LOS T AND r 0 U N D TIHES
Cassette index No. 26, July 1990 $5 ~IOCA Print Index Al Ackerman M. Kettner BEN'S STORY - Ben Bennett, story & voice; Squid Bennett, guitar; John Adams Mark M John M. Bennett, shakuhachi Ivan Arguelles A PEBBlE IN HIS SHOE - Dean Taciuch. From POETRY-O-RAMA, GGE Records Lee Markosian SONG Of THE FANG - G. P. Skratz, text; Bob Davis, setting & performance Vittore Baroni David McLimans I CAN'T STAND MY BODY - G. P. Skratz, words & music; Bob Davis, arrange- Shaunt Basmajian William Merricle ment; Susan Sheldrake, voice; Danny Levenstein, Erik Belgum Bob Moore piano John M. Bennett Sheila E. Murphy SOlDIER/ARTIST - Belinda Subraman; Ken Clinger, music Gina Bergamino Musicmaster STRADDlING THE BONY DEATH - Patrick McKinnon Jake Berry Tim Peeler I'M A ~ - Mike Murphy Star Bowers Francis Poole IN MAlPAIS - Gregory Whitehead Daniel f. Bradley Fran Cutrell Rutkovsky LIST Of IDIOSYNCRATIC ACTIVITIES - Paul Weinman Ernest Noyes Brookings EMPEDOClES ON AETNA - Michael Dec Any Salyer MINOR EPISTEMOlOGY - J. Ryan John Buckner "Swarthy" Turk Sellers BURNING CHROME - Richard Truhlar Luigi-Bob Drake Burphy Slacks, Jr. ACK'S HACKS - Al Ackerman; read by John M. Bennett; music by Dave Clark Greg Evason Byron Smith & Wal ter Drake from aN:EPTUAL RE~ISAN:E Scott Free Stacey 5011 frey TAKES A LICKING & BOREDOM - Stacey Sollfrey David Gianatasio Tisha Tobias SICK ROOF - Dimthingshine, music; poem written & read by John M. Bennett David Gonsalves Nico Vassilakis W~ - Robin Crozier Bob Grumman Ken Wagner BARBARA'S EYES AlIENATED ANDY'S - Bob Z S. Gustav Hagglund Paul Weinman BARTOK MUSIC - S. Gustav Hagglund Crag Hill DRILL - Byron Smith Michael West CUMUlONIMBUS URlNATUS - Mike Miskowski G. Huth Jack Wright SHUT UP - Revenge Robert Kenter Jud Yalkut SEA SHANTY - John Eberly EVERY8(J)Y a5E - Willie Smith Cover by Jud Yalkut Edited by John M. Bennett ~SIOC 8 Associate Editor of Cassette, Byron Smith 808 C08BING - SCORE (Crag Hill, Laurie Schneider, Bill DiMichele) ODE TO OCCONCINI - Hernia Retraction Accordian (Chris Winkler, Peter Petrisko, Jr., Mike Brito) Subscription: $14 for 5 numbers. VIETNAM TRAN5l..ATIONS - The .. Backyard Mechanics for Language (Luigi-Bob Back issues: Nos. 1-10, complete set, $20. Drake & Kristen Ban Tepper, voices & percussion; Nos. 11-15, complete set, $20. Linda Sperry, flute) MARCH 6 - Michael West· Nos. 16-20, complete set, $20. THE DOORS - Jeff Skeate Nos. 21-25, complete set, $20. FINSBURY PARK STATION - Vittore Baroni SPECIAL! Nos. 1-25, complete set, $65. POEMS - John Buckner mJW«:ES Of ACCIDENTAl SKIN - Jake Berry LUNA BISONTE PRODS, 137 Leland Ave. VARIATIONS ON A 5CAlE Of EIGHT LETTERS - Chris Franke Columbus, Ohio 43214 OCC. 1~, '87 - Something That Dissolved the Shadow of Something That Was Next to Something That Burned Twice o 1990 John M. Bennett. All rights revert tINCEY MIN> - Malok to authors and artists upon publication. ONE AND THEN & FORTUNA ENGANOSA - John M. Bennett, poems & reading; Byron Smith, trumpet & synthesizers "Insults..•the past 3,000 years of literature" TIMElESS MOTION & THE 8ASICI:TS BlIND & RICE - John M. Bennett, poems & reading; Byron Smith, trumpet - THE NATION & synthesizers LABOR INTENSIVE - Steve Bradley CORRECTION: Lee Markosian, who had work in LAFT 25, fundt:d ThrOl ~Tape edited and mastered by Byron Smith and John M. Bennett CONTACT I blast you out of the room with temper for not dying for I manufactured you into a mother simple substitution. You pour kerosene across my temper radiate your smokey little eyes. I watch the sun absorb hurt feelings. Become a sponge of enemy like sentiments. After a plunge between us mutual demeaning feels so sensuous we repeat. I hate male energy for this chief reason. Sperm so quickly ceases to be interesting if it was. I think I'm hiding in the glare of shadow now. She took my name and used it to erase her own. Now very hollow sentiments are being shoved into the brass bell just in time to seem a rainbow. Shut up will you I'm trying to redeem a fantasy. Igloo candle, mercy recommended by the fear police, each window David McLimans A REMARK FREE OF AXIOLOGY Lukewarm brims its tattoos Surfacy the way co-mingled artifice retreats Toward the house apart from coastline REMEMBER Handy as a mirrored axe I want to eat white dumplings and be serious Build summary plaque into philosophy If to shed some present layers to form romance nakedness is to be Of lean meat kindling minus moments one by one until nothing that exists has happened Soprano as an art form so caressable it sings anymore. And you are strange unto yourself symbolic fortune Perpendicular and happy placing real at arm's length without proof. The only way to I'll show you happy this side of the mountain think a memory unfurled is through vigorous leafings one skin at Collapsed into a formal luxury a time remember where you left it. Each. Authentic. Moment In peacock clothes think depletion of the evidence. All proof we have fulfilled Weight hand each set of merits each duty. Some rectangular framed proof against a parallel wall supposed to be a home away. What you are pressing. Leads to sales a planet. Once elastic toward again. The weeds near roses blooming. Spark plugs in the grass, ability to sleep, a breath arisen time in time Sheila E. Murphy Sheila E. Murphy THE TRAVESTIES WHAT AM I MISSING SLEEP Literary Entities Derived from Texts by John M. Bennett, Benjamin K. Bennett, Son of "Spicy" Dan, Al Ackerman, Clarke The eaves are draining rainbows A. Sany, Charles Bukowski, and H. D. The esophagus is corresponding Lovecraft With some leverage against the backdrop of a chart My stars happened one day perfectly They were a pair of compass points Which bite bleeds in the The novel I was reading almost ended Pants're clean, grinning like the grocery store your On a downbeat Fibs' brillation? Was it sees those I watch what I eat Birds or wings explode feeling just its stomach The whatever-it-is coating my blond stomach Anchored in a bowl. I'm a wind off chains slant, looting Has to go away Autumn and has anyone invested rain Dressing slower like air strung in your teeth, listen, Fights sever, hankering river the hoses loosen fights sever, Hands lopped in my cheek spoke I turn for you, full and Sheila E. Murphy Slower my shirts Hange their fly The shorts never sever, hands lopped on the bleak I SIT DOW TO CHA 1 APOTHEOSIS OF A FORM Jokes I burned through springs ought to span my Chose speed. I was hangered, hampering your lungs white With some thick sink or solvent faucet. Could I My back pretty Choice those chemi-ropes? What feeds these Unleavened 1 lIke symphonic Headstone caustics? Movem nt slratified by Creed conception mordent That cheese for a spoke's voice Freshets qUlpplng sap Like sputtered cages oh rags of yakking, The face of breeze so temperate Chewed in a shirt like the plain talk A slate-fast sky Captures fractions of the script Uttered, my wrath was Prepared to strip off Plained and your crotch where Ragweed woven into clothes Allergy slupped, where bread's hank of A bifurcation of streamlined Air slakes so the curtain rose oh my seat strewn Pursuits of consonance With pants and my ears grew in a disk's teeth Rubbing soft elbows with tallow To annoint or mute the pain Releasing amnesty Man marble in then it dog dressed up and take it get Something my tongue is toes are touching my head feet Came off and fight and turned on it dog factory Sheila E. Murphy Once the hot dog dressed up and then Just appeared Her large, and Like, nude, slower to my [bd!.