Mar 30, 2025
Currently reading this collection of prose, poems and prose-poems by Peter Marra.
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Currently reading this collection of prose, poems and prose-poems by Peter Marra.
Book details:
Misinformation (or denialism), the disingenuous assertion of information contradicting overwhelming scientific consensus, increasingly poses a challenge for invasion biology.
Are free-roaming cats an animal welfare issue or an environmental issue? Science and logic say that there’s no denying that free-roaming cats have a devastating environmental impact between predation on native species and disease transfer. Our emotional attachment to cats as companion animals compels us to protect them from harm. Moving forward, how can we address protecting vulnerable native species who have a right to life in their native environment AND humanely reduce the population of free-roaming cats whose short lives are violent and riddled with parasites and disease?
We can at least start by looking at the facts and acknowledging that free-roaming cats, whether owned, semi-owned, or feral, have an extremely negative impact on our native ecosystems. Environmental impact can’t be disregarded. The minimal care and low levels of management on a domesticated species like cats who depend on humans for survival can’t be disregarded either.
Halstead Welcomes Peter Marra as Managing Director of Connecticut
We are thrilled to announce that Peter R. Marra has joined Halstead as Managing Director of Connecticut. In his new role, Peter will be responsible for overseeing the firm’s growing regional operations throughout Fairfield County. He will be based out of Halstead’s Greenwich office.
“The state is an important part of the firm’s ‘feeder system,’ Marra says, citing the ability for agents in the city to refer clients to colleagues in the suburbs. When referring to his new position, Marra added, “I will do battle for them. In this world, the opportunity for expansion is always exciting.”
Marra has had a long and successful career in the real estate industry, bringing to Halstead more than 35 years of experience and expertise. Since 2004, he served as Executive Vice President at Brown Harris Stevens, where he managed the firm’s Carnegie Hill location in Manhattan. Previously, Marra was the President and owner of William B. May Company for 25 years, where he grew the firm to seven offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Westchester and over 200 salespeople.
Poems by Peter Marra
BY LISA A. FLOWERS
Innate Perversions of the Sanctified: a New Wonder Drug Lotion
Prologue:
On October 31st, 1919 the latex nuns threw their bastard
children out the convent window.
in future days,
spectators would spy through the garden fence to
view the small skeletons. the fathers were crucified in
a clandestine ceremony, taken from the addiction.
my grandmother would tell me this tale every year on my birthday,
without fail. until she died.
it was decided at dinner as baleful eyes watched from above:
to hang them from single strings glistening with unknown fluids.
can't talk to us
"my sleep is incomplete: divided and
split on 2 separate planes."
we don't speak to her anymore
she hid in the tool shed behind the abattoir
listening to rock n' roll
a similar aktion was performed by her ancestors
to drown out the screams
after a slow crawl underground she exited, appeared and
viewed the body in the twisted tree remnants
displayed her bloody knees to the papal visitor
who looked away with shame
their eyes throbbed under veils of white flesh
a liquid skin in the hands of the accused
grasping a strangled dove
meanwhile they spoke of desexualizing desire
and inserted opium teardrops deep into a sacred cervix
she licked a .44 magnum before executing the offender
she once again emphasized her argument by opening fire
please take a photo before the scene changes
answering the door again
touching her red hair
camera in hand, she said, "as you know, I'm from babylon.
pose me please. oh please. arrange us crying.
we need a permanent portrait for year 1.
don't make me ask again."
she waited for the live broadcast so she could repeat the aktion
one more perverse loop
once more holding hands in the vigil
spending a few moments in a dead car teasing
spending a few moments under a skirt's accommodations
she just wanted the touch of cold lips on her eyes
she knew something was going
swung round and hypersensitive to light
singing songs of pricks of blood washed away in the kitchen
costly looks
straight into the camera
fingers grazing over
moved her hands over a whimper
let's play it out accepting this untruth into the American psyche
keeping the stilettos hidden and throbbing
embarrassed at being uncovered, she fires the gun anyway
and rivulets of red seep between the floorboards
just like you were taught in parochial school
atrocities were also satirized by the camera man
under the shadow of the lunar moth totems
________________________________________________________________
A native New Yorker, Peter Marra was born and raised in Gravesend, Brooklyn, and lived in the East Village through the 80s and 90s punk scene. He currently resides in Jackson Heights, Queens. His poems and short stories have appeared in numerous print and online journals. He is the author of peep-o-rama (Hammer and Anvil Press, 2013), approximate lovers (downtown materialaktion) (Bone Orchard Press, 2014), and Sins of the Go-Go Girls (Why Vandalism? Press, 2015).
STYLE RITUALS OF PURGATORY
PETER MARRA
======
(The devil dolls were singing
about Françoise Dorleac lying amongst the midnight
flowers fondling her memories
after the Renault pyre.)
-
She and I hid in our room
we watched as
her face described sumptuous
polychromed interiors where
she had reveled in public disgrace.
-
She made a statement:
"I have a surprise for you!"
-
("We're not going to leave this room at all, are we?")
-
A faraway voice begs:
"Make a sacrifice: a halo or a disembodied heart.”
