So ya know the other day?

I was walking down the way

And I heard this one dude say

That the smog was here to stay

And the cars will have their way

And the birds will go away

And that it will rain today.

So what could a fella say?

I said to this here dude Hey!

Just what are you trying to say?

Do you just complain all day?

Or is there any other way

To make your problems go away?

And said this guy: Are you gay?

Look, just go the fuck away!

So I left that guy to bray,

and I went off on my way.

Dan Phillips

Little Willie Requiem 3

11/22/00

Little Willie took to huffing glue

Till his body was completely blue

Though still alive, he does not move

And now we feed him through a tube

M.D.Null

Little Willie Requiem 4

11/29/00

Little Willie found he had head lice

And followed his friend John’s advice

He took a blowtorch to his head

Now the lice and Willie both lie dead

get out of my eyes painful virgin gas

and out of my ears clicking clucking crows

i'm concrete perched (little what i chose)

with studded tires howling broken things

metallic asphalt tinkle tips and rings

patrolling pebbles, birds and greenbelt rows.

and diesel ground my eyelids, made me sad,

the natural cut-and-paste through arches seen

the exit sign behind the sun, and mean

oppose exreme with brick as old as sprouts

and loops they build, metallic ins and outs

eclectic metal banisters sprayed green

no longer can i be a fan of proud

evocalations spewed from passing trains

no longer can i justify the pains

propellering beside my ears alone

no longer can i scarce propone

the things they call in newsprint modern gains

Clint Crumley

Passing Thought Two 11/25/00

If you invite the Devil to dinner

expect the food to be hot.

Little Willie Requiem 1 11/26/00

Little Willie found his feet were chilled

So he thought a fire he would build

A kitchen floor is not a place for flames

They scattered Willie’s last remains

M.D.Null

11/27/00

Little Willie climbed the overpass

While cars below were whizzing past

As he fell into traffic he was yelling

His head was split much like a melon

I don't know why

I don't know how

I don't know where

I don't know when

all I know is

I just can't cope.

all I know is

It's all useless.

all I know is

Nothing moves me.

all I know is

I care but so what.

Don't think

Don't act

Don't react

Don't exist

Escape!

Eee Ess See Ay Pee Eee

Run like a wildebeast!

through the tangled underbrush green wood smell cedar moss damp shadows

sunlight dirt run wind rocks ferns breathe gone not me moist living shaggy

leaping not me rushing brushing leaves not me just be not me not me not me

Doing nothing so well.

Whatever.

Dan Phillips

my cat said good morning

to my light's concentric shadow

she liked it's cornerlessness

(or so she said). she pointed

out that there had been

potato chips spilled on the carpet

several hours before, when

the clearest of pigeons regrouped

by the sill. and the spaghetti

had congealed in the pot on

the stove. and the walls in the

hallway had fought with the light

and domey shadows it made.

I stretched and reached for

a watch to remember

that it had been months since

I'd worn a watch, and the

windows were angry at the pigeon's

head (my cat quite taken) off went

the clock radio...and the sauce

pan still in the kitchen.

Clint Crumley

Capture the moment.

Capture the flag.

Rescue the occasion.

Talk big and brag.

Rant like a wild thing.

Do something fun.

Let yourself free now.

Hop, skip, and run.

Something 'bout freedom.

I won't disdain.

Sometimes it's magic

To run in the rain.

Dan Phillips

let me be perfectly clear

i want to throw up on my neighbors' fence

i've thought about this for a long time

and that's just what has to be done

i sit in my kitchen and look at their fence

if i could see the spirits they'd

be hanging over like lewd blue blobs

the vertigo gets the better of me

and i collapse on to the floor

only to come to and see that it is

still there.

i want to drill a huge hole in it

inject tar into their yard

go home with a grin and eat twinkies

three of them

a package and a half.

go back over there and vomit through it.

if this were only in my power.

it is late afternoon

and i have many packages to wrap.

Clint Crumley

(mum's the word on possible constants)

pierre looked at the knife for a while

outside kids were skipping rope and smoking

his gerbils were doing what gerbils do

the man on the news was speaking into

a black microphone about something

the toilet trickled

pierre looked at a corkscrew on the counter

his ceiling was frosty with new spackle

upstairs the neighbors were eating ribs

there were cinderblocks in the corner

a vacuum whirred in the hall

pierre looked at a toothbrush

the mayor was tipping his hat

the gerbils were strutting

pierre looked at his keys

somewhere, men in dark suits ate pie

pierre looked at a flaslight

on the hall shelf

(the song played

"salmon roe, whisk me away

take my heart; i won't be cross

"help me see all my errors

salmon roe, I won't balk.")

pierre looked at a knot in the floor.