[i1J§ Sticky shoes on my face tooth Splint churns in sand, when I think's crusts Sag in an urn out think's crushed and our groaning. That ~EI§EI bile [j1J§1r~ What the crack of sleep, aspeed on the Wrong side, gears screaming in reverse or a Mist the center what grows Like the entry, immigrants collide, ElEll!!IctiI Scott Free Grow hard at the nails rimed go, untie your crime grows Washed off the wall like a crankcase coat and Licked, though his news, hah, amounted to rants. I preferred you round so you wouldn't know. A Calf heart ground so you wouldn't know. A calf Heart ground in my gullet, and groped your Tongue for a burn ... Spattered with liver Dangle my remain3 from my skull, I lulled you my Tongue's udder, your scant shudder, your Cleft glistens in mud like I knew where the altar Flawed gunned down in a cube, Over here--and bring pain. I learned in your faint, Where the bed with liver From a bedroom a roscoe said, "whr-r-ang" and a single Bullet I, but grew where the playful unicorn forever Teasing through, lost and clear on my pants. I coughed ~ll. Night, neat ruse, scared of the splintered sherds~ th~ lIltIng Symmetry of her thighs underwear over offal, rubbIng. ItS Sticky shoes on my pants. I coughed at the gloobsch IS the Wall like gnats like a wet sock Forces my legs ...For your Posture beaded like a Car you're in the froth I fathomed, oily and r~ading a Renovated Johnee Poems Fran Cutrell Rutkovsky Match or my skull's ditch I keep your head ... LIke Sodden books in mist climbing, chains slant, looting cool Leeches' facts ...For tooting that, uh, hope ... Go farther Panting cool leeches' facts ...For renewing my Bed rushed smack in a bitch's back Order 6 Travesty of LOVECRAFT & BUKOWSKI Where in the pall cloaked my speeches . We l~ved righ~ across from the theories of otherwise, kept For bluing the crack of sleep, aspeed on the tide's spoons alIve by ImperceptIble or biochemical impossibility in the siren. Crammed in the sky. My worst What they really needed was an odd sight, sometimes completely Dream's fear's inspection sinks... But merges itself. It was the Sanitation Dept. Well, what they o spare slope's left, and toxic puddle gashed the sky. really needed was surely by blind motives or self-preservation. My worst dream's fear of laundry ... One night of a newer science which includes the world's life force or energy, formless or otherwise, kept alive by imperceptible or biochemical impossibility in the life, health Sea in rain. Three family shirts. He was and with whose Expiration Dept. Well, what they really needed Caressing the rostrums was an odd sight, somethings into which includes the pavement. Faking in the Ow horse of sand a dribbling sponge. "jesus christ," I told Linda, "he plopped right of necessity be Well it's time to cook what in our window, then ran back in a ripped right apart like a big Eats in my shirt. This maze in my shirts. He was spilled bowl of relativity and shit and shirt!" Linda came to the Caressing the back's still pavement. "jesus christ, baby, he's just like a joke when his Dancing, even if the tar is hacked, ending in sign ... body fall past our window!" It might apart like an odd sight, sometimes completely merges itself. It was an alient nucleus of otherwise, kept alive by imperceptible or biochemical impossibility in the siren. What the light easily imagine an Her large legs sunk in my skull, I lulled you round anomaly and vomited. She came to the pavement. "jesus christ," In my gullet, and my I told Linda, "he plopped suit and with every man not an enemy Ringing's thickened bell to the fuck, we are just like a joke when his body fall past our window. " It was an odd sight, somethings an old tomato we all had our window'. It might easily imagine an odd sight, something like a big spilled bowl of rotten meat. Any Salyer Any Salyer FRANKLY can yes can when that judgement th2 whole nmster of iJIBge is reinstated with At no other call! Cherished judgement this {X)6II as would be a terrtftc joy1 Even the touch to ooffer stand it. I have instead made plants that not drink thirstily of a number of matters. At their filter head: a wing! these tJ"Q love things insane and dead beauties Nico Vassilakis breasts for a young girl, marble But now the sullen and torn father who THE 1A KAS had been in the snow began to sit beneath barbaric swords sweeping through ironclad lace. Boots, parasols Callander hatched stones Right across your face and single lamps were I1t. Prancing with sufficient breathing space why did you steal my watch? hums horses, square girls awkwardly rose to sing moon moon sing the lattice formal from the cold earth. Many boys bulged to the pickle of Kaph at as a drum baked in the leaves like pig monsters large as palaces. She whose tip an eye opens wide with earth's slow passion tuning had to roll, though women had sat many Urnes to catch the tears, legs The comb is honeyed growing rigid like beasts of the circus. To wear india from your hair at places where The food in her father's doorway With ink instead of socks and hop the train has breath prints nothing in layers of fat and from about instead of warming on its metal skin that lasts him the wind began. She had eaten a formula against the hand the ventures without feeling hybrid of airplane wings and went out puppets spattering concrete with a young sharp eye who would have Cement mixer churns told her to ride a horse up to the ironic sequel to the place, hands and hair, and leave him to Menageries float rainbow wings thrashing free light from his eyes. Angel went face up on the word for sea through long black grass where toadstools with mouse night. The Duke adjusted his suede car from France, cuffs and amount to domes look through like noses and bark between salt-flushed night risings becoming wet voices, punting the stewed in gold and refashioned faster light passing swan. And when the first thunder house was closed to Burphy Slacks, Jr. the country. the mouth closed to air raids. She loomed like wax dirty and torn and her mother fell before her BOTANICAL GARDENS head. He smelled damp, like metal feathers, when he heard the airplane you can't grow bread crumbs crash. The street below shivered and or blueberry icecream people ran from every resposibllity what good are green thumbs before her startled eyes. when they don't match your pinkies a bald man loves hair there are mice in the mountains running loose 1ike your lips Gina Bergamino Bob Moore STRAIGHT KNEES THE BLIND PHOTOGRAPH if being here deepens life in reality then using a foot to ground cigarettes a xerox copy of the heroine before it steps backwards with a tutu on just like the increased edition of the Ramayana is positively evolutionary perfumed as a guilty corpse in an orchestra yet however loud the silence a voice expressing vowels in a rllshing car QUESTION MARK that carries its own paradise in seat covers a sea