007 Challenge

[cherries_on_snow]

Softlit trees accumulate
Rings enough
For both of us. My cell is
Set to vibrate. Too
Obvious?

 

[JCSTREET]

. . .

 

[todski28]

Everything comes back to power
as if the whole world is merely a battle ground
strewn with remnants of the weak
but everything we have is based on a negotiation
between others who are stronger
more violent more aggressive
or have more power.

Every right you value
is negotiated by everyone elses
responsibility to uphold that right
power is not the winner

unless you cowtow to the power of the state
as if the state is the arbiter of your
rights when it is on the individuals
within the society

You decry negotiation as a power struggle
when you've decieved yourself
without realising that even your
identity is a negotiation within the
state of socialisation.

Negotiation
Or
Tyranny

they are the options.

 

[JCSTREET]

'howrow'

and so it was in ancient Sumer, too and Alaric sacked Rome because he could

how could we even build a doghouse without the power of confidence and motivation

and

without a state there'd be no 911

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Student ID and playing cards
once were all I carried.

This morning I piled plastic
And paper piles.

Plastic: library, cash, credit,
meds, gym, store, metro.

Paper: possible work, possible apartments,
possible lovers.

Thus the difference became temporal.
My ex used to ask why
So many business cards.

Only now could I have answered
The sky is wider tomorrow.

 

[JCSTREET]

I sign my
letters to her 'from
a secret admirer', giggling a little because
I know she will know, she will
divine
the dulcet tones of my suit, my

ardent verbal thrusts, my
conjured lingual nuance a
devotion of tongues
as we debate Neptune quincunx in
Manx and Esperanto

thrusts can be parried and
parries can become
cuddles and rum
only makes cuddles
more avaricious

 

[JCSTREET]

Spring bursts

Spring bursts
hawk hard
birdfall
tipsy in a plummet

Spring
when heat comes will
burst like a ripe plum, suddenstruck
days. kids
swingin' round lamposts, skipping
on sidewalk chalk, hydrants
aglisten

laughter and shouts
tickles and chases
hiding in the basement walkdown
under the stoop
touching fingertips, first kiss

Spring!

-30-

 

[todski28]

Teacher interviews are in
sat down times three to listen to
a critique of our childrens learning and behaviour

First son, youngest free
of propriety
threatened to stab a student in the throat
for kicking him in the face....

and he was jailed
in the office
coaled, framed as a violent perpetrator
the child who kicked him in the face
victim, crying about not being safe
after the assualt.....

when i laughed at the double standard
suggested the teacher go fuck herself
turned to my son and told him
he had every right to defend himself
the gasps of horror in that room

my boy smirked and said thank you dad
they keep yelling at me Im wrong
but wont listen about him kicking me in the face

when a five year old understands justice
and fairness better than a teacher
you have to wonder.....

the blooming bruise in the centre of his head
inscrutable evidence
5 testimonies ignored that he did nothing wrong
the victim is the one that cries to the authorities
breeding an ever loving need for the nanny state to intervene

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Advice for Kindergarten

The words you learn playing GTA
With daddy, running down hookers
(extra points) and stealing cars,
leave those at home kid.

The rage you learn from your dad's
clenched fists as he pounds beer
and growls "feminazi" at the tv,
leave that at home, kid.

The hunger at the empty bookshelf,
the empty table, the empty fridge,
Bring that. It is okay. You don't

have to pay for your parents'
mistakes or even breakfast! You're
just five, kid. Bring your hunger.
Slake your thirst. Then come back
The next day.

 

[JCSTREET]

to: cherries-on-snow

"The hunger at the empty bookshelf" (cherries-on-snow)

I often
think of this
in a house with no
bookcase, or

when someone says
"I don't read books"

I often think of this, I
know that hunger, even
at my house it was
mostly Readers Digest Condensed though
my Dad had a book called
The Tutorial Statics and
there was a a bound edition of
Sir Walter Scott stories which he'd won
at some private school his mother
had packed him off to
after his father died

 

[JCSTREET]

re. cherries, of that ilk etc

you make me jones for a LIKE button

 

[todski28]

And so we make a caricature
a straw man
and set them off to burn
because its toxic
even the fumes are
noxious

yet I dont own a video game console
rarely drink
dont watch a great deal of television
and my kids play
card games
read books to me
and I to them
trampoline
cubby house I built with them
let my daughter screw together the struts
taught her how to use a level
let my boys drill holes
and hammer in some nails
it took months and I could have done it faster
by myself
screamed at them how much they were hindering me
instead I thought
they could see what hard work is
what it can accomplish
and let them feel pride in achieving something big.

and we wrestle and box
with encouragemnt
and civility

its easier for the caricature to prevail

but if someone kicks you in the head mid cartwheel
and you express anger and make a violent comment
then you are the devil
because words are worse than actions
in this mirrored dimension of insanity
Others feelings matter more
than physical safety

 

[cherries_on_snow]

you make me jones for a LIKE button

Ditto, kiddo.

