Saturday, September 23, 2023

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.


 

Thursday, September 21, 2023

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.

 


Tuesday, September 19, 2023

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

My books are available on Amazon.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

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.

 


Thursday, September 14, 2023

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.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

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. 


Saturday, September 9, 2023

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.