Joshua Martin

Thrust a screwdriver into the electrical socket

Joshua Martin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.