Clint Crumley

we appreciate the bottle's tint

(!) being genrally darker than

the liquid that's inside

we have a pantheon of tools

(%) specialized for the extraction

of various capping implements

we have periods of leisure time

)?( allowing heads to make returns

)?( )?( )?(

we're skilled at figuring out

($) the tab, though

spinning (the) is (lounge)

Clint Crumley

Poetical Definitions

Picaresque

A literary term

referring to a clever rogue

with a tone amusing and sympathetic.

Who's adventures might be

otherwise portrayed

as despicable and pathetic.

her lips stamp a martini glass

with a reddish tint

and the candle before her flickers

as she turns away from the window

the crowds rush by, busily consuming

fulfilling catalog dreams

and drinking steaming liquids

out of starbucks cups

she is not a wealthy woman

but the only item

on her holiday wish list

is to stay on this barstool

until january first

Sacrificial

Decapitated

Disemboweled

Scalded

Stripped

Frozen

Thawed

Stuffed

Roasted

Sliced and Torn

Eaten

Were it any but a bird

We'd all be imprisoned

Happy Thanksgiving

A prayer for sick people I'm not visiting

I work in a hospital

it's probably best I don't come by

bearing typhus or whatever I've

carried along.

So Understand this, Great

Spirit, and help me to dissipate

illness by not thinking about it.

scratch your head and look at this bay

and wonder what its turnaround might bring

it's ou tthere, with wood protruding into it

and you are in here intact.

scratch your eyes and look at the water

you think it's flat, don't you?

when it's calm,

or interrupted when there are storms.

scratch your chin and behold it.

its surface and depth, but you have

finger son your hands--you can hold

them in front of your face or fold them together.

Song

11/20/00

The nights get longer every day that you’re away from

me.

I stare up in the darkness and try to remember,

the smell of your hair.

Think of all the things that I’d like to like to tell

you,

but when I try to phone you I feel struck dumb.

In the years to come

will you think of me fondly,

forget the bad things,

remember the good?

I look up at your picture and see you smiling,

will you ever smile again for me?

Will you cling to my shoulders,

while we dance in the kitchen?

Will you link your fingers in the night with mine.

In the years to come

will you think of me fondly,

forget the bad things,

remember the good?

Will you drop me a line,

when you finally forgive me,

let me make up the time I lost,

by being a fool?

Mistakes were made,

mean words were spoken,

and the tears we cried,

washed nothing away.

But every day,

I pay for them dearly.

I remember them clearly,

and I wince with the pain.

In the years to come

will you think of me fondly,

forget the bad things,

remember the good?

Will you drop me a line,

when you finally forgive me,

let me make up the time I lost,

by being a fool?

Please let me make up the time I lost by being a fool.

M.D. Null

Another Hallmark Robbery

Bucky’s gun misfired.

Damn!

Leaping cross the counter,

he grabbed the till drawer,

and made his way to the door.

Tripping on a stuffed koala bear

the gun successfully discharged,

removing Bucky’s left big toe,

which he forever referred to,

as his three hundred and seventy-four dollar limp.

Mic Devo

Clint Crumley

Afflicted

Clint Crumley

Passing Thoughts (1)

11/17/00

They say there’s more than one way to skin a cat

I bet you could find them all on the internet.

Alone on a Barstool 11/16/00

She hung on the barstool next to mine.

She had come in out of the rain,

ordered a drink,

and sat.

She might have been pretty at one time,

tall, blond,

but through circumstance and age her youthful bloom

had been replace by a pasty gray veneer.

She made some comment

an opening

through which one, who was so inclined,

could enter.

It became apparent

that with a few kind words,

and a smile,

I could have sex with her.

Hold her afterwards

while she cried.

let her pretend for a moment

that things in her life were OK.

But though I did converse,

I did not advance,

and so she finished her drink

and walked alone back out into the rain.

M.D Null

5 dollars 6, look at the penny

circumnavigate the letter and spit the receipt

paste the apparition

make the animal nifty

sicken lenses and inhabit it

create hands

particularly in so much as is known

to be broken and surviving in this

or another cafeteria so far oh so

far as the donut eaters have imagined

they should take you.

STEAL STUFF

program toothpaste

latch lurch lynch and lunch!

hit the eyes nicely with the camel

and don't look back to see the naugahyde!

Clint Crumley

Dan Phillips

Feather Poem

M.D. Null