of white women with wet thighs flopping your head back now aoes one reach them throu~h language? in the waterfall that rains and bowls then at the boddhisattva hour a yearning with no pins underneath without age and feeling each separate hair lndlcating how the karmacide will occur THE CORNER STORE tomorrow in the next eon detroit burns it's devil's night hOW can she know that? Sidewalks whisper whores sex and one armed bandits of the first bride but a white negative while walking carpets down hollow logs burnt somewhere near the nation's capital in the single breaths f~uid terrestrlal residence that stretch cradlecaps exchange destruction around all those solitary corners ideas ideas in the social history of philosophy to come again into my life as a name in a ~ist FREE ASSOCIATIONS slight~y a~tered maybe an alloy of Zlnc together in the holocaust the fo~io reductlon she sucked his beard smiling to ignite water with its very shadOW as he unhooked all the unchained necklaces to fail falling loosesly around her neck to that which echoes giving her a back in the dolorous kingdom of the underworld with anything it wanted where once stately crystal fountains lie shattered and everything she chose though the liquid continues to pour forth though literature remains obscure and the writing a darkness to ponder Stacey Sol1 frey who will issue from what oracular orifice denying power to the millwheel ascriblng to certain stars a balef~ influence or recommending the horse sacrifice for later cities to survive aching in the japan of sex the threshold once crossed what else is there? apaches on the bluff G. Huth glassy fragments reflecting the immense but minor passage Rescind the chemical properties THREE SALES PITCHES Purehase the indented forms Collap~e the preposition Orient angle whapper. Crows and how would you like to be in thIS dream all structures (a situationist grammar) house by Christmas in his body octepise. Carcass twines. but my love in all its youth Erik Belgum Ivan ArgUelles ruin Mediev~l clerics would take ~ny teMts To find ~llegorical ~-ignificance W~~ they thought appropriate & they would their way to give purpose to other ICI COMMENCE LA GRANDE NUIT DES MOTS surround those texts WI th expl~n~tion wise uninspired uninspiring texts to louis aragon glosses re~ding~ of the Christian not force tho never this way said their only interpretatic,n but ~I~-o ~< e-ver, ~ meaning onto any text to make a text all those incomprehensible questions somehow Christian intention in Greco new to wi th sQrr,etimes only a perverse Rc.man cor- referen moving darkly through the lake other ~t ce back other questions the moving water philosophy all text aaaaaaa~aa~aaaaa~aaaaaaa~aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA to the and in the leaves time spends its meters so th a t S in this chapel the bones/of THESE/OF THESE PEOPLE s original slowly slowly toward an unknown evening the exp bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB &: the i I' 1 i c ~ t i on P the i I' bones/arranoed bu t NOT EI)ER AS BODI ES/NEVE p Knowl ed of mauve and heliotrope cloud f i naIl y ccccccccccccccccccc CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC ge of B it is so easy to be obscure beneath the title had be Q I' put bacK togeth ER/BUT IN PATTERNS/ q ible to and things leap into weight and distance come the ddddddddddddddddddddddddd DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ytos i n nothing balanced in Zeus' golden palms all- im R femurs radiating out fr OM CENTER/SPOKES OF A WHEE I' vtont me portant eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE an i no f like the simple fate of being recognized par t of S l/stacks of sKulls/low ER JA WS MISSING/OR LOWER s or t.xts mortal and withering from the center the ori fffffffffffffffffffffff FFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF bu t for and whatever memories bring back to mind ginal of P jaws in another stack /L OWER JAWS AS A FLOWER P them i t the haunting illusion of trains the tex t ggggggggggggggggggggggg GG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG was just allegor Q /each jaw a petal/sta C KS OF FOREARMS OF FIN q a dis-c- boring through an ancient snow £os is it hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH overing when the world rests otherwise ignored was cal R gerbones/baby's bon ES PATTERNED/IN THE I' an unco a spent petal in a broken vase led mea iii iii i i j iii iii iii IIIIIIIIIIII I IIIII II II utoring a no directions but for the exhausted night ning yes finding meanings of ttoxts where words await their precise eternities darkening as shadows upon the endless water And then ETEXT We read the exp ARCH as we a what hovers in the unpaid sentence lanation rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR lways r wd sur-r S shape of an her ALDI C BI RD/OR S s ead just which the judge metes out in his last sleep ound the sssssssssssssssss SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS as we a is the inclination toward-even darker text is P ome emblem figu RE/DEATH PIETY/TH P lways've unravelings toward unspeakable beauties 1and the tttttttttttttttttt TTTTITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT read but the ineffable trunk of ethereal flame text is Q ighbone crossed FOREARM/TO MAKE A CRUC q somehow where all definition dissipates in silence olate it uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuu UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU we expe &: somet R ifix/and the patterns f ILl THE FEW/SMALL ROOMS/TH r c t some imes the vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv VVVVVV~~ one to interpr S Is ossuary/of these name LESS DEAD/THEIR PERMANENT s read c etations wwwwwwww~ WW\...IWlo.~ orrectly Ivan Arguelles were se P pa t tern of mean i ng/ • GAINST THE WALLS P as if t quester xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ~XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX here is ed betw Q /on the floor the cei ling/on CE PATTERNS TO BODIES q any way DEAD INSECT LOVE POEM #7 een the yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy YYYYYYY-~YYYYYYYYYYYYYY to read 1 ines of R /now patterns/planned and fa SHIONED/FOR HINDS'~/ I' as if t the ori zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz2222222ZZZZZZ2Z2ZZ2ZZZZ here is It's so lonely at night ginal t any way under these busy fingers ext int- to mean these softly sticky devoted hands er 1 i near in tt'rrup t ions (here is a p a we just say words whose meaning fluc renthetical thought to keep your mind tuates in sentences whose syntax can within this genetic ceremony on as you read this other text) thus be unclear words Just words that will this flitting midnight calculus the first text glorious or mundane is always be surrounded by words or tho beneath those power tears only to them ever only a premise for uohts of words to make them maKe sen this secret autopsy smile their ~~n glossing or their own words s; as if there's any sense to be made I know I'm not my lover but it will save me a lot of trouble it's my neck on the line G. Huth in a graveyard of eroticism my thorax thin as paper my heart in catharsis slippin and a slidin so afraid so afraid I have