Sharing the Stoke

 ART

Covers more than 30 percent of the earth’s surface.

EARN POINTS FOR FREE PIZZA

Learn how.

BREAKOUT INDIE STAR

Ears tagged like cattle.

Armed to the teeth.

OPTIMIST

One who teaches reading.

TRIBUTE TO X

I like X.

I saw X.

SEAMUS HEANEY TRANSLATED BY HAND

The line “made our memories vanish like shadows”

Becomes “nade iyr nenirues vabusg kuje sgadiws”.

LIFEGUARD TOWER FIVE

Sharing the stoke.

PAINTED DESERT

Ida thought

Youda been.

JIU JITSU PRESCHOOL

Next to Wienerschnitzel/Tastee-Freez.

AS IF

In all caps.

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

Choice Bits

Please bear with me as there may be among these bits some good old oldies; but I am certain there are a few new ones as well.

***********************

The first is in fact from a previous Choice Bits, September 2021.  The writer is Ada Limón, who just last month was appointed to the position of Poet Laureate of the USA.

“Whatever state you are, I’ll be that state’s bird.”

***********************

Now, a few bits from The Trial, by Franz Kafka. The bits in quotation marks are from the novel.

The protagonist, known only as K. has some disturbing encounters with government authorities, agents of a department that “doesn’t seek out guilt among the general population, but, as the Law states, is attracted by guilt.”

“I don’t know that law,” says K. 

“All the worse for you,” says one agent.  “You’ll feel it eventually.”

Later on, a different agent from the department arrives at K’s house. “You’re under arrest,” the agent says to K., “but that’s not meant to keep you from carrying on your profession. Nor are you to be hindered in the course of your ordinary life.”

“Then being under arrest isn’t so bad,” says K.

“I never said it was”.

*********************

Next is Gertrude Stein. These lines are from short pieces in a collection titled Geography and Plays. 

“By the time artificial flowers were made out of feathers no pride was left.”

“Public speaking is sinister if cousins are brothers.”

“There is no end of likelihood.”

“In believing a shoemaker you believe his father.”

“The waves are never higher than the water.”

“The single attention was such that any candy was the same as eaten.”

“They have a way of doing what they are doing, they have a way of not doing what they are not doing.”

************************

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

NEW KICKS

One platform,

Two schools of thought

With cross-functional teams

Dedicated to each.

Group chats,

Enhanced information readiness,

Enigma variations,

Vagina monologues.

The axe of the opossuls

And other fantasies

Including footage never before seen

(Axis of the uhpossils I mean)

Exploring colonial legacies like they are

Raw bacon interrogated through the perspective

Of an othered frankfurter

Delving and disrupting discursive space.

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

WHICH EXPLAINS THIS MORNING

People always come up to me and say

Your natural diamond

Saves the world from extinction.

And to say I wore it better than

Katy Perry or AOC

Is an understatement.

If the time is right: you win!

Is the way I look at it.

Hell you can’t even go out for a walk anymore

Without some Lettrist priest taking the microphone

During the Notre Dame—Michigan State game 

To spout some anticlerical screed.

The barber shop is tagged with text predictions,

And two different posters for two different missing women.

The vast abyss becomes a bottomless pit

With gated RV parking.

I’m of the Original Six People.

I believe in First Gammie and First Grandad.

I believe in First Oma and First Opa.

I believe in First Nana and First Tata.

I believe in First Bibi and First Bapu.

I believe in First Mamaw and First Papaw.

No, I know, but it’s true.

And I’m not just whistling Dixie’s Carriage Trade.

I believe I definitely like have the right 

To live in a city that is a dining destination.

And snappily the appily shows

No traffic between here and 

Cheap drafts. Chill atmosphere. 

Served on a bed of moonlight.

The best place for all of your entertainment needs. 

It has to be, it’s been visited 900 billion times!

Which explains this morning,

Whipping up a batch of heartfelt poems

Like a crazed ATM disgorging $20s.

I mistook the coffee maker for the water flosser and

Experienced the taste of Mesopotamia without leaving home.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,

I’ve got a monkey’s uncle on my back

And yet it’s all just incredibly rewarding.

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

Celebrities React

THE ANGELS FIRED THEIR MANAGER

Call all hands to muster.

It’s an at-sea change of command.

The ceremony is underway.

THE END OF CIVILIZATION

Celebrities react.

Y el mundo deportes.

SECOND SHORTEST VERSE IN THE BIBLE

Jesus relax.

WANT TO HAVE YOUR HAMMOND B3 AND EAT IT TOO?

I don’t know what to tell you.

I’VE LOVED THE BLUE ANGELS

All of my life.

PLEASE CONTINUE HOLDING

There are no other calls ahead of you.

STARS

 

They’re just like us.

SKIP TRIAL

Sign in.

FROGS IN SLOWLY BOILING PASTA WATER

I’ve taken the pledge. 

Have YOU?

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

THE GREEN LIGHT IS YOURS FOR THE TAKING 

What she said to me was she said like

It’s what Hollywood’s hottest couples swear by.

Try it for yourself.

Get started now.

Create an account.

Earn a free night.

Get screened.

Limit large fish consumption.

Forget fad diets.

But don’t forget the flowers!

And then I pulled up a coupon.

I had thought well you know.

She told me she said

I prequalified for a special balance transfer.

She gave me a unique offer code,

Preferred of course,

2x better, 7x better.

Easy care.

Ultra relief.

Unlimited cash back.

Episodic yet integrated.

Free flowing and highly contrasted

With an eye toward

Where your spending is trending.

Fucking the bomb.

I was like no way.

But yeah, no.

No medical exam.

No sales pressure.

No waiting period.

No co-pays.

No out of pocket.

No referrals.

And never worry about hidden fees.

Safe drivers save 40 percent.

Migration charges waived.

Classic popcorn chicken.

Sno-Cones for the kids.

Peace of mind comes included.

That’s what I was trying to tell you. 

Secret location.

Private road.

Total tranquility.

Plus fast itch relief.

Simply complete this process

To scale up capacity,

Remove cellular debris,

Tame nervous tension quickly,

And make your body shine.

The green light is yours for the taking.

Talk to your healthcare provider.

Protect your family’s future.

Buy more 

Save more.

Learn more.

Control your music and more.

One active cash card.

Positive exits = happy endings.

For the champion in everyone.

Access.

Follow.

Recommend.

Comment.

Share.

Subscribe.

© 2022 Randy Stark

Please visit my website at www.randystark.com.

My books are available on Amazon.

 

Shop Talk: Anecdotal

I was recently reminded being told this. Back around 1946, already famous from the huge Broadway success of The Glass Menagerie, the hot young playwright Tennessee Williams had finished another play, tentatively titled The Poker Night, and submitted the script to his agent. 

The agent, Audrey Wood, read The Poker Night and immediately sensed another blockbuster Broadway triumph; but, she said, the play needed a better title.

So, Ms. Wood took it upon herself to retitle The Poker Night. Then, just as she had predicted, the play opened to smashing acclaim, became a standard of American theater, and later a classic Hollywood film, known as A Streetcar Named Desire.