Profanity

RESORT STYLE LIVING

A mouth on her and

A body that won’t quit.

RUNNING A TAB AT HELL’S KITCHEN

Her team: Rabbit, Squirrel, and Possum.

SHOOTING THE PIER OF OTHERING

Geeking out on multimodal otherness.

IMPOVERISHED PLANET

Moonless.

PERFORMANCE PLANET

Jumping through rings.

BIGGISH PHARMA

Putting a human face on human puppets.

MY FATHER’S UNIFORMS

Being worn by young Martians.

NO FLY LIST

Grandparents of unsuccessful grandkids.

GODZILLA

Rearticulating otherhood.

THE SWOLL-EST HEAD IN THE PEEWEE-EST TOWN

Seeming to think

He’s an idol or something.

TOO MUCH THOUGHT

Subject to approval.

MINI COMBO

My body tells me.

WINNERS ONLY

Can’t you read?

BACKSTAGE

Security everywhere.

THE HUMAN HURRICANE OFF MEXICO

Reservations advised.

ORALITY

The poem.

WAVE BENDER

He died from a fall in a nursing home.

And then came back and pitched a complete game.

OUR RISEN SAVIOR

Jesus Fucking Christ.

BITTERSWEET CHOKING

I don’t care what anybody says.

BARKY BARK BARK

Woofy woof woof.

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Can't Stop Talking

I WAS WITH SOMEONE LAST NIGHT

Who said hey.

You know what?

I FOUND MYSELF THINKING

That’s almost a sonnet or something.

Not to throw a total curveball.

YEAH SO NO SO

The skies wept bitterly.

THIS IS AN EXCITING TIME

If you want to upgrade your mattress.

CENTRAL DO YOU COPY?

Central do you copy?

Central isn’t copying.

RIGHT BUT IF YOU

Put a drip system in

Can my chinchilla still eat yogurt?

I KNOW BUT YEAH

There’s no patch, no program.

When the time comes, it comes.

THAT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING

She said.

OF COURSE NANSEA AND BALDEMAR

Don’t get along.

I THOUGHT I HEARD

Shredded beef.

SO SHE ASKED ME SHE SAID

How are we going to get home?

SO WE APPARENTLY

I’m sorry.

What’s your name again?

I ASKED HIM I SAID

What keeps you up at night?

He’s all stubborn stains.

YEAH BUT ANYMORE

Don’t they already know?

SO WHAT WE DID IS WE

Or actually yeah.

I STUDIED ABROAD

And never left the crib.

OK NOW UM

I hear it’s five o’clock.

YOU CAN’T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT

She said.

I’M LIKE WHAT?

Let’s bounce.

I SEE HOW IT IS

She said.

YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME?

Talk to our server.

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Too Much Time Spent in Front of the Camera

FROM THE COCKPIT OF PREEXISTING SURREALISM

A Water Landing production.

ALABAMA BROTHERS

Playing golf in South Carolina.

U AT IHOP

Straight as a mirror.

A peppermint stick in skinny jeans.

RUBRICS

Full measures only.

Apostrophes optional.

MASTER BEDROOM

Kids named Washer and Dryer.

SCREEN PLAY

Look.

RISEN

Bread.

Blood pressure.

Jesus.

JUNK

Update your preferences.

IN FIRST CLASS

Twelve cats.

Twelve yak hair scratching posts.

BOISE NOISE

I’m all ears

Except for the eyes

In the back of my head.

THE POETRY OF BLOOD AND BONE

Is dead.

KOLLEGE OF EXQUISITE KNOWLEDGE

Crickets consecrate the canon.

CHORES

Doped up and on the psychological skids.

Feeding the horses and chickens.

THESE

Maybe just use these.

FREE DIRT

Recognize this star in pink?

ROMEO AND JULIET BIRD

They came from different nests in different trees.

SIN AND REDEMPTION

Clothes on the line.

NAPS ‘N’ SYNAPSES

Two flights daily.

ARGUING ABOUT WHAT DIRECTION COUNTERCLOCKWISE IS

We made good time.

Limo from the ship directly to the airport.

ANCHORAGE

Salmon smoke themselves silly.

Bacon self-cures.

BETWEEN TAKES

We remodeled the kitchen.

INSIGNIFICANCE

That’s a good feeling, isn’t it?

MY FAVORITE THING

Orthodoxy.

FANTASY

My greatest strength.

ARMS AKIMBO WEEK

Now who’s ice is thinnest?

FROM THE DEPTHS OF MY UMWELT

The warmest of wishes.

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In the Back of My Mind, Part II

MEXICAN FRANKENSTEIN

Behind the wheel of a lazy lagoon blue 1962 Ford Falcon.

SUMMER BLOG EVENT

Do you want to make it a meal?

AVERILL, ALABAMA

State home for befuddled management analysts.

THE RIVER

Enraged by runoff.

WILDERNESS

Overrun with order.

ULTIMATE BUDDHIST

No purpose.

No value.

My happy place.

REAL FOOD

Not baby food.

QUIET

Not talk much.