an alibi I can no longer remain silent scudding clouds/speed reader darling I cut myself I am falling like flies. M. Kettner William Merricle abstract expression a £ace~ it moves to a sm i 1 e v.Jch cuts open his face to a red tongue~ blocking the throat pu lIed by the rootSi o£ the tongue inside out to v.Jhite S1tomach o£ a balloon carefully blov.Jn up to explode leaving somethIng v.Jr i 991 i n 9 thru the inhale the wood intestines YJch are arm's bandIts. Our neglige of comfort, turn around in the mirror. mine and yours. throbbing the YJhite elevation of sound to level playing field) mass of (curtain over windows), a road cool like themselve:s water with ice. apples and automobiles over a beating peer, a rust closes a door's wash. Sleet green heart~ fort deer there touring by bike. then Sarah mauve kidney~ lifted the receiver, the phone caller wandered spleen~ yel lo'\N outside into the backyard which was a jungle something with monkeys and awful bird songs. this Cause ':t~~6gfA~g staring me in the face, a light drifts into rectum out the dream to be a.. 81m iIi n 9 f ace G. HUTH Greg Evason BURY THE TRUMPET THE WRONG ACCIDE TAL DEATH Bodies sail from cave to cave, sense of having looked through the imaginative writing himself, an eggshell pulls distress through the reader to take in on his own, Irony is not completely negative revolutionary tracts. Aluminum and yet produced, such a life need not to the contrary innocence resist across great hills the wrong end of a telescope. it is sometimes hopeful man shambles that follow it of fire. Drumming carries target's things happen senseless beauty, wishes dry lands I have nothing to do with them that's extremely reassuring drowned in crates of incandescence. Crag Hill on the other hand maybe there are just too many roaches David Gonsalves Scott Free SANCTUARY MIDNIGHT HOTEL momma gives him two twenties darling darling it's all a matter of how for two days you look at the executioner inside the four walls smoke at cheap motel-- rising goes back to fight and love from smouldering whips on her own-- the clerks know the skinny kid, faceless recognize the eyes where the tour buses that peek at you can even make money then dive away-- so soft in room 131 BROKEN ARROWS he stares at the fuzzy black and white and white Big Jake, flips the channel, naked Green Berets, flips, As the snake crawled True Grit, shakes in moonlight feverishly across the hard clay floor Robert Kenter as the noise next door the wind blew out raises the shape the candle. of step-daddy 2 crashing through the dirty sheetrock. the moon is orange The tourist inside my head asked the whore which is shaped Tim Peeler to suck his friend. like an orange 3 i'll peel back my face Winding path, dark trees. & reveal the sky The poisonous tips of the flowers brushed her arm. David Gianatasio Francis Poole S. Gustav Hagglund SU ~AY MORNI G, 3 AM Dinosaurs in my toaster. Gasps, barely audible, escape their scaly throats. They're reciting Shakespeare. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow." A car passes. Now another. I hear them from my window--or I think I can. Oreos. Green tea. Sugar. Lemon. Now the radio, the cars. There's something dripping from my ceiling, a kind of fabric. Alternately soft then coarse ...I'll knit a suit for the dinosaurs licking the knobs of my television set. David Gianatasio Jake Berry each did I would like to See How I "AURAL SURGERY" play with My pillow I HAD JUST ABOLT rECIIED THAT I vas not up to pulling IIl1 ow teeth, what vith every. drupgist in town naUy refusing to sell novocaine to me vithout a pre scription and my grip on the pliers shaking too violently when I contemplated try ing to do tl:e Job vithout be~r-it of a suitable pain-killer, but now I have been shown the wey. I am goinp, to be able to practice self-dentistry after all. J.nd it is my good friend Clarke A. Sany, the tape-collector and well-known rabid audio~hiliac, who has done this for me. t.ot so very long ago when I had all but abandoned my great dream of being able to practice self-dentistry and thereby realize enormous savings on ~ //// II/ de"t~l bill~, C1!r~~ A. Se~y YaS ~ dinner guest o~~ ~ight. Clerkep _ more devoted 'couteur (sound freek) then which never lived, had brought" batch of new tapes 1000,000,000 called the shot along for me to listen to. I did. He choked a dog "I dor. 't get this one at all, Clarke," I demurred, five or ten minutes into the first selection. "It sounds like somebody trying to scrub Ii balloon with a Rined called me from her bed vegetable bTU8h." to ask and I heard I went , "Oh, for Pete's sake, Ack&riIl8n," Clarke groaned, eX8speaoated, "that juat in I hit my son in the haprens to be the sound of 1. 300-lb. meter-maid' s moist inner thighs rubbing middle soul 3 ways together, as recorded from a distance of two blocks away 1 My God, mar., I had to came to third bed dan~le ~t of the window of ~ apartment anr. use a high-powered Toshiba direct ional mike vith a needle-focus beam to capture that pree1oU8 moment on tape. Not to mention the four special laser-baffles it took to screen out the extraneoU8 traffic noises." John Buckner John Buckner "It still sotmds 11ke a balloon be1n~ scrubbed vith a vegetable brush to me." Clarke sighed and changed the tape. (My obtuseness in matters audile vas an old story to him.) For the next hour or so, he tried roe out on somewhat lees exotic fare, including vintage selections from the old Robert Q. Lewis "WQ\lorks" radio progr8J!l of the early 19505 (not bad), an entire thirty-minute transcrirt10n of a championshir ping pong match (. IIttle tedious), and a rare bootleg tape of Julie Andrevs singing. "Shortllin' Bread" (excruciating). . In addition, there was a long and rather grotesque segment featuring the poet ..."lc Withers Smote, who recited something titled "The Librarian For The Crimin ally Insane," while 81multaneousl~r slaPF1r.g himBeJf in the head and stomach with SEATTLE, WASHINGTON what Clarke assured me reverently vere "two halves of the same grl!lpefruit " I don't mean to give the impression that 'thtl evening was a total waste. It was anything'but. I t vas simply that Clarke couldn't -fedst eharing his over Seattle, Washington capital of the large state wheWng enthusbem for all tMngo taperl and aural. Eventually, our conversation drifted to other topics, and I \MS able to bring up what wu foremost on my mind-- In the United States in the far northwest Been a long time writing on a dark slate ~ "-ret-frustrated desire to practice self-dentistry at home •. After the day's work the personnel and workers enjoy a rest Hy friend sat vith his brow knitted, thoughtfully stroking his fencll-line mustache while I explained ~ dilemJll8. I, of course, \l8JCed more and more lacr1mose Following various meetings at state house they go out to lunch as I descri~d my fruitless visits to druggists ar.d pharmecies throughout th~ ci~. After when a return to their normal assigned duties When I had finished bemoar.ing the voet'ul leek of novocaine to be had vithout Incidentally cereal grape nuts requires a crunch a doctor's rrecrirtion Clarke said I should not give up so easily. "For instance, have you considered ~sir.g whiskey as a substitute for novocaine?" Many of the clerical girls are real beauties "Well, sure I have. But I'm going to be pullin~ my own teeth--remember?