Cherrywood, Zucchini Squash, and Bell Peppers

FOND MEMORIES

I wouldn’t know a fond memory if it bit me in the ass.

TRAFFIC ADVISORY

Hell’s HOV lane 

Closed for re-intentioning

FAST FROZEN FANTASIES

Every night when I pack

My lunch for work the next day

I leave one out to defrost.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORT

A train is on time.

NEXT STOP

Maybe.

DID YOU?

We were going to try to do it when we were in Sedona that year.

SAD SIGHTING

Big Foot down in the mouth.

LANYARD-BADGED LUNCHING

The complete beginner’s guide

WHAT IT BOILS DOWN TO IS

I have never known a waist more voluptuous and supple.

ON THE SHITTER

Taking a triage.

ROBOT STATE OF EMERGENCY

Suicide attempts spur plan.

FOR WITHOUT THEM, WHERE WOULD ANY OF US BE?

In the Home Goods section, that’s where.

NON-SEARCHABLE DATABASE

That sucks, like a Hoover vacuum

© 2023 Randy Stark

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

 

Did Anyone Hear What Just Sounded Like Gunshots?

I studied religion.

Couldn’t get enough.

Mystic Christians in particular.

Jumped out of harm’s way

When push came to shove.

Ended up in harm’s way again,

The harm’s way called love.

Lighthouse to lighthouse,

Cape Neddick to Hermosa Beach,

Julian of Norwich to

Teresa of Avila,

Where every praise is to our God

Who holds the title of librarian.

So when she adjusted her 

Ruched, off-shoulder number 

While reshelving books, 

That California evangelical sound

Welled up in me to where

Necessity became the mother of 

Lust and temptations.

Young man with a valise,

Young woman with skate ramp eyelashes,

And we’ll have to leave it right there.

© 2023 Randy Stark

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

 

Choice Bits (a continuing series)

 

"Rhubarb" by Joan Mitchell

Joan Mitchell, quoted by Patti Smith:

“The solitude that I find in my studio is one of plenitude. I am enough. I live fully there.” 

From “The Garden” by Jack Gilbert, a poem of 29 lines; below are the first four and the final five.

We come from a deep forest of years

into a valley of an unknown country

called loneliness. Without horse or dog

the heavens bottomless overhead.

…

He wonders all the time where

he has arrived, why so much has been

allowed him (even rain on the leaves

of sugar maples), and why there is

even now so much to come.

From “England” by Marianne Moore

grass-less, links-less, language-less country — in which letters are written not in Spanish, not in

            Greek, not in Latin, not in

        Shorthand

    but in plain American which cats and dogs can read!

From Anything On Its Side, by Larry Eigner 

oh world

what sound

for our ears

Another from Anything On Its Side, by Larry Eigner 

Cannibals are children

as well as adults

From “Brancusi’s Golden Bird,” by Mina Loy

an incandescent curve

      licked by chromatic flames

      in labyrinths of reflections

From the West Coast Jazz department:

Bud Shank, New Groove

Jimmy Guiffre, Tangents in Jazz

Harold Land, The Fox

Terry Gibbs, Dream Band

Bill Holman, In a Jazz Habit

Shorty Rogers, Courts the Count

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

Gender Warfare Systems Command at Skylark Terrace

AISHA, FRANKIE, YAO

And Summer, if she wants to,

But she’s very busy, too.

CHIP AND SKIP

Always.

I always knew.

I always knew deep down.

UTAMI

I told her I’d like to see her start

Throwing some knees and some uppercuts.

NORBERTO

He’s such a chitchatterer, Norberto.

THAT’S LIKE DEEPA

Her kids are going to private school.

LOGAN

It’s me, Junior.

I TELL YUNG TING

I say bitch,

Why you not answer?

She was silence.

KEZIAH AND JAMES

They put me on to this book.

HUA

I was driving his car because he needed my truck.

EIRINIE

It looks like Eirinie’s on call.

She just got another job too.

SOCORRO’S SO FUNNY

She’s thinking of taking a gap year.

ABNER 

Blooped one into right.

JEROME

Jerome summarizes it perfectly.

DESTINY

I just talked to her.

She’s in Texas.

Doing good,

Apparently.

© 2023 Randy Stark

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

 

Two Poems

DIDN’T I TELL YOU?

No, I didn’t tell you.

Spot is not my attorney.

No, oh no no.

He’s my woofwoof.

Skeeter’s my attorney.

He’s my man.

If Skeeter can’t do it, 

Ain’t nary a motherfucker can.

So one day

This was like

I don’t know

I thought well OK

A line of pelicans,

A line of helicopters,

A line from Gertrude Stein,

They call this a tsunami safe “community.”

Here come to find out

Too nasty to surf is the water,

Nasty as the luckless inhabitants

Of this “shithole by the sea.”

WELL AND ONE THING

I had

After I had

Which is good

Because actually

I’m just you know

Waiting to reveal

And it’s nice to like

Oh yeah

They totally do.

© 2023 Randy Stark

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

Wide Open Bite

MR. PRODUCTIVITY

Band of maroon at sunset

Beautiful view 

Someone at La Galette 

Where they have happy hour practically all day

Called it “the actual ocean.”

What I’m saying is

It was like weird.

This other service that I work with,

One of the guys I worked with

On that project

A sales guy:

31.2 billion tweets.

9.3 billion retweets.

12.1 trillion shares.

147 trillion subscribers.

700 trillion Likes

Posted a TikTok about

Instagram followers

Surpassed 49.5 million shares

In the first three nanoseconds. 

© 2023 Randy Stark

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

They Basically Took Over When COVID Happened

In Gnu Oar Leens, Lieu “Wheezy” Anna,

Following ten consecutive stanzas 

Of epaulettes and Chinese slippers,

A panel of executive level leaders and 

Trustees emeriti with matching lace-trimmed capes

Produced an idyllic oxy ultra deluxe

Fantasy knocked silly 

One toad open slay

Song and pony show,

A genderly ethnicicant affirmation

That made for great television.

Well it ended up being 

Now everybody’s talking about

Insecticide services and solar panels,

What’s hot in new flooring,

Having the right lender,

And why a safe space for nut allergies

Is so important.

Along with a list a mile long

Of other trenchant fecal matter 

Such as interrogating disruption

And how to raise spicy chickens.

© 2023 Randy Stark

Please feel free to visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.