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The Killer Dappled by Sun

March 30, 2016March 30, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

The Killer Dappled by Sun

the killer flexed his hands

warm playful sunshine

wrapped around his fingers

he squeezed

but couldnʼt grasp the light

couldnʼt hold it stop it control it harm it

the light was safe from him

he found comfort that something

was safe from him

he couldnʼt murder the light

there was a limit to his power

he was human he had frailty

he looked around

shadows light danced on faces

chattering mindless

anyone of whom he could kill

one of whom he would kill soon

with hands that basked

in the gentle caress of the sun

they would find a throat

they would take the light

out of those eyes

they were slaves to a system

of comfort for comfortʼs sake

well heʼd put an end to someoneʼs comfort

the killer was a liberator

and he would liberate

one by one

until he was free

it would be good to be free

free of the need to liberate

the need to kill

once he had quenched that thirst

he would be free

to enjoy this life this world

this moment in the sun

The title is a direct reference to Hopkins’ Pied Beauty that starts ‘Glory be to God for dappled things.’ The title and the first verse came too me at the same time. That first verse also refers to the Biblical creation story – ‘And God said, Let there be light.’ I present this image of the killer interacting with light – destruction vs creation.The killer doesn’t have this level of awareness his focus is on his own set of desires. Everything reflects his personal mission. In away this is what the writer does to the reader – manipulates the images to some discomforting resolution.

The killers train of thought moves along its own logic. One which the reader may not agree with but, I hope, finds themselves understanding. The need to finish one task in order to enjoy a less taxing one is pretty universal.I also ratchet up the tension – each piece gets a little more macabre without getting gory. I don’t think it’s a big jump from the apple juice soaked hands of the previous poem to sun warmed hands around the reader’s neck.Again I also invest the killer with a sense of good purpose. When God created light he didn’t intend it to sun burn people. The killer wants to set people’s spirits free, killing them is coincidental, enjoying that process isn’t the aim but one learns to enjoy what they cannot evade.

on going 🙂 when new podcast are posted: Deliciously iTunes

April 19: judging: Hot Damn! It’s A Queer Slam Season 2 finale: 8 p.m. : Buddies In Bad Times Theatre – 12 Alexander St., Toronto, Ontario

Hot Damn!

order tickets now

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

July 4-8: attending: Chasing your Tale – Loyalist – Belleville

I’ve already registered

https://www.facebook.com/events/1511340829175762/

loyalistfocus.com

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016 (I’ve already registered)

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/topoet

The Killer In The Morning

March 23, 2016March 23, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

The Killer In The Morning

with a shout

the killer awoke from a dream

someone smothering him

a pillow over his face

heʼd never use a pillow

or anything that hid the face

the best part of the kill

was in the eyes

that

I canʼt believe you are doing this

combined with the actual pain

as his hands crushed

the wind pipe

squeezing

hollow bones in his strong hands

he could crush an apple

the hardest granny smith

heʼd hold it up

so juice splashed his face

like a warm summer shower

cleaned and ready

the killer sat

at his kitchen table

looked out at the sunny day

at people on their way to death

death at his hands

maybe not right now

but soon sooner than they expect

at least one of them would die today

he knew that

the knowledge armed him

gave him power

gave him a reason to live

to be there amongst them

each of them ripe for his desires

the headlines no longer cowed

them they had little fear

a killing a day

the papers screamed

who will be next

the tv clatter box went on and on

flashed from his latest victim

to breakfast cereals

that would help you lose weight

ha he laughed to himself

I have a program

thatʼll give you a permanent weight loss

donʼt bother calling

Iʼll find you today

it is a good day to dieIt was challenging to step into this character’s mind without seeing to judge or enjoy him. Because so many people think what you write is a part of who you are, when I’ve performed these I have to assure people they are totally fiction. I have a strong sense of the macabre but I am not a homicidal homo:-)I worked on a tone of rationality as opposed to one of blind rage. The ‘in the eyes’ ties this to the previous piece. The thought process follows a logical sequence in a way that I hope the reader, listener understands & feels bit squeamish for that understanding. I also play with paradox – being clean & ready as the result of crushing the apple, the rushing of the throat.One of the theories of writing good villains is to give them a sense they feel they are doing the right thing as opposed to feeling they are evil. I add just enough narrative detail to move the story forward – the headlines about him show he’s killed before.