 

[JCSTREET]

just leavng for a pal's house

Ditto, kiddo.

to do my laundry - maybe shop for goodies at the classy grocery and my semi-annual pizza is in the cards x

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Thanks for the birthday wishes, JC.

 

[JCSTREET]

This is like being at one of those universities with Gothic buildings and acres of campus and leaving notes for each other on the bulletin board by the porter's lodge.
It's neat (blush).

 

[JCSTREET]

yes, yes more oems coming soon

1. subj. refers.

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Lull pulling rabbit
Covers down and over
Clover beds rasped
Slow dimming dial
In indigo yes press
Curling behind slipping
Comfortably deep
And borderless

 

[JCSTREET]

Chainsaw

Into the bush
chainsaw and loppers
chain oil

three-prong rake to scrape
soil
away from the bases
of nuisance scrub

lop it off
below ground level

over an inch - whirrrrrrr!
saw it off

thorny ash
wear your Stihl
hardhat with facemask
no matter where you stand
it knows
it falls on you

skin scraped and ripped you'll
be clambering up out of your ravine
bloodied and bowed
clothes torn a bit but
it's all superficial

hedge trimmers and machete
for other bush
other bits
build paths
make sight lines

it's not 'taming' the land, it's
just leavening it a bit

-30-

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Silk tie dye sheaths
Swivel steps down hallway
Falling soundlessly
Sweepily soft to memory
Memory, memory foam
Lacing last waves
Lapping at shore.

 

[JCSTREET]

Missing time, earthquakes and subs

Silk tie dye sheaths
Swivel steps down hallway
Falling soundlessly
Sweepily soft to memory
Memory, memory foam
Lacing last waves
Lapping at shore.

I nodded off while reading this and am thinking of having someone read it onto an endless loop tape for me to keep under my pillo . . .
. . . (crash_ . . . oops, sorry (lifts head) - I think I have some missing time here - a classic alien abduction scenario (which is way better than SUBduction (no dirty jokes now), which presages earthquakes

I
nodded off
while reading this and
am thinking of having someone

read it onto an endless
loop tape
to keep
under my pillow

-30-

 

[JCSTREET]

No Monuments

There are no monuments in the tropics except
those left by passing strangers

in the tropics he thinks of snow

When the wind blows all night and
his wife is not with him he
expects to wake
with snow up to the eaves, but

there is NO snow, this

is one reason why
there is no art in the tropics except
that left by passing strangers, there is craft
but no art

Art
presupposes past and future
past produces monuments but
there is no
past or future in the tropics
only the now, only
survival
the dry husks, the
beaten planchets
that are people
in the tropics
seen through the glare
of the midday sun

Think!

of how this appears
coming off sheet
metal roofs

-30-

 

[cherries_on_snow]

JC you are on fire! Gotta catch up this weekend.

 

[cherries_on_snow]

Advice for Kindergarten

New teachers of new people,
Always patience. When you are
Out of patience, borrow more.
When you are tempted
(You will be tempted)
To be loud, be quiet.

Everything must be taught now.
For example scissors. Teach how
To move the paper while cutting, keeping
Scissors straight. Teach
Haircuts are not for school.
Teach the walking and handing
But do not be afraid of tools.
We need them for making shapes.

Teach "excuse me," and "may I?"
Teach "I'm sorry." It is okay to model
Owning your mistakes. Healing.

If you have the voice for it, sing. Actually,
Sing anyway. Bring joy. Napkins
And joy.

 

[cherries_on_snow]

You don't see them much on film but really
some wells still bucket liftable water
completely free of skeletons. Sure, the dim
echoing guess down rope
invites squint and stone until some wiseass
hippy writes a well app to safely count
the drop/splash ratio which, probably,
thirsty people won't download at all.

Well keepers best can tell
what slake can bank-- can smell
wet for miles.