-and At about 6:30 am dawn by the time I drank enough whiskey to deaden my mouth and gums, I':n sure I'd be too besotted to handle 8 Fair of pliers safely. II Old glory is raised up the long flag pole l In addition at times during meetings some yawn lI'nlat s true, I guess," Clarke agreed, reluctantly, "but I still say it's too .arl~· to throw in the tove!. Who knovs? There may yet be a way." ne got up and On one occasion there was a small unruly mole. put on his hat. "Tell you what, let ~ do SOl'De research into the matter and see what I can com~ up with." f couree But I'm afraid Ernest Noyes Brookings "Well I III app~c1ate !ny help you can Ii"" 1M, 0 t • t dreaJl ....a at it looka h~pelese•••• " And 1 couldn't help sup~ing tha ~ grea a lrr.os t before you kno.... i t--" an end--finlshed even before it had properly begun. All of which--I may as ",ell admit--bri~gs us up to the present mo~ent. Wha t a tragic tr.ing it ",as to have to admit this to myself! Especially as I And to tell the truth, as I vatch Clarke's fingers making hurried last lacked the ",here-with-all to visit a regt;lar dentist and the tvo rotting molars minute adjustMents to tte ~nobs and ttir.gs, I am starting to experience renewed an upper and a lo",er--that I had be~n hoping to rid myself of wuld no", have to qualms of a serious order. remain in my mouth indefinitely, giving me fits with no chance of extraction. In fact, I am about on the verge of opening my mouth to ask (horrible thought) Moroselv , I resigned myself to enduring this oral perdition. wT.e~~er or not this particular experiment has actually ever been tested out be To· quote Flato: I felt "lo",er than an acrobat with arthritis." fore on any other living human subjeet. I don't like to seem cowrdly or talth Well, though, but thr~e nights later Clarke returned--and vi. th him he less but maybe if 1- brought a gadget that was obviously home-rigged: a single set of ear-phones Clarke hits the switch. hef~ attached by a spagetti-1ike tangle of vires to two cassette players. The The fittul bicaroeral dialogue begins to take place in each of rrry ears ear-phones, I noted, ",ere big padded jobs, the kind that submarine commanders simultaneous1y; Faulkner on the left, the Success Guru on the right. The voices wear in the movies. fOur in on me from both sides exactly as promised, but their decible-leve1 is "My dear Ackerman," Clarke said, in his best "inventor-triumphant" voice, unaccountable, and there is an insane cold-rni:xed-porridge quality to what is "if you vill clear a space there on your kitchen table so that I may deploy taking place in my brain as they clash and mingle there--a heniousness that I these electronic components, I believe I can shall you the path to modernized, have not been led. to eXF~ct. totally pain-free self-dentistry." From a purely logical I"tandpoint, mere word!; can scarcely suggest the weird, "You've corne up with something, then?" I began to feel excited in spite drooling "otherness" of wh&t I a~ hearing: of myself. "Vice presidents, I composed a memo to my senior menagement team. The people Clarke nodded his head proudly. involved and leadership composed a memo to my senior nanegement team. My mother is He had, he said, COMe across an important article in a recent issue of B fish. Cash is my brotr.er is a fish. Cash is my brotter is not smell lik~ that Scientific Electricity Magazine. In it, the author of the piece, a Dr. Eurphy in mind, I suggested three groups of choosin[ several ne", vice presidents are not Slacks, Jr., professor emeritus of dental technology at Bob Jones University, smell like that ",hen ",e come to the legacy ",e \lill leave. With the decisions to had advanced the revolutiona~ theory that under special circumstances sound be made in the box ho", CGuld !;he have got throur,h the water I said, she's in i.!&ill could be used as a pain inhibitor. tr.e organization. We are dealt vith that had to be made in the task of choosing Dr. Slacks's basic idea, as Clarke ",ent on to explain it, was that a vice presidents. We are not only settin[ to see her. Cash is my brother. But Jevel's patient undergoing a tooth extraction ",ould be given ear-phones to wear instead mother is 6. fish. Cash is mv blrother. But Jewel's motter is a horse. My mother of the customary injection of novocaine. These were speci6l1y modified ear does not smell like that. MY mother is a fish. But jewel's motter is a horse. My phones, rigged not for "stereo" but for "mono"; as a result, each ear-piece- mother is a fish. But -ewel's mother does not in the box ho.... could she have got left and right--operated as an independent sound source. Bicamerally, as it ",ere. out? She got out? She got out? She got out througt the ~oles I bored, into the "The idea," continued Clarke, excitedly, "is that the patient in the ",ater I said, and ",her. ~he COMeS to the ",ater again I a~ going to see her and dentist's chair gets, say, rock music played into one ear, and something en direction concerning management team. My mother--" tirely different (a news broadcast, ",e'll say) played into the other. It's. But enough. As I s~', it is not so~ethir.g that mere words can j:roper1y separate but simultaneous occurance, you dig? And the bicameral noise level hope to convey. created in the patient's ears by these tw different audio infuts works on the Foint is, from t:-.e mocent Clarke first thro\lS t[;e svitch, I am galvanized- brain in such a "'ay as to effectively block the pain of the tooth extrJi.<;tionl" trapped under the ear-phor.es like a butterfly pinned ur.der a brick. I did my best to digest this, and Clarke hurried on to explain that he had And ",hi1e the interminable cacophony of voices goes on gnaving straight into used diagrams from Dr. Slacks's article to construct a wrking model of the my brain--implacab1e, corrosive, disorienting, causing me veTJr qUickly after the ver~r ~ device: the contraption that no", rested on kitchen table, in fact. first fe", seconds to lose all sense of my physical body--I feel my mind Clarke said he thought it might be just the ticket-take the place of Rovocaine torn loose from its mocrr.ings, and am plunged into a morbid, disemcodied, near and allo", me to practice self-dentistry in a completely painless fashion. He psychotic state that is not unlike ar. off-trail case of d.t.'s. had brought along t",o special audio tapes to try out on the ear-phones and felt In short, I start ~ellucinating like a bastarc. a quick tria1-and-error session ",ould S00n prove the efficacy of the theory. I ",as pretty leery about playing guinea pig, at first, but Clarke seemed so Although I'm sure I never ;;hysicallY leave my chair, mentally it is another upbeat and genuinely positive as to his gadget's ultimate success that I sviftly story. Enveloped in nightmare, I have tte olerpowering sensation of descend~g to relented. We decided to conduct the experiment right there at my kitchen table, some subterrar.ean place where, ve~ much against my vill, I seem to move rarldly and I let him slip the bulky ear-phones on over my