I'm Here To Say

I'm here to say something about
beauty which words rarely
capture. Can I take a
shortcut and just
show your face?

Exiled In Absentia

Exiled in absentia
From such place I've yet forgotten
It's neither here nor there

Did the helicopters follow
To your shit stain corner of
Our nation?
They seem to have no track of me
From godless pandemonium
To holy groves and agnostic
Waterways.

I have lost them, then?

I suspect I shall still need pull them from
The sky.

Abraham was Willing to Kill

Abraham was willing to kill his own child for his God, and proven loyal thereby won God's approval. Countless followers of the Abrahamic Religions have been willing to kill their own and each other's children in the same God's name. Of course many others have been willing to do so for different Gods, or no God.
So I'm thinking:
A) Wrong God, people.
B) Shitty example, God.
C) God doesn't matter
D) All of the above

I Prefer Horseshit

I prefer "horseshit" to "bullshit" because it can't be sanitized and shortened like "bull."
HORSE is a competition Kobe or LeBron would beat me at. Whereas with horseshit, despite the impressive credentials of the Mamba and King James, I just might win.

I'm going to Draw a Mystery

I'm going to draw a mystery: Overcoat Thrust Returns

In where they keep the shadows at noon, Overcoat Thrust made the arrest. Yes, that's right, he had joined the force. But soon justice called him away.

(Midnight. Dark tomorrow off her perfect aim. He saw where it led to. He was quick to investigate, this first time back. Her loins were instructive, the more things change. Then they conspired. Listen, She said. But he was already in agreement, though that was a ruse as was his forte.)

A break in the action. Overcoat senses movement to the next sentiment.

The Sequel Repents

Funny people from tomorrow
It's all about love
A new kind of humor
From the hip

Funny people tomorrow you see
Oceans of flesh which means
Everyone's swimming
That's all .

Listen! Listen! A drink! He says
But they had stopped drinking already

Funny prime tomorrow promotion
A tool to user's to bother ahead.

Oh!

Pt. 2: Tantrum
It's sugar! Its sugar! The children exclaim

4 The Next Situation
The next situation is sleep
America.

Three Sandwiches
There were 3 sandwiches At Any Given Time:
Abundance

Fine.
You win. Thanks for the equation.

You're New, Superhero

Your new superhero eats the past
Spits out tomorrow
Stops the internet

Umpteenth adaptations of
Assassins Unlaunched

Tomorrow!
between
The next conversation.

The hero in serial known as
Sequel repents

Theater Review: Men Should Weep/Griffin Theatre Company

(Another!) review for Newcity Stage:

RECOMMENDED

It’s been thirty years since Ena Lamont Stewart’s “Men Should Weep” was last produced in the USA and I’d wager a rampant run of Stateside revivals is unlikely. It’s steeped in a thick working-class Glasgow dialect. Despite its standing as one of “One Hundred Plays of the Century” per the National Theatre of London’s take on the twentieth, this far into the twenty-first the show offers nothing audiences haven’t seen. And the whole thing clocks in closer to three hours than two. But Stewart’s script provides a showcase for a fine ensemble and that’s exactly the sort of cast Griffin Theatre Company has assembled…
   (read full review here)

So See The Storm

So see the storm missed us
Or rather we missed the storm
And I pulled out all my teeth
Gonna lose them anyway, dead or
Alive & I missed you, or I didn't
See?
Outside the hyped club where we last listened
to live music. It must have been
Jive
I don't recall
a note.

Theater Feature: Poly Wants A Crackup: The Tension, and the Laughter, Explode in Steppenwolf’s “The Qualms”

Bruce Norris and Kirsten Fitzgerald/Photo: Joel Moorman

A feature for Newcity Stage:

When a sex comedy by a highly lauded playwright hits the Chicago stage, I get the call from Newcity to devise the sort of feature you just started reading. Seems this paper thinks all I care about is getting laughs and getting off. How obvious I must be.

Pam MacKinnon/Photo: Joel Moorman

Obvious ain’t a word I’d use to describe “The Qualms” by Bruce Norris, now in its world-premiere production at Steppenwolf. The show presents what is for most viewers a specifically unfamiliar social setting within what are generally very recognizable trappings. That is to say: it’s a swingers party, but after all it’s just a party. With much hilarity the play offers insight into our ridiculous human habit of trying to enjoy the company of others while maintaining an individual sense of righteousness, or at least control. Before catching the show a few days later, I speak with Norris by phone. I start with a question firmly on both rails of my two-track mind: What’s inherently funnier, polyamory or monogamy…

( read full feature here )

Theater Review: A Small Fire/Steep Theatre

 Another review for Newcity Stage: 

Lacking the spark to start even the most readily extinguishable blaze, “A Small Fire” is monochromatically akin to a handful of ash. The direction from Joanie Schultz is sharp, the sound design by Thomas Dixon is precise, and the cast handle the challenges before them admirably. It’s the material that, striving for the elegiac, feels instead like an obituary in the making…

( read full review here )

Remember I Bound The Poet's Play

Remember I bound the poet's
Play, right?
- with care not shown since -
in staples and house paint
( a house we'd never wherever evince )
and you placed it over the
Screen door and another
Time we'd dance.

Patriotic Prompt

You, essay.

Christmas In July Stocking Stuffers from the Much Maligned

Exhibiting none of the nauseating lethargy nor aimless noodling antithesis of psychedelia with which they so often bring me to restless slumber, here The Grateful Dead really cook on the ol' U.S. Blues. Snappier lyrics than usual, too. From the generally alright Mars Hotel album. Bonus - check out the crazy US gov cartoon that starts this video. The video goes steeply downhill the second the government cartoon ends and it reflects poorly on the song.
Grateful Dead - U.S. Blues (Studio Version)

Wild Life: Macca sprouts Wings! Of course it was panned. Every song on the album pales next to I'm Down or even Another Girl and might have seemed insulting compared to his fellow scarabs' contemporary solo work (including, most assuredly, the monolithic RINGO which followed shortly). But let's see some wretch who's made a tiny critical fortune eking out trite Americana these last twenty years match its effortless coziness? Won'tco. Hey, diddle this bonus track, why dontcha?
Paul McCartney - Hey Diddle - Remastered by Maccaspan

{Down In The Groove} Once voted worst album ever, when it ain't even Dylan's worst album. The song selection's a bunch of castoffs. Steve Jones AND Kip Winger are on it, to name but a few. And I bet Bob didn't even notice Winger. Top that, Carlos Santana! Criminally left off of Infidels, which should have been one of Zimmy's best albums, and surprisingly adorned with (often singled out for ridicule) backup vocals from Full Force (talk about Supernatural), hear('s) that expiration date ditty, Death Is Not The End. Call me when you've written something better… guess I can save money on my brand new smartphone plan by dropping that "ringer" feature! Here (hear! hear...), Nick Cave and friends pay their respects -
Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue, Shane MacGowan, Blixa Bargeld, Mick Harvey - Death is not the end