YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #17:

A tile-based approach to black mold removal in the larger context of sentient speed bumps having a lot to say-most of it surprisingly positive-about the inextricably intertwined natures of their professions and their existences.

THE NEW PARADIGMS IN BRAGGING RIGHTS #27:

 

I’m so British George Washington himself rocked my world with a cannonball!

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #16:

Wealthy folk arguing over who gets to dip the prime pieces of buttcrust into the Ranch dipping sauce.

NOTIONAL HEADLINE #108:

BLEEDING HEMORRHOIDS AND UNCONVINCING MEN’S HAIRPIECES JOIN FORCES TO OFFICIALLY ENDORSE TRUMP.

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #15:

A conclave of upper managers for the self-employed.

Oh, Clarence . . .

. . . they really left you out in the cold, didn’t they?

Trouble at the office?

Or, you know . . . trouble at home?

Not like it’s any of my business.

But your dissent reminds me of a Pet Shop Boys lyric:

“Is it a cry for help or call to arms?”

Is it a little of both, in your case?

Not like it’s any of my business.

Inquiring minds and all that.

THE NEW DREAM #27:

a last pair of books

one contains the Secret of All Weapons

the other contains the Secret of All Gold

read ‘em diligently

yet never get to the end of either one

pains in the head

hard to stand for too long

can’t keep food down

the pair demand you twist and prostrate and double back and fold and rock yourself

that you must worship

even as you read

guts all twisted up

bugs and spiders that eat bugs get comfortable all over me, since I spend years at a stretch trying to get to the end of all secrets

soon enough

spies of all nations

spies of all religions

spies of all corporations

slip in among the bugs and spiders

and the cockroaches, too

oh Christ and Crackers

the cockroaches, too

I direct my wars and entrepreneurial hustles at a distance

I’m the Apex Work From Home Motherfucker

still no end to the secrets of the pair

spiders, for whatever reason, would bite my eyes

not all the time

but often enough

I think they were encouraged to do this by the human spies

but soon enough

I learned a great secret

of Weapons or of Gold

I don’t remember

but I used this secret

to train my eye jellies

to eat the spiders

and I soon enough extended this great technique to the opening of terrible mouths all over my body

so, I ate all of the bugs and spiders and cockroaches and spies

and still I failed to exhaust the secrets of the pair

The Book of Weapons

The Book of Golds

even as the World grew grim and cratered by my avarice

even as my mouths ate my body

ate themselves

‘til only one maw survived

leaving me as a mouth

and a mouth’s hunger

but right at the end

I developed telekinesis

which allowed me to grab cigarettes and lighters from the local convenience store

I vaguely recalled my life prior to pursuing the innermost secrets of Weapons and Gold

I worked in an office

Indoors

Air conditioned

but I resented it

every conversation with my co-workers

just noise mouthing spaces between smoke breaks

now,

there will be no end to my seeking after the secrets of Weapons and Gold

all superfluous chatter has ended

for now is the Age of the Eternal Smoke Break

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #14:

Gaping wounds, perfected, ready for prime time, but always in the context of encroaching fully globalized tedium.

THE SECRETS OF FINAL TOWN 14

 

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #13:

A wholly undrawable morass of feelings, abstractions, distractions, and contractions redeemed by its proximity to some freshly clipped coupons.

ONE LINE MOVIE REVIEWS #58: FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024)

I wonder if Zaslav regrets not shit-canning this one for a tax write-off.

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #12:

The casino of your innermost idealism.

THEME MUSIC FOR EVERYTHING #11:

Persistent Apocalyptic Vision Theme: Eternity by Ennio Morricone (John Carpenter’s The Thing OST)

This one’s pretty obvious in how it would work.

One bad thought cycling ‘til it clumps up with some other bad thoughts.

Soon enough, you have yourself a critical mass of vistas of the Bad Ending Reality piling up from the Foreground on out to the Deepest Background.

Day in.

Day out.

Comes the night.

Comes the morning.

Oh! 

Who’s that swallowing the sun? 

Haven’t seen them around before . . . hmmm . . . must be new . . . even though they feel so familiar . . . tentacles and cyclopean stare and slavering jaws and all . . .

And it is a little bit of a circus sound, too, don’t you think?

Sure it is.

Makes me think of the Behelit from Berserk, too . . .

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #11:

An axiomatic shopping cart at the exact moment it realizes that it’s its own cage.

EVERY DAY IS HALLOWEEN 24: FOR BIG PICTURE'S SAKES

pulling on the mission

everyone who counts

swears

fucking promises

that this is the final sneak-a-deak

so me

I’m staring

now

at the wall

made especially for me

with no cracks

because I’m the only one who will be able to see a crack in this one

the longest time ensues

I’m seeing no crack

I signal someone who counts

they rain fire and death and destruction and misinformation upon points of vulnerability, upon the workers

I stare at that goddamn wall

made just for me

I give it one or two of, you know, not my best years-but a couple of really good ones

I get no crack

I signal someone who counts

rigmarole ensues

I lose two more really good years

wall maintenance cycles slip

I get a crack

I surge into it

this part is swift, rough, breaks all of my shit

but if there’s Other Side

I should be able to operate on a basis of sheer poise

and anyways

my nonsensical being works to keep me unseen

I got a Reverse Humpty in my future

so long as I demonstrate my value

and can get back to Exfiltration Point

Other Side’s the most remarkably vast Executive Lifestyle Redoubt I’ve ever been subjected to

my loathing rises

even just visiting the Gold and Silk Prison

back of the throat puke

tamp it down for Big Picture’s Sakes

I simply have to disturb people’s sleep patterns just enough to marginally motherfuck decision making processes so as to give edge to client

this isn’t even about nightmares and visions of the end

a vague unease routine, and that’s pushing it

it’s got to be that stress that constantly eats at people

in the Deep Background

they’re not even aware of it

I can’t even cancer any cells

because they catch that stuff now

same with poltergeist gimmicks, night terrors, weird voices

they catch all the fun stuff now

I went technical from five years back

all that I got left are quantum exhalations and vague random dissonances and fucking mildass skin irritations

I used to get away with juicing mild depressions to downgrade personal hygiene which could in turn stoke interpersonal tensions

but they catch that stuff, too

it’s all Slow Game, now, and it sucks

sure, you can drone civilian populations outside the Redoubts-that’s where Full Smoking Crater Routine still abides

but the people who count

on either Side

are reluctant to shatter their Command-and-Control mirror images

hence the Shared Regime of Slow Game

because the people in charge

on either Side

must maintain Specialness

and look

I am part of the problem

like I said

I’m not giving this my Best Years

just some Really Good Ones

because I’m not happy how it plays these days

it eats at me

giving my soul hemorrhoids 

so I slow roll the bullshit Slow Game

which is kinda cute

it’s how I amuse myself

-May 2009-May 2024