It also reflects how we as consumers of crime entertainment become numbed by the fast frequency of it. Oh another mass murder in the USA, what else is on, CSI? Midsummer Murders. We don’t even care if there are real deaths anymore. It’s all entertainment.It ends with the killer’s sense of purpose & his wry sense of humour. The weight loss stuff is so blackly funny I love reading it – it both humanizes & demonizes the killer’s p.o.v in a way that I hope makes him chillingly real.

April 19: judging: Hot Damn! It’s A Queer Slam Season 2 finale: 8 p.m. : Buddies In Bad Times Theatre – 12 Alexander St., Toronto, Ontario

Hot Damn!

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

July 4-8: attending: Chasing your Tale – Loyalist – Belleville

I’ve already registered

https://www.facebook.com/events/1511340829175762/

loyalistfocus.com

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016 (I’ve already registered)

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/topoet

Your Eyes

March 16, 2016March 17, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

Your Eyes

what color are your eyes

really

you know thatʼs my favorite color

honestly

well not really

I guess my favorite color is

a sort of cerise

you know the red of sherry

when you spill it on

an eagle white rug

just as it soaks in a little

I love that red

canʼt get enough of it

though I do really like the impact

of a sudden spurt of blood

on newly fallen snow

blood warm enough to melt sink

clotted crimson

in a thin gleam of ice

that is a sweet color too

or the tinge of a bruise

after the third day

when the blue black is ebbing out

to that green blush along the edges

until finally it becomes as faint

as a finger print on a knife point

or a the kiss of a rose

trodden underfoot in a muddy field

after the police have searched

for days looking for clues

the dark deep brown

of fresh dug earth

or ground recently patted down

to a sort of smooth quality

like skin untouched for a year or so

dried in the corner of a basement

who knew Aunt Sally was down there

we thought she had gone

back to Florida

I love the color of her eyes

what was left of them anyway

a beige blackened

with whites jellied dried

pink rose petals

so I love the color of your eyes

yes that has to be nearly

my favorite color

in the whole wide world

Your Eyes starts a a series of four chilling poems about a serial killer. I aimed for a rather innocent, youthful tone of a chatty teen unaware of the macabre nature of his or her remarks. I love the innocuous way this starts with the simple question about eye colour which gets odd with the wine on the rug analogy.

It quickly escalates to blood on snow. These are things I have actually seen so it was easy enough to capture the images. I enjoyed making the blood the snow so vivid with how it melts as it sinks before it cools & clots.

The unease for the listener grows, I hope, as the examples of colour continue to be related to injury as opposed to the sky. They speaker is clearly alert to bruises to be so accurate with the timing. One wonder sit this because the speaker has been bruised, abused in some way.

I always enjoy performing this piece with the shift in darker & darker while maintaining this naive quality of the speaker. The listener gets taken along for the ride which takes another sharp turn with Aunt Sally in the basement. The narrative moves from the sort of abstract descriptions of colour to a real event.

What does the speaker know about Aunt Sally? The compressed story of Sally being found and our speaker seeing this eyes could be an episode of CSI. I aways enjoy saying the line ‘who knew Aunt Sally was down there’ because it throws the narrative into a whole new direction. Where the police searching for her in that muddy field?

Finally I come back to your eyes. How safe do you feel now with this speaker. How often has your feeling about a person changed as the result of what they though was an innocent conversation?

