver into the electrical socket

 

Joshua Martin

 

 

 

 

1.

 

Mad monks

dripping corner stores

in lost horizons

on the frownland

 

     engulfing splinters

          as a final meal

     to be mused

          in an attitude to research

 

the stray legumes that face masks bring to the table & not w/o a settling into a flashing suitcase prosthetic arm waving wildly until the curtain drops from sinking tulips in meadows meddlesome like carp & to believing the war machine & to vomiting centrifugal chunks of plastic

 

 

 

 

2.

 

Unrestrained

 

               as you are as you deceived

               the rapid climbing spider monkey

               whose gate of colorful stampeding

               lies among limitless gills

 

& a flaying sink

of grotesque wonder

the bread

of misplaced luck

 

     or a Pierre lunaire puppet master

     relationship vis-à-vis

     a George Washington

     cherry tree skunk

 

& blossoming spleen to the heart of chaotic glee the only approximation of a prideful hobo in torn ligaments

 

 

 

 

3.

 

Mustard

not the only gas variety at play in the poison membranes

 

                    of the walls surrounding

                    like citadel briefly invaded

                    & then unjustly defended

                    by bootlicker extraordinaires

                    w/ their faces reddened

                    to the point of unsustainable disgust

                    as if a barracuda

                         as if a wrench

                         to settle the arms

upon for one last howdoyoudo

     before collapsing altogether into ashes

 

 

 

 

4.

 

You may want to live in a gasmask after all is said & done especially since a moonless promenade of salmon were pondering mass extinctions in spite of none of our efforts to prevent it & the immediate actions against charred remains could never justify our use of nuclear weapons just enough time has passed to have forgotten atrocities because you never understood a lemur or a sponge & then lasting as long as gristle you thrust a screwdriver into the electrical socket

 

 

 

 

5.

 

From curriculum

advantages to monetized

outrage

all that a puddle

held

consumed all the good

it may have once done

& the concrete islands

had stuttering fits

& less than

equal to zero

for condensed

sexual positions

painful to reflect

simultaneous combustions

of semitransparent

gods plagues

& arthritic

 

 

 

 

6.

 

     Oozing gene therapy

     as if that were a genre

     of musical drunkenness

 

     unseen until revelry

     imploded behind

     locked doors &

     common to the region

 

     known as an embarrassment

     to the hawks & sparrows

     & buzzards filled w/ bleach

 

     to reach the grinding wheels

     singing rapid choral dimensions

 

     as if a fiddle

 

 

 

 

7.

 

Machine gun impulsive

sweater vest department

of the floorboards

 

drawing snails w/

chalk outline promises

beating against

the flagpole

 

enough to conclude

that you’ll never

comprehend

tow truck drivers

or patriots

or the kidneys

 

not as long

as pools

of black rocks

filling the lack of

manufacturing ethics

 

 

 

 

8.

 

To have judged the Jungian dancers unfairly

          may have been the fault of the horse tranquilizer ballerina

who stubbed big toe & froze in Margaritaville townhomes

          while babies climbed mountains

& pop of the block ate glass iron shavings

          & then dunked houseflies

& married accounting executives

          for the lip reading services

 

 

 

 

9.

 

Magnetic & sullen

 

overcoming pocket

watch pebbles

to win

the tour de France

 

tho meaningless

like all the songs blurted

hollow & reeling

like blood that circles

 

insofar as a parakeet

could make a shoehorn

bend over

& take one

for the team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joshua Martin is a Philadelphia based writer and filmmaker who currently works in a library.  He is the author of the book Vagabond fragments of a hole (Schism Neuronics).  He has had pieces previously published in Fixator Press, The Vital Sparks, Breakwater Review, Ink & Voices, The Free Library of the Internet Void and Paragraph Line.

 

 


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