A True Disaster-Piece

A Politically Correct Interview

Penhead Theater Presents: The Emperor Bonaparte

Super Mario Bros. World 4-2 to 5-4

Copyright © 2011 by Kurt Studenroth

I am a knight:

       the ones that people say

       go searching for adventures.

Yes, but can you dance?

Friday's Children by Afzal Moolla

Her

I think of her,

biting her bottom lip as she whispered fare-thee-well.

I feel her,

the warmth of her embrace as we lay counting the stars.

I smell,

lightly scented roses strewn across her body.

I miss her,

desperately pouring longing into verse.

I taste her,

as lingering kisses slowly fade.

I need her,

a comforting presence dispelling the stormy clouds.

And still,

I think of her,

biting her lip as she waved her final goodbye.

Copyright © 2012 by Afzal Moolla

A Reblogged Post: Kyrsten Bean Reads Poetry

Kyrsten Bean is one several featured artists in RAPoetics second issue. She is more special than the rest, because she submitted both poetry and image art. Also issue 2 begins with one of her photos and ends with one of her photos. That's all I am going to tell you about it. You'll have to get it for yourself to see what else is there.

A True Disaster-Piece

I feel you so intensely

I swear you must experience me as well

reaching through the unseen realm

I connect my name to yours

The guitar was tuned to two notes (D & G) so that one could get a droning effect and emulate eastern tones

Guest Author: Changming Yuan

CHOPPY STICKY CHOPSTICKS

Yes, yes, yeah, we are simply too barbaric

To enjoy the delicacy of raw snails or oysters

With steel forks and knives

But we are certainly civilized enough to chop

To stick cats, dogs, snakes, frogs

Ants, rats, pupae, anything that moves

With more than one leg, and we love

To eat pig ears, cow tongues, goat penises

Shark fins, sparrow nests, chicken hearts

Duck feet, and all other living corpses inside out

With our mouths open from ear to ear

Chewing plants as noisily as we like

Sucking noodles and soup like pigs

Yeah, we are what we eat, how we eat

When, where and why we eat

What I say, pal, is this simple fact:

Chopping and sticking makes our fingers more adept

Just as chopsticks make us fitter to survive and succeed

More important, they have turned us from carnivores to herbivores

Though still more primitive than you fork users and knife wavers

Copyright © 2012 by Changming Yuan

Changming Yuan, 4-time Pushcart nominee and author of Allen Qing Yuan, edits Poetry Pacific and has poetry appearing in 609 journals/anthologies across 23 countries, including Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline and Exquisite Corpse. Poetry submissions to Poetry Pacific welcome at yuans@shaw.ca.

Changming Yuan's poem "Confronting: Bird vs Sea" will be published in RAPoetics Issue 2, Paint Darkness into Day, which will