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

July 4-8: attending: Chasing your Tale – Loyalist – Belleville

I’ve already registered

https://www.facebook.com/events/1511340829175762/

loyalistfocus.com

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016 (I’ve already registered)

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

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Corner Store

March 9, 2016March 9, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

Corner Store

why does a group of teens scare me

I walk past the corner store

where they hang around

shoving each other

smoking butts and swearing

on cell phones

fuck you timber bone

what the hell is timber bone

I’m so far from street talk

to know if that is even street talk

I try not to walk too fast

try not to look too long at anyone of them

my eyes flick quickly

from hooded shrouded faces

pants so baggy they need to be held up by hand

girls with pale lips arched eyebrows

look at the boys with that mix

of love distance and boredom

what makes me anxious

is it the mix of blacks asians

am I fearful of violence

that one of them might feel

the flick of my eyes

and confront me

“what you lookin’ at faggot”

why do some wear fir trimmed parkas

on mild spring days

what are they hiding under those hoodies

a generation gap never to be crossed

I know the closer they get

the unsafer I feel

I wish that corner store wasn’t so close

wish I didn’t get that ripple of worry

wish I could lose the memory

of me at that age

never one to have guys

to hang around with

wish I could forget being

the brunt of their dumb shoves

of their sneering exclusion

Here in the east end I live near a subway station that is the main departure point for four or five schools. The next stop serves another two or three other schools. Lots of teens & little diners, pizza places to serve them lunches. Some of the corner stores have signs that say – only 2 student at a time. At least two of the cafes close for lunch when school is not open during the summer.

This piece is based on real events, real feelings of mine as I pass through or near groups of them. So many congregate at the nearest Tim Horton’s I no longer go in at lunch time. Some of the guys have more facial hair than I ever saw in high schools when I was growing up. Seems wearing pj bottoms to school never goes out of fashion, even in winter.

I try not to look too closely or too long. I have never been confronted though, or even heard queer slurs when I walk past. But because of my own high school experiences that tingle of fear is there. I’m always glad when summer comes & there are fewer students on the sidewalks.

The memory if my own high school bullying remains fresh because of them. It never escalated beyond the a few incidents of shoving, name calling but I don’t want to minimize it either. I may never have been beaten up, harassed constantly but it left its mark on me.

March 12, Saturday: attending:

Toronto-SpecFic-Colloquium

March 16, Wednesday: judging at Hot Damn! it’s a Queer Slam – featuring The Ragdolls Supermarket Restaurant and Bar 268 Augusta Ave., Toronto, Ontario M5T2L9

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1504753909765085/

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

July 4-8: attending: Chasing your Tale – Loyalist – Belleville

I’ve already registered

https://www.facebook.com/events/1511340829175762/

loyalistfocus.com

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016 (I’ve already registered)

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/topoet

Lʼamour domestique

March 2, 2016March 2, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

Lʼamour domestique

my fridge made a pass at me

the other day

I was in my usual hurry

to get the milk

when

the door caressed my cheek

pushed me into its cool

welcoming heart

now Iʼm not into sex

with inanimate objects if I was

I would probably pick

my coffee maker

something small and easy to satisfy

the fridge is never filled

always has demands that

make me feel inadequate

while the coffee machine

fills to brim so quickly

yes give me hot and perky

to big and cold – any day

but it was one of those days

the kitchen chairs were

plucking at my pant legs

like over excited little dogs

humping a foot

it made eating almost impossible

I wasnʼt sure

what to do with the left overs

the fridge was glaring me

petulant

at being snubbed

in favour of the coffee maker

in the bathroom

the face cloth competed

with the tooth brush

to get in my mouth

until the towels

pulled them aside

to push me into the shower

they needed all my body wet

for the satisfaction they craved

I didnʼt have the moral strength

to deny them anything

they rubbed and dried

every square inch

the sofa was anxious for me to

snuggle in front of the TV

I had to watch

home decorating shows

about getting cute little throws

hints from the sofa

of what would make

our family complete

in bed the pillows

tenderly cradled my head

as the sheets twined around me

hungry for dreams

about coffee makers

For the next several weeks I’m taking a look at my ‘Lament for Anna Nicole’ chap book. In putting together a chapbook flow is important both creatively & visually. I do the formatting myself & that makes it easier for me to deal with orphan lines, to adjust margins etc. I also insure that a poem doesn’t require turning a page to read the whole thing.