-
Symmetry will be
a desire we no longer need:
a woman’s torso bent, slightly warm.
-
We watch each other
while she watches us;
always a caustic comment etched in plaster,
crackling with sensibility.
-
(Vandals were guilty:
wanton, wide open, oversexed,
and they took photographs, while speaking of
the functions of a verb.)
-
Leaking fluid out of a warm window,
into a cul-de-sac
always licking puddles,
shot from behind. She smiles.
A drool.
-
She will sit and warm
herself with the fire
from the pews.
-
(She licks quivering lips as
female bats discuss flight.)
-
These wounds seem right
as a door of significance.
She left them to be entered and catalogued
in the museum collection,
-
we strolled outside,
feeling so relaxed
and slept in the grass,
-
while listening to the passionate moans
that were emitted from the practitioners
that are attracted to
the current social order.
“Make a sacrifice: a halo or a tarot card.”
-
The snow, slight and cold,
opened her eyes:
-
A specific reflex. A pure form
devoid of people.
-
Her silver cluster became the air
as we needed and we removed
desires with a higher image
this was in their design
-
a trip to sin island for
a sticky, brown paste,
enjoying the morphine curves
of any woman's body
an empty feeling
it was almost destruction
the TV ordered us
instructions stuttered reminiscing about
those prescription days.
-
She stopped filling that
prescription days ago
images sliding in
a shooting gallery
sulfur and smoke
so much that she has trouble breathing.
-
(Wheeze.)
-
Needles dancing
the overhead fluorescent
has a smell of skin
those prescription days
she strokes her fur
feeling the shock
something new for her fingers
-
a tingle
a magic number
on a gurney sliding
a treacherous dance
at the end of the white hall
the tiny people are waiting
descending horns slowing down
she touches time’s spiked collar
something new for her fingers
-
a yen
for a pain exercise around the corner
-
watching
waiting
watching
-
further information:
a
dog
barking
-
to stop the transmission we opted to walk
she cried because she was stammering.
======
Peter Marra lives in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Among his many influences are Arthur Rimbaud, Tristan Tzara, Paul Eluard, European art films, Edgar Allan Poe, Russ Meyer, and Roger Corman. He has been published in amphibi.us, Yes,Poetry, Maintenant 4, Beatnik, Crash, Danse Macabre, Caper Literary Journal, and Clutching At Straws. He is working on his first collection of poems.
QUOTES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS OF STILLETOS
PETER MARRA
======
Living life as a guinea pig in
a 3-headed dead-pressing
touting the leather clothing,
a disease with the appearance
of a dagger most comprehensive.
-
Patent leather reprisals
split them in two
-
deeper into relaxation
deeper into silence
they stared at each of us
-
voyeurs hounded by a street light
as we passed by,
an exposure ignited then detonated
not sure when
automatic knives flavored the evening.
-
That clicking sound was repeated over and over
it made us feel guilty
-
tissues locked
-
friction — assess the material when needed —
inject the eggs without any scientific basis
we never spoke at the dinner table just yells and tears
torn from the headlines: I drink your blood I eat your skin.
-
We sought after such instruments of pleasure by legislation
-
fungus-like or a characteristic more realistic
than real: extremely rare fermented juices
the human use of a slender blade
tapering to a rapid dispersal more sexual
than the angel that it punishes.
======
Peter Marra lives in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Among his many influences are Arthur Rimbaud, Tristan Tzara, Paul Eluard, European art films, Edgar Allan Poe, Russ Meyer, and Roger Corman. He has over 100 poems published in print or online and is working on his first collection of poems.
LAB MANUAL
PETER MARRA
======
Experiment #1: Extreme Bitter Sequence
the scientific method,
it draws upon a store of excessiveness.
tender skin of electricity
veiled environment - a territory of
experimental lust for the corona discharge.
a small amount stretched far out of time
-
while rioting on the sunset strip.
-
they landed quietly but burned away
as 2 knives crossed the tongues.
-
later towards the stairs
a couple of months ago,
penetrating together without success.
a materials list.
taste the juice.
the sequences reconnect
buildings stretch to breaking
conduction is true or false.
-
Experiment #2: Extreme Neutral Sequence
greatly relieved when they explode,
tilting our heads up until necks
crack to see the particles
of the present come to rest
near the curbs.
quiet in the soil.
-
electrostatic generators bring life to the
formless bodies – the ultraviolet ray -
the patient charts are thrown into the incinerator.
-
Experiment #3: Extreme Testing Sequence
hide the evidence
burning between the amputated limbs.
-
who can easily measure?
-
the final report was expunged.
-
fingers plunged
deep into medical electrotherapy equipment
turned in the elevator.
Eve conducted an experiment.
-
another common mistake:
the word "electricity."
-
we must have crossed the
terminals on her arms
my pretty little thing.
======
Peter Marra is from Williamsburg Brooklyn. Born in Gravesend, Brooklyn, he lived in the East Village, New York from 1979-1993 at the height of the punk – no wave rebellion. Peter has had a lifelong fascination with Surrealism, Dadaism, and Symbolism. In the past 2 years he has had over 50 poems published online and in print. He is currently constructing his first collection of poems.