Stupendous Stories

A place for writing, ranting, and other gerunds

[stupendousstories]

Last Confession for a While

I don't want to fight, not truly

It's just easier to curl a hand into a fist

Than it is to hold it out and open,

Unfolded like a flower

It becomes habit, hackles raised,

Hissing and growling at the entire world

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Augmented

I was born inadequate

Vision so weak, I should have been blind

Body so frail, I should have been dead

The plastic lenses were inadequate, too

The flesh lacking while the spirit screamed for more

But God never made a mistake so grand

That enough money couldn't fix it

A demon of glass and metal

It lives like a being fitted out

With a mind and soul

Yet it is nevertheless not human

[stupendousstories]

Tatanka Tanka

Salt-scent and gates of

Gold. We knew golden oceans,

Amber waves of grain.

We were never meant for this,

But isn't it kind of nice?

[stupendousstories]

Mermaid

Seiren, the last thing of substance I said to you was “Hello”

It's all been downhill ever since,

Every other word to escape my lips

A piece of fruit that has rotted on the vine

But was plucked and delivered anyway

Were I not dumb, I would sing to you

The notes conveying what my words cannot

(Your skin is pale and soft

I want to kiss it

I imagine you wet)

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Knock-down, Drag-out

Cracked knuckles and split lips,

This is our dance.  Pulling hair,

Bruising egos, building up

Ourselves and tearing each

Other down. “Here is why

I'm right. Let me show you

Everywhere you're wrong.”

I'm never so happy

As when we spar

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Coffee

Tar water, heal me

Breathe life into this machine

Wind me up again

[stupendousstories]

Death Metal Angel

I name you angel, for I know you must

Be (ethereal with an alien

tongue, your body like a vision of lust

And blood.) I call you a valkyrie, venom-

Tipped blade in one hand, the other a fist

Raised to the sky, pumping, punctuating

Every laugh and snarl that flows from your lips.

From the pit, I watch you ascend, soaring

On the backs of lesser creatures, combat

Boots launching you towards the lights of the stage.

Dís, ride the immortal energy that

We exude, embrace our joy and our rage.

I worship you, Goddess of Destruction,

Though you're a vision from a concussion

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Ode to a Keyboard

This machine doesn't kill fascists

But it really pisses them off

Rat-a-tatting day and night

Fueled by nobility and banality

In equal measure

A weapon in the hands of

A supersoldier infused with

Caffiene and alcohol and

An overinflated sense of self

I see you through a scope darkly

Racist, sexist, pandering

Woefully ignorant

(I have been training my whole life

To put a letter through your heart)

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Poem for Scott Keyes

Like an ancient adrift at sea

I knew I wanted to travel

Before I knew where I would go

I would feel the currents wash over me

I would let the winds take me where they willed

I would chase the stars to unknown lands

I would stand atop the globe

And I would make it spin with my own feet

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Cube Dweller

In between long bouts of looking at nothing, staring unblinking

Into the void and listening to songs that were old when I was young,

I am thinking about our deaths. We work together to put names

To our fears: gun, knife, the inevitable entropic decay of

The universe. ('Tis a consummation to be devoutly wished.

Doing nothing is more freeing than pretending to do something.)

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Voyeur

I cannot believe how beautiful

You are from a distance

How much more real you are

When I see you through a lens

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Christmas Eve with Roger and Mark

Except for the quiet passenger

Who stayed behind,

There is nobody left here

The cool night air is curious,

Hungrily lapping the warmth

From our bodies, eager to see

Just how many licks it takes

To get to the center of a man

In these lonely moments,

My memories of you keep me warm

(The topography of your body)

(The shades of your skin)

(The harmonies of your laugh)

(The way we fit together

Folded like living origami)

Sitting shivering, I have placed them

All in a line, judged them one by one,

Weighed them carefully

And burned them in the furnace

(The night is bitter and cold,

You understand)

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Sea Shanty

My body drifts

Across silent oceans of sleep,

Carried by strange winds

To a happy feral place

Where I'll meet a you

That doesn't exist,

All pearlescent hair and

Iridescent skin,

And I don't know when

I became an old man, but

I'm young enough yet

To throw another bottle overboard,

Thinking of

All the things I want

And how I'm going

To get them

[stupendousstories]

Pantoum from a Stolen Line

From a pile of pieces of a person,

I have made art (like a madman, driven,

Locked away in a cell, feverishly

Hopeful as I struggle against my mind)

I have made art like a madman, driven

Because I lacked the strength to look inwards,

Hopeful as I struggle against my mind,

Swearing I'm fine, dripping blood on canvas

Because I lacked the strength to look inwards,

You held out your hand to me, fingers wide

(Swearing “I'm fine,” dripping blood.) On canvas

And on paper, I swore to honor you

You held out your hand to me, fingers wide.

Trembling, mumbling thanks, I opened myself,

And on paper I swore to honor you,

In awe of your strength, your grace, and kindness

Trembling, mumbling thanks, I opened myself.

This is what I'm doing: Like a monk, I'm

In awe of your strength, your grace and kindness

Working to create something greater still

This is what I'm doing: Like a monk, I'm

Locked away in a cell, feverishly

Working to create something greater still

From a pile of pieces of a person

[stupendousstories]

Being Social

It took ten months but we finally

Had lunch together

Imagine what I'll be ready for

In a year

[stupendousstories]

Isaiah

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”

And so it came to pass

You need not fear what shall pass next

But if you do fear, remember:

It is not the lamb that wonders

What the other tastes like

[stupendousstories]

Blanket Objectification

From the pedestal to the grave

Oh, napped one, how far you've fallen

Your black body once bathed in flames

Now pilling because I'm not calling