Laments opens with L’amour domestique – one of my ‘hits.’ I love performing this piece & audiences always respond to the sexuality involved. The images make it an adult x-rated cartoon. Sort of the Little Toaster taken to another level.

When I read that opening line I always get a vision of William “The Refrigerator” Perry a football player. It also references the affection people can have for eating.and how objects replace humans in our affections.

The coffee machine verse always gets a knowing laugh as listeners realize the implications of size – the nature of quantity – bigger is better & many men fear they have big enough dicks to satisfy.

I then let the cartoon take over fully and as I read this I see a Silly Symphony of these objects alive and acting out as described. The brooms in Sorcerers Apprentice marching and marching. The piece is almost like a story board for a full length cartoon feature. Rivalry between the fridge & the coffee pot would be enlarged of course. I love the idea of the couch wanting children – of how in real relationships children or pets are seen as completions.

The piece invites the reader into a fantasy world and I hope it makes that world real enough to keep them there and satisfy them, like a coffee pot.

March 12, Saturday: attending:

Toronto-SpecFic-Colloquium

March 16, Wednesday: judging at Hot Damn! it’s a Queer Slam – featuring The Ragdolls Supermarket Restaurant and Bar 268 Augusta Ave., Toronto, Ontario M5T2L9

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1504753909765085/

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

July 4-8: attending: Chasing your Tale – Loyalist – Belleville

I’ve already registered

https://www.facebook.com/events/1511340829175762/

loyalistfocus.com

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016 (I’ve already registered)

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/topoet

On Watching Straight #Porn

February 24, 2016April 11, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

On Watching Straight Porn with A Gay Guy

I try to be amenable

let you express your needs

in ways that don’t go too against my grain

but don’t expect me to enjoy

what you enjoy

while it’s tedium for me

I like to see that look on your face

as you drift into that zone

don’t get me wrong

this process of yours

is harmless and irrelevant to me

the fact that it doesn’t do for me

what it does for you

doesn’t mean I’m judging you

in any way

or judging the object of your interest

I can’t get into it

have tried with you

and it leaves me more tired

than aroused

I’ve never been one to look

when I can just reach out and touch

you seem to think that it’s

this image or this face

that isn’t working for me

when what doesn’t work

is that I should be enough

that this outside train of stimulation

that pulls you along into action

takes too much of your focus

takes too long to get ready for play

there are somethings I don’t say

because it isn’t really that important

in the long run

you aren’t the One

but maybe if you didn’t have

this particular pleasure fascination

I might find you more than sweet

I’m not going to make demands

that you change

to suit my particular wants and needs

so I try to be amendable

to your harmless quirk

till you smarten up and see

I have in less and less interest in

the screen or to you

Another piece that is great fun to perform for the right audience. Taking people into the rather banal world of actual gay sexual activity is fun – there seems to be this image gay guys just drop their pants & do the deeds – that we are so horned up for each other all we want is opportunity.

This guy was so into straight porn I wan’t even sure if he was gay. Queer porn didn’t work for him at all. He seemed to identify with the women sucking those dicks. He was also partial to Asian women with big breasts & long fingernails. More campy that erotic for me.

We didn’t start with this element but he introduced after a couple of play dates. I was willing to give it a try. I had nothing really to lose by being open minded. The guys in the videos were ordinary,even their cocks weren’t that huge; unlike the men in most gay porn who are never ordinary joes. But the straight guys were too passive, legs spread & being done. Faceless in a couple of the loops. I was bored.

The piece also reflects this slightly sluttish attitude by the ‘I’ – because though there are elements of the real in it, it isn’t about me but about an attitude towards sex – casual sex. I wanted the sex to be presented in such an off-hand way it has a bit of innocence left. Because the less emotional baggage with put on sex the better it can be.