THE DOG

She licking her ass again?

VICTORY BOULEVARD

Winners of tickets to see King Tut.

TECHNO AND HOUSE

From the creator of Welcome to the Anthropocene.

TENNYSON, TENNESSEE

I shined shoes in my dad’s barbershop.

CHANGE

The worst of it really is is

If it’s not where you remember it being,

It’s somewhere else not far.

THE GUY THAT CRASHED THE PLANE IN ALASKA

Didn’t even see the mountain.

PINNACLE PETE’S

All you can eat.

THAI PEOPLE

They’re just so nice.

Have you ever been to Thailand?

SEPARATION

Like the coffered ceiling from the granite floor

In the grand lobby of the opera house.

RANDOM, LOUISIANA

Twice the pelican tipped.

But not once the cow and not once the pig.

PUSH COMES TO SHOVE

Dirty rice and double meat.

FLUGELHORN DRIVE

Valves and Conceptualists.

Marinating in multicultural juices.

Scroll swipe flip hit press tap click point arrow over.

PAGEANTRY

At the feeders like at the mini marts.

Energy drinks, seeds, red vines.

IN THE BACK OF MY MIND

OK then that’s what it is.

www.randystark.com

Monsoonal Annotations

Because at one time in my life I collected movie soundtrack albums, I thoroughly enjoyed recently reading Gary Marmostein’s book, Hollywood Rhapsody: Movie Music and its Makers, 1900-1975, and getting some backstory about them and other aspects of music used in Hollywood. In the section about jazz and the movies he cites a book, West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California 1945-1960 by Ted Gioia. So I jumped on it. I have an ok collection of LA jazz from that period, so I enjoyed learning more about what I have and what I’ve been missing. There’s a nice chapter about The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. Another about Art Pepper. And there’s plenty of new to me biographical information about artists like Hampton Hawes, Harold Land, Ornette Coleman, et. al.

The reason for the Sandy Dennis photo is when I was a sensitive, romantic, artistic teenager I had a huge crush on her, especially due to Up the Down Staircase. I owned the original soundtrack album, music by Fred Karlin, one of the movie music makers. And she was living with Gerry Mulligan, who earlier in his career was part of the LA jazz scene. 

And still speaking of movies, I've got a part in a film that starts shooting next week. I've got to get my hair cut a la 1962 Idaho.

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True Enough to Wonder

UP WITH THE SCORPIONS

She picks through a public ashtray for a butt to smoke.

And another one she’ll save for later.

LOOK AT THAT HAIR

Put a hat on if you’re going to rock that shit.

SO MANY PARTIES, SO MUCH CHEX

Fennel for swallowtails.

Milkweed for monarchs.

Flash mob of quail.

HER BIRTHDAY

The same day they landed on the moon.

THE ONLY THING I CAN FIGURE IS

(Pop of the next can of beer.)

TIME CARRYING ITS OWN LEASH

How cute.

SIX ONE HUNDRED AND SIX

What the fuck difference does it make?

Let the punishment fit the crime.

BUFFETED BY THE DEEP TISSUE HELL OF ROILING RING TONES

I’m frequently stupider than I give myself credit for.

SO I WAS TALKING TO HER

And I was

Telling her

When he says it

It’s like

True enough to wonder.

U O IT 2 YRSLF

Free body fat analysis.

Guaranteed winning scratchers.

WHAT HAPPENED WAS

We drove to Nashville.

WE WENT JUST HER AND I

You figure it’s a seven-hour drive.

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Unspooling

SO I’M ON THE PHONE

I’m talking to Virgil.

WE THOUGHT IT WAS TOOTS

No it was Emile and he was mad.

NYANTHO (THE JURISPRUDENT)

His ass is staying right here.

MAUD AND I TOGETHER WE

I’d say three.

Maybe four.

ZAID THREW TOGETHER A BAND

Re/sounds.

UNCLE RHYS

Too young of an exposure to

U-Hauls and bowling alley cocktail lounges.

ME AND ZORA NEALE HURSTON

We liked anthropology.

GUILLERMO LIVED IN LA RANA

We worked together.

SOREN

He predeceased himself

In that patented patented style.

ZENO’S GETTING AHEAD OF HIMSELF

And there’s a border in every direction.

LIKE I TOLD TALA

Most everything’s on a timer.

BUT LOUIE ONCE IN AWHILE

Louie would bring us out hamburgers.

DANIELLE?

Danielle’s probably.

If I had to guess.

I would say.

Umm.

JURAJ KRISTOF

He was notorious.

WAKE UP RAEESHA

Raeesha!

VANTRICE SAYS

I enjoy smashing the patriarchy,

Obliterating gender binaries,

And making new friends.

MR. SONG

I wonder whatever happened to him.

AUGUST AND ARCHER

Be sure and give them our regards.

I REMEMBER HADIYAH WENT UP

We went up.

DAVE FROM PERFORMANCE PUMPING

Deep set eyes of busted out windows.

Taciturn as scrap metal.

LINH

What would you recommend?

JOHNNYCAKES

I’m done talking.