It was the night before I leftand we’d come back from thatroof-top oceanside bar, bothgotten a kick out of Jeff, livingout of his car, doing anythingto surf — look at those walls, man! —I don’t know if this wasbefore the tequila and weezer songsor after. I couldn’t get drunk.We crashed in rooms opposite sides of … Continue reading Jopo
Author: johnbrandall
John Randall is a writer living in Missouri. His interests include camping, running, walking, cutting and burning wood, messing around with magnets, foraging, and listening to podcasts, many of them about baseball.
Here I Am, Lougely
1.If I could translateTo you in wordsHow much it would hurtTo have my teeth extractedAnd crushed with a hammerBefore my very eyes. ItMight make great art. 2.I debate insteadWith friendsWhether an artist can invent his art;Whether he can conjure novelty out of his thin air.They say: everything has already been done. But I believe … Continue reading Here I Am, Lougely
Untitled Report on News & Religion
1What about theseIslamic Courts?I’d let my friendsdance on speakers,wishing only that Ihad bigger speakers,or smaller friends. 2They’re gonna have to raise cop pay.When they do thatthe streets will be streakedwith blue. Same deal with teachers and classrooms. 3All I asked forwas one mealyour bodythe lifethe resurrection,the denudedweapons cache. You said, “That’s pornographic.”And wouldn’t let me … Continue reading Untitled Report on News & Religion
Brown study
Breath stinks
Of brandy.
The woman, the drink.
The first girl
I ever slept with
Now works
For Brown Forman.
She’s still drunk I guess.
Misc. Haiku 46-50
46
Royal Success Systems —
Convincing people
That their graffiti is art
47
Dog ears appear
From the heart of a sleeping ball —
Truck w/ trailer passes by
48
Drove out to the
Country for some air —
Coming back, the city ahaze
49 (after Kerouac)
In the Belleville house,
My father’s
Abominable yawns
50
Is my head back this far?
I was just now having
The night’s first beer
Landscape: Benelux into Germany
a. A city like Rotterdam bombed, rebuilt The Nazis said submit or we’ll bomb you into the ocean The ‘Dammers submitted but got bombed anyway What’s the point in that? Now, taller buildings Europe’s busiest port A few coffeeshops tucked away. In a café, cream of mushroom soup, the best bread and a little butter in … Continue reading Landscape: Benelux into Germany
Shuffle
Damage by night,Construction by day.Boom and then depression.Glass of this, puff of e(i)ther.Sweat, flex, towel off.Screw this, screw that, watch the calories.Lunch today was a fruit bar.Worry the afternoon,Get ready for dinner, have a cold one. You build something up, you build a beltway.You find your muse and then you ask her to shut it. … Continue reading Shuffle
Songs for Art and Memory
All of the great
Songs about memory
And art
Have already been
Written. I didn’t
Have the .
I forget, I didn’t
Have the power.
Picasso said it all about
War, Petrelli could fly.
And here I am feeling
So ordinary.
Let me not have to go
To work
And curse the goddam computer
And overdose on coffee cup cures.
Picasso married the dancer in 1918.
Petrelli saved the world.
I’m content taking love for granted
And writing about the Senate.
I know,
This is just another poem.
Count Dracula Doesn’t Count
When DST kicked inThe door of NovemberEarth shook with time and temp. The river covered itself with broken clothing.The moon was but a stolen egg. Those of us suing EnergyFoamed butane thermsAt the incalculable mouth. Rabid with due datesWe had the delinquent notionTo run our ceiling fansCounter-clockwise in winter; To share the hot air fair.As … Continue reading Count Dracula Doesn’t Count
Master & Apprentice
I Compare them & see.The city of youthGrows up alongside the ageless river,Becomes apprentice of its flow.The river is bustlingBut always there,Always also there.You would think it doesBut it has nowhere to go.The city respondsWith pigeons, people,Seagulls on the backs of boats,Sligo Enterprises, precocious Sligo Steel.The smokestacks of necessary factoriesGrow first, test the wind. II … Continue reading Master & Apprentice
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