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/topoet

Wee Willie

February 17, 2016April 1, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

I Still Dream of Wee Willie

Wee Willie stomped

the ground in his pen

agitated bellowing

I dashed to see what was going on

my mother reached to hold me back

I eluded her easily

Wee Willie reared on his hind legs

was all the glimpse I got

before my mother’s shawl

covered my head

the rose patterned shawl

was the one she used

to cover her crystal ball

the future was to be veiled at all times

so she told her customers

only the hand of spirit

and $10 could move it

but in that glimpse I saw

what she was afraid I’d see

was not my future

but Wee Willie pawing the air

with lumbering legs

as he teetered toward Daisy Blue

I pushed the shawl away

I had to see if they were fighting

then I saw for the first time

Wee Willie erect

his elephant cock in gory glory

it was huge enormous

bigger even than that of Herculo

the muscle man

Wee Willie clambered

onto the back of Daisy Blue

she was docile big ears flickered

as she moved her head side to side

his humungous cock got bigger harder

his weight upon her back

I fainted

I woke in our trailer

my shoulders ached

under the weight of my dreams

One of my favourite shows as a child was Circus Boy. The show centred on Toby Tyler and the child actor was cute and even wore his hair like mine at the time. His character was based on a book Toby Tyler which I read & reread longing of that adventure. ‘I Dream’ is my fantasy based on that longing.

This is one of four or five pieces in which I explore being a child growing up in a circus. I’m did world building as I went along and initially it was also a poem of discovery even for me as characters became clearer.

The name Wee Willie came to me first and the scene of the agitated, aroused elephant quickly followed. I needed action to get the ball rolling. Mother as fortune teller is a bit of a cliche but I needed the shawl, trapeze artists didn’t usually wear their capes when working around the grounds. The hiding with the shawl is also a way to indicate the age of my hero. If he were in his teens I don’t think the mother would have bothered.

I also like the way I veil the eyes of the reader with it so that they don’t see what is going on until my hero sees it. I also tried to create a sense of real emotional connection between my hero and Wee Willie so the reader could feel his concern. Daisy Blue is another of those names that came easily.

Then the ‘big’ reveal.

We do enter the realm of truth here – I have seen, thanks to TV of course – an elephant’s erection: impressive but not pretty. The mention of Herculo is to give my hero a sense of the reality of living in a circus where things are seen as a part of what is around as opposed to as objects of desire.

The faint leads into the real nature of this memory, of how things we see as children work into our subconscious in unexpected way, that they can reveal to us what we may not even have a name for but feel the weight of all the same.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1504753909765085/

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/topoet

#Seduction

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016 topoetLeave a comment

Seduction

my dick is not a doormat

my ass is not a baseball dugout

I’m not out to damage anything

beyond this image people get of queer

they slip on conclusions

assumptions made by media

assumptions like ones that hover

around racial expectations

of blacks as gun happy gangstas

most guys are okay with me

till someone thinks

they might be having more

than just a word with me

what would a straight guy

talk to a queer about anyway

fashion tips dating know how

my dick is not meat

my ass is not a toxic waste dump

I’m not out to damage anything

except your expectations

what makes it more fucked up

is that even queers slip on conclusions

if I should say hi it means I’m drooling

they can’t take the time to talk to me

lest their friend thinks

look how low he is sinking

talking to gay gramps

my dick is not a dagger

my ass is not a landing field

my mouth is not the gateway to hell

though my tongue is a weapon

of mass seduction

Seduction is partly a response to a slam piece by female poet, whose name I’ve forgotten, that starts something like ‘my cunt is not…’ in which she reclaims the right to to call her vagina a cunt. She plays with the preconceived notions of how people respond to the word and the female sexual empowerment.

Here I play with those preconceived notions of queer sexuality and of how much sex gay guys experience and are even interested in having. Notions that get in the way of friendships with the men, straight or queer. Some the situations I talk about are one’s I’ve experienced.

I looked for images that implied being used ‘doormat’ – that notion that many gay men are willing to put up with any sort of abuse just to get laid – ‘baseball dugout’ – that notion of quantity, after all a dugout can hold the whole (hole) team at one time plus all those erect bats.

‘meat’ is one of those sometimes playful often derogatory terms – ‘just a piece of meat’ – ‘toxic waste dump’ is pretty clear the whole notion of how dirty, unsanitary, evil queer sex is.

In the end there’s the ‘dagger’ – the notion that penetration is a way of cutting off someone’s masculinity, that the gay cock is a dangerous threat queers are eager to use to destroy family values’ ‘landing field’ another take on quantity & frequency – plus airplanes are rather phallic. Finally a slam like metaphor to the power of language & a play of weapons of mass destruction & an echo of ‘not out to damage anything’ –

March 12, Saturday: attending:

Toronto-SpecFic-Colloquium

March 16, Wednesday: judging at Hot Damn! it’s a Queer Slam – featuring Dominic Berry Supermarket Restaurant and Bar 268 Augusta Ave., Toronto, Ontario M5T2L9

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1504753909765085/

June 3-5: attending: Capturing Fire 2016 – The DC Centre – 2000 14th St NW, Suite 105 – Washington, DC

https://www.facebook.com/capturingfire/

June 11 – attending: The Toronto Poetry Talks – 10 AM – Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3C6

https://www.facebook.com/events/147955055574679/

September 1-4: attending FanExpo 2016

https://www.facebook.com/fanexpocanada/?fref=ts

November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo

http://nanowrimo.org/

Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet

wrestwk1

Like my pictures? I post lots on Tumblr

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Shopping Trippy

October 21, 2015 topoetLeave a comment

Shopping Trippy

I ran into the Dalai Lama

shopping at the Dollarama

he was looking for some of those

strawberry scented post it notes

to remind him of what was next

but all he could find were

Hello Kitty pads of to do lists

in shape of bananas

he asked me

‘do you think these

carry the proper sense of

importance and playful utilitarianism

without being so ironic one feels no hope’

to be honest I didn’t know what to say

it wasn’t as if he was the pope

he was just the Dalai Lama

and what difference did

the Dalai’s dilemma make to me

all I wanted was one of those bandanas

with thousand dollar bills printed on it

a gift for a friend of mine

who tried to off himself

because he felt worthless

the bandana would always make him feel

like a thousand bucks

but all I found were ones

with gold maple leafs

and as good as gold

wasn’t a strong enough message for me

so I asked the Dalai Lama

what he thought I should do

I offered to meditate with him

if he could help me

we weren’t on the same page

because world peace was just a fantasy to me

whereas peace of mind for my friend

was a practical reality

and if I could buy it with a buck I would

but I knew it would take more

than strawberry scented post it notes

to change the bigger picture

so I left with a couple of those bandanas

with US dollars printed all over them

while the Dalai Lama

stayed behind trying to decide between

the Hello Kitty note pad

or aroma therapy dish detergent

After all the darkness of the poems so far in the chapbook I wanted to really break out with some fun fun fun. This piece began with the first two lines – I love the punning rhyme, the paradoxical location to meet the Dalai Lama. As you can tell I have been in a dollar store a few times. Although I think Hello Kitty is now retro, it wasn’t when I wrote this. Does anyone remember the Hello Kitty store that was open at Harbourfront for a year or so?

The sonic interplay isn’t something I use often – in fact I resist it because it can come off as too cute & ends up calling attention to itself – content gets lost. Here it reflects the distractive nature of dollar stores in general – placed where pet supplies & baby supplies are side by side on the shelf. It is also great fun to perform. I used, for a time, as a feature started because it got my energy up quickly

I’ve always wondered what I’d do if I ran into some famous where I least expect to – what would i say? Nice shoes Mr lama – I don’t image I would say Hello Dalai – he’s probably sick of that joke anyway. Praying for peace is one of the actions the Lama encourages people to do – meditative direction of thoughts to change. As I’ve said peace is an abstract, world peace such a big notion that I can’t fully grasp how that might be accomplished.

Much like the ‘I’ of this piece I’m better when I act locally & let that ripple our globally. The mug is one I’ve seen at a dollar store, one which went back a few weeks later to buy & they were out of them. I’ve also seen aroma therapy dish detergent – & the notion of dish washing as meditation is ancient so putting the two together makes total sense to me. I’m still waiting for aroma therapy undies.

October 24 -Saturday and October 25 -Sunday attending: Ellen Bass Poetry Workshop: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Harbourfront Centre