head. . along a na:'ro"" pitch-black corridor, as if _ am being prorelled forvard by 80~ Then, as I sat there trying not to feel nerv0us, he gathered up the pa1r of demented "fun-house" ride--ar.d wi tr. indistinct "stump" shapes hangil1g and writhwg pliers that "'f'!re resting on the sink counter nearby, and tucked them into my hand. in the darkness around me. Feeling the cool heft of metal betwen my fingers, I eXj:erienced a stomach Gradually I begin to ~~e out tiny glimmers of light far ahead. D:awing churning mixture of anticipation ar.d doubt. Was the long avaited moment finally nearer, I behoid a porcelain bowl or commode fai~tly aglitter under ~ dlm over ",ithin my grasp? Would I soon be practicing self~entistry ar.d ridding my mouth head bulb. And approaching ttis, I glimpse sornethir.g--an anima1--rnovwe ~d of the t",o pesky molars that had been causinp, me such grief? floating in the ",ater: a sort of oversized guinea pig covered vi. th wet whl te fur. According to Clarke, ",ho had turned away and was no", assidulously readying There is SOMething vror.g with the creatt;re, something drastically vrong, and after a moment I realize what it is: the pupils of its eyes. Instead of being his equipment, the two tapes he had chosen to plaJ' for ~. trial run ~re sure discs of blackness as with normal animals, the pupils of its eyes are slots fire. He had picked them specially, he said. They were (1) a recordin~ of through ",hich inner light flickers out into my face. ~illiam Faulkner reading selections from his collected ~rks, and (2) a In our ",orst nightrnares there is alwys some further horror waiting to make business-and-self-he1p guru by the name of Sydney Lurcher reading from something ",hat has gone before seem friendly by comparison; &r.d leaning closer, though with called Success At Any Cost. Clarke said he ttought the combination of Faulkner an inwrd reluctance that is very near to revulsion, I peep through the twin aper entering l!lJ' left ear at ti:e sa..rne tiJTle that the Success Guru ...~ entering my tures and find myself looking down, impossibly, into a room where sits a slender, right, would prov~ a powerful bicameral mix--so much so ti:at he predicted I dark-haired ",oman in a child's ruffled wr~te collar arod pigtails. The woman appears ",culd start noticir.g resw.ts right away. I-robably ",ithin ti;e first tw or tr.ree to be fiddling obsessively vitr. the terminal of a desktop computer whose screen minutes after he thre", the svitch. keeps Oashing out the same green numerals-"J9••••.39 ••••.39 •••• "--over and over "Just vait"--He vas poised over the controls. His voice filtered through again. For a second her face turns toward me and I am honified to see that she the thick rubber padding of my ear-phones as faintly as though we were both has someho", contrived to force a hamburger--who1e--into her mouth and is holding under vater. "Just ",~it and see if this doesn It deaden every tooth in your head it there, and slaking. I recoil. But before I car. manage to duck avay or draw back out of sight, she seems to become aware of me ogling her. Doine it with the greatest possible enjoyment and deliberation-ar.d vi. thout ever losing a grip on the hamburger in her jaws--she grins maliciously from the corner of her eyes, and proceeds to ACK HACKS BENNETT'S POEMS give me a long, slow 1Jin~. A wink? These are some really excellent poems these from 12.14.89 and 11.22.89. Flabbergasted I feel myself gripped. by the wrst embarrassment that can LOFTS and TEATRO DEL MU DO my special favorites here. Inspired me to befall a man in a state of delirium. Being given lithe wink" by one of his ow construct a new poetry machine, then I went through your poems with it ha 11ucinations. And--and nothing. . and said OK 1'11 use TOWARD LIGHT to draw words for line one of my l\ext instant the scene "clicks offll and is gone and I am left alone again the hack from, I'll use SMUDGED TOKE to draw words for line two of my dark wi~ nothing but the hated voices Y8J!lJ!lering in my brain. hack from, I'll use FLAYER for line three, I'll use TEATRO DEL MUNDO "•••• 1 composed a memo to my senior management E.nd Dewey Dell said, she's for line four, and LOFTS for line five, and then I doubled back and in the box how could she have got out through the decisions to be m.ade-" used SMUDGED TOKEN for lines seven and ten, and so on, til I had Hours--yeers--centuries seem to pass in this rnen~er before I feel my senses assigned each of the eleven lines of my poetry machine to one of your return, blink my eyes, fine ~self stretched out flat on ~ back on the kitchen floor. Clarke, his face pale with strain and wo'ry, yet grinning from ear to poems. Then I started pulling words and in a couple of places phrases ear in unmistakable triumph, is bending over me. Ee has evicently just finished out of your poem and plugging them in, going real fast so as to trust removine the ear-phones from ~ head. The p1iars, I realize, are still gripped to chance and this is what emerged: convu1sive1y in m;' hand. Only new they feel wet, sticky. I can not immediat~ly bring myself to sreak. For or.e thir.g, I am still too MORE BURGEONING TEAT MADNESS dazed; for another, my mot:th is totall~r pain-1Jracked, and as t'ulJ of blood as a large rotiIld teacup. Clarke saves me the trouble by bursting out at once in there is a bent wheel excited congratulations. the jammed and smuggled spiel tlBy God, Acker!ll8n," he crows, "What did I tell you? I said you could do it, whose spin of thought's made rage but loss and you did! L,ok there-II ::e wFgles the earphones exuberantly, the gesture another bent wheel encompassing the twenty or so bloody teeth that lie scattered around me on the the coughed and buttered speech floor. "By God, you did it, boy! You pulled every tooth in yot:r head: tI where rage but loss change spin of thoughts we may not twist cant or steam time, who (for Any Salyer) Al Ackerman having sand and chance flapped in our silks nothing we can bag will guzzle the smeared tooth that we littered, and squeezed, with milk Great to have MILK. I was struck by how the title echoes last word of my previous hack;-SO-I used same method to hack the poems in MILK: THINK OF BIG THICK LIPS think of big thick lips when he swallows suction's buds leaking from the swift glass (though walls may be the sodden pages) how the thighs of chance spray themselves violent as a drink from the canker on every flag and every looper and chew them into the roof's dark pants think of big thick lips as turning an udder on end he severs his dumpster loses his bulldozer and his belt in funneling what mothers, lighthouses, armpits and heavens are after John M. Bennett & Jake Berry I was just rereading 5-6 of your poems (let's see: CAWS AND, VISION, Hm, these seem especially strong batch; "your hatchery pout" alone is HONKING, SEXUAL COMMERCE, FAKE BLOCK, FLIGHT LIE.) And at the same time a great poem in itself.... I received this hand-carved stamp of Clarke A. I was also toying with these seedy red grapes that were in a bowl on the Sany's face from Any today, along with your poems, so decided to combine table. Got to lofting the seeds between my teeth, so that gave me idea them into a