2 poems and a story

illustrations by palomine studios

midnight by chuck leary rancid shit oozes from my ravaged butthole as hungry wolves howl on the meathooks of death we will watch no reruns of mary tyler moore tonight but the red lizards of despair will crawl up the walls who are you to tell me what to do? after the initial shock of the empire’s collapse i had it all written down in my secret notebook but the baboons of philosophical reflection had other ideas i can hear the railroads still running carrying the robots to the final battle a battle without generals or armies only the final whistling behind the final park bench so sing, repossessed angels, sing as a million bareassed bankers gather for a torchlight parade mockery was the acid that dissolved all when the kingdom of love was crying to be born

welcome by sarah monday sternwall see the little flower welcome the buzzing bee see the sandy golden shore welcome the surging sea see the waving willow branch look up at the blue sky see the solemn bullfrog start at the seagull’s cry see the stealthy squirrel approach the fallen nut and a sudden shaft of sunlight through the oak tree’s shadow cut hear the crickets chirping in the swirling morning breeze hear all nature singing in a wondrous symphony!

sisters by corinne delmonico sarah morrison , like me, had no friends. i had no particular desire to be her friend. but she apparently wanted to be my friend, because she came over and started talking to me one day. she didn’t ask me what i wanted to talk about, just started on about a color - blue, i think it was - and went on and on about it. the next day she came over and started talking to me again. this time it was about some book she was reading - about cleopatra or joan of arc or somebody like that. while she was talking, abbie marlowe and jennifer winchell - the two total princesses of the school - walked by. one of them said to the other - “ha, ha, the goop sisters” - thus effectively ending once and for all my existence as a human being. i pretended i had not heard and did not say anything but when sarah morrison approached me the next day i immediately told her - “stay away from me”. sarah and i never spoke to each other again. something reminded me of sarah the other day and i thought about her for the first time in years. but not for long. what was there to think about, or to say? either she is alive or dead, or she went on to have some kind of life or she didn’t.