hack. My method was to first turn your poem upside down for good random selection: and after I had constructed a quick "poetry then with the sequence of machine" I used each one of your aforementioned poems to find words for each of the six lines in my machine by dent of spitting grape seeds and XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX lo! where they landed on your poems I took the words that got hit and fit XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX best into my structure. It worked out pretty good; (I would say I only go through using my pencil to "XXXXX" out words til I had a checker had to resort to actual cheating 2-3 times in all): board effect. The poem I did this to was THE FINGERS FILTER. Then I took the Sany-on-stamp, inked it pink and went through the other poems DIVINE RECIPROCATION slamming the stamp down, each one once. Then I took my checker-board Yes blank-haired I bite your thigh and would be balked dank and very quickly filled in the "XXXXX"'s with words from the other poems But am flooded in your tightening: that the stamp had colored pink (keeping all turned upside down til the Yank me, pander or flap that brim again, end to enhance the random quality). Goes: Send me to sleep, decompress me, for I, Except you gash me, never shall jitter, HEAD NAILS Nor appall a goat, except on expanding. head nails combed with my hat hill plumb thawed red the red cage work like dung clerk P.S. How the goat got in there is a mystery to me. Another instance sundered up killed surged through my chair of "divine reciprocation" I guess. day's receipts croaked of a dam where dogs lumped that the sun bullets splopped the stitch meat coat where head with suds and lice depart Al Ackerman below cage sails hips their choice with hampered frantic duds fake facial his bitch's spittle was leveled TIERRA REMOTA Some drum tters, locks clattered red, no club door t~1,~~' f ditches' bones in po e throat. Bu t ah in the ki nd the seller cliltered ban e sticks and a hanger. That--"--~~· meat bed rock? What where s s umping, what slammed my he Woven Ack's Wacks Fran Cutrell Rutkovsky I,.'J;COLE Of: HON':'REA.L INC:O£:'rf':' SE:..F-CESTROYED Shaunt Basmajian WHAT'S THE SCORE Camouflage for the croquet match, it's the only way to save old cheese, Shaunt Basmajian says the old man waving his prick impotently. But the kangaroos turn their valves: mayonnaise, deep blue mayonnaise lurches out in phlegmatic ways; responses to polls regarding some sexual activity that took place randomly in last year's bowling alley. The sky begins to grow tomatoes and women weep a bit. ROLE REVERSAL Paul Weinman Uncle Spam, Alexander the Big, Pauline Bunyan (axtress), Dad D, She-man, other brother, A. Lincoln, B. Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, Lick Jagga, Amerikan homo-ners, a man who scaled the seas, Jesse Hems, Roller Debbie, JeZeus The grasshopper was working hard all summer. Flying about, shimmering in Christ Pastor Preech, the Bad Lord, the Democraps, the the sun, eyes bugging out, spitting juice, and croaking, croaking, croaking. Repubi~ans, Mark Twang, the Sculpture of Liber~ies, the You say, "What do you mean? That's not work--that's playing." No. It's gods of the gods all in Geronimo's Pontiac, .golng down to work. Because without it, the grasshopper dies, and with it, the grass the magic-wand factory, on a 2's day, to drInk at the hopper lives, from generation to generation, summer to summer, for thousands Fountain of Use with charity blossoms... of years. Like an energy, crawling, writhing and burning there, focused by r child you not. the wind and the planet and the sun and by time itself. If you see what I'm saying, heh, heh, heh. Mark M Lee Markosian .:,_,/.:a:a::::),JI~" a> ...... ( II II !'.'.!, '!_" "0 • •" ./.''./' ' "1/'. •,•, • ". ~. u• u•" • '1 • '! •,•:: ., ,.' .. •1; //I , ... , /f .. '.. "" II, e .' .' iron thesis :~!" If ...... ~ --.~ ...... approxlemenon ': ~. : ,of abandoned tribe Iargot ,.' "~·rasl.ntg giand;' : ~: ./.4•.;.:(711/..::·· ...... "':"~' wward feathers .:. m/therwcNld- slung "';~llr~~: 'c~a~~i:";ki~'~'F;r(ll,:: .. :.• & rye 13 . fish awake in heatersl..l.•..• :.. .f; ..: " '):" , •.~ :tn-c1re difficult to articulate T UtUlm._IHUH t1.~ll'rlf. r:'.:: .;than ,isolation mUltiH "'" ''';:' dust i h • signified as r,;',.,.,. / olfactory patterhs transliterated ~ , wheat ,.j\" ; t."" . ""," " /. blonde hair j >,.' ",,, ~'knifed "."",': " ~ misspelled ., , ". \'" I 'anticlimate . ,. ,I.' J" ;, ." Jake Berry blan runtic These pages are blood relics from a world of my own invention. Antiquities and shards of sander gesentia pointless evidence. At first I said: vou've got to do some planning, prepare blueprints get thIS thing ready, be a pro; but then: ' fuck it - that's not it - it's all right here hallucinations, episodes of parasemanticism Jake Berry ~uffering intangibles. Planning won't get that It would be a production - a lie. And so, on the seventh day he rested and the whole thing took form. ~is greatest desire was to set up operations In another syndicate of thought. Some place Splayed garages where the paramecia didn't bloom so loudly, whirligigs of power where clothes were excreted as feces not ~ashion, ~ut lun~s monstr~us peanuts with broken dressers his heaved phlegm studs of length InsurrectIons upon hIS demands, keeping him immolation crash site, finished with waterlogged and local, Jack Wright Jake Berry HOW I MISS THAT MCAT SEABIRDS What the splice spelt, eyes in a cube, A laser lurks in me like a lanyard over never again, bricks slammed cracking yanked to my neck, a blast that's lasting splintered sherds, the splints shattered. still, even when I gaze at a windless lake. I knew it'd turn out this way 1 didn't. My cups fray, my tooth chips' sharp, my voice What the slice felt like, nude, slower and through my chest worms, late jerks cloud slower to my fevered shame, oh I kicked that my pants. Crossing the deck this chill eve, hand, slapped that linty nerd - he was boomerang at apex after forty-odd lentils scattered - so few days I churn to swaying E-flat, entrails to burn ... spattered with liver snagged in scuppers dry and webbed. I see houselights as/as stars as/as improbable men with feet aflame MOLDY SOUP in constellation. Seabirds hanging wings over rail to dry Those dusty hands slumped flat faced down in that head below for medication, ask me in. tomb, like roots dried in an urn, aah but that's just what you lately did, crowds churning streets, lifting a fingery sign. Jade and gold pretend a John M. Bennett & Musicmaster throne I'm on, like a frame of mold and oil. Crusts sag in the dumps, racist clowns straddle doom, boots piled for a burn. So, uh, must you fake loud yearnings? I speak pissing, linger and whine, my head's thrown in a game of soldout spoils... I He'd snap us, smiling back smiling us snap he'd,. should pry up that lid... put my face in the boil then let it whrrr out of cartridge of out whrrr It let then peel back sheet, let us watch it develop it watch us let, sheet back peel in accelerating minute, GAGGING a time stunt time a minute, accelerating in as blurs surfaced from murky depths of depths murky from Forecut, like the cheese of your face surfaced blurs as seconds ago, as unreal now as parts, knives of work and a part-time Etruscan as now, unreal as ago seconds, picnic on wind, like I'm eating my mask from behind. eon-thin urn-thin eon on picnic Mushy suits swirl at my feet in an office I hunker in, like no-one flames in a room of flame. My gruel is shame like a bunk of Musicmaster & John M. Bennett lice, sheets curled with soot. Crushed in a nagging mind my task still creeps, thin like a line in my heart. Shirking's my life? Hah l Those farts at my knees lurk... LA RAZA COsMlCA SUMMARY CHILDREN They don't flay even, don't ... wiqgle under the skin... granting cool leeches Sucking the sweet flesh of abuse, tracts, where "development" lays like a The corrosive heat of brisk bodies churning claw of smoke, it doesn't scratch even! And the summer sun of trite plush silicon lips (Before the Entry, immigrants collide, Summary children grow hard at the center) I choke every Hang day now, er, hope ... go farther panting, From their mothers' naked breasts loose myself in my speeches' facts... but Melted lumps of glassy beads no spare slope's left, and the law's broke. It doesn't match even. Yeah I deplore those "heavenly" grins, those snide boats of lard. Tisha Tobias (previously published in The Wire) (But what grows' not clay, no cage even) John M. Bennett the faIn IS falling on the turtles, and we smile because we eat eggs. even the maps sodden insIde our clothes "like warm wet hands". even the hands that held t.he rife were warm. ike looked up to the tv screen. tina was at the grammys. ike "warmed" the bullets. steam set.tled on the windows like a mirror, like our fingers spoons we blew upon. if only we had read the book,. but t.he "blood" rugged the floor like a melted chan. the air of the chair was at our throats. the floor like a melted blood chair. this was our house and we needed to get to the grammys. Daniel f. Bradley & John M. Bennett OR MAYBE only the canned cringe was out of stock - faking the plane pain t.icket - fixing one, two the third eye - four drops to five - what ching the new heart slip dimes in/out - go to the prase book forth lists nothings - ask no ash fault spitting juglar balls - pissing twice as thick - i'd like to poop in the red clay mud - fraud is good soap - helping you to coke Daniel f. Bradley & John M. Bennett VACATION SNIFFING LOST LOVE He leaves a bike unavailable Autopsy shows a "Petticoat Junction" One melt still vanillaed narrowly It's almost unbelieveable down the bricked sigh she Townhouse acid per hour had undr ssed to but Poem couldn't rem mber her trample dIm enough to see it. Byron Smith Bob Grumman ARF, ARF Like a horse sliding down the st.eps tore my fender like a melon like a tire I filled with dirt Thisbee, I see you through the keyhole. slashed and slippery I turned out Why you have forsook the ladle toward the window, my hands thick with vaselIne for applause. Come out and swoon to me. my valves slick and whispering, is that a alve throne or The little spiders nesting in your hair thrown fog rusting inside the walls mean more to me than silk. broken a part dashed on iron a board a horse Yet you stand back against the wall, a lesser pocket knotted from my fist's force waiting for rainstorm or meteor to stain your blue pinafore. Thisbee, I see your hairy crotch through the keyhole. John M. Bennett & Luigi-Bob Drake Michael West ANOTHER JOHN WAYNE FAN CLUB MEMBER squiggle your fig in a bowl of ink then throw yourself against the wall DEATH NEWS ITEM to write the history of the race the one you cannot win it's run against the clock tall, sinewy, mid-twenties, black of whatever jones or atavi it is that makes shoulder-length hair tied up in a fishnet a grown child want to start shooting up she became a death news item--pg. 15 veiled using that milky stuff from the bottom of a lawyer's reticule the truth did not explain the wafer shooting himself up repeatedly with that sewn to her tongue, undissolved by the water in a game room with combed blond walls and flags she was found tied to the anchor under the boat where the rubber tie-off that his arm subsumes from overuse gets lost up inside him for years RESURRECTION was the name of the boat becoming salt-covered and fossilized as chrysolite her bathing suit black til in the e~d it comes down out of his body cavity she always loved water in the shape of a swell plantaIn that's ready snagged shells in a fishnet to go to the show by itself ate caviar on wafer only wore hats that were veiled Al Ackerman as the fog veiled the shoreline & boat seemed to hang like a thin off-white wafer breaking the black INVOCATION water & sky torn like a hole in a fishnet trap in imagination or water unlike clear morning water Give us the versebone white inner brown coat. h~r past was veiled Eyesoap yew lie kit, fare zone Li Po plagal, caught men like a fishnet fare pour uterine joy. Donor Troy goy Bion did beneath virgin red row boat Becaud owl cheat to salve truce kill rna B.A. like blood that turns black Weary yawl savanna hide Behan, wan her nether kind. staining linen or church wafer Castle. Remake alabaster facing du mat are pin, remake a bigatory wipe poil Gervaise bovina. but it's only a symbol--the wafer Corbled Pasteur, crew yet wearns littoral qui the water clock-toe signal moany moany moany moany moany. the black habits of nuns & brides veiled newspaper clippings hold water as much as a boat Michael West or fishnet flai ling maybe she saw her soul was a fishnet her breath thin & real as a wafer sta before the blood-anchored boat r ili.g at shi scathed her head under water ny dir left dark eyes algae-veiled ty stee until the moon turned black 1 pictures of the boat, description of the water & hair in a fishnet (no comment on the wafer) liv statistics on pg. 15 veiled her breath & death to printed black ing in a hor se shoo Star Bowers f can t af ford t o breath e Ken Wagner BEAUTIFUL AND HANDSOME TJlE~ ••• essentially everything in this office is dead except your mouth -rifE 1'e£T' as one of those 27-year-old women who have chosen to have • braces put on your teeth you are beautiful to me and I love your wires "SLOW DEATH THREATENS MAN IN THE I especially love the way your smile looks after you've had kidney-beans for lunch THIN AIR OP 19,000 PEET" lately it has been preying on my mind a lot to ask you to bite all my hair off Blue venous blood because don't you think a baldheaded man's ears look Bishop labors around a slope handsomest of all beating against his skull Beaoglobin like two giant wasps trying to enter a marmelade jar? Thinnes. of Oxygen More Hemoglobin "Swarthy" Turk Sellers POR SHERPA CHILDREN~ Indian fir donates building Learning their ABC's pupils await a school THE IRONY Bell-mouth flageolets OFARI Propped -by planks Laaa band salutes new school and dlOl:.V hlood-huY;n.: Seesaws delight old and young (9G£T" A~VEltft..OlD'~ OF1lIfM411OHALG!=O&RIWIIIC @ ~oor1HE. Vf\AA6AA~ ~ 1AAr Ala: '" ~~ ~ PAstE.. lO6Em~ "lO ~ WEl~O ,.,.D 1P15IGtfTf11L Vampire 1be~Y -mAT Will NM~ You ~f) lOIJR'·fRJfND5" ,~ A~N 'QuE""'IT \5 While bones hy ~Mf.HO£V 6V~ less than a phobograph NOlEO AUTlIOf{S AS f'.'fN} thp thought of gravps N S. Gustav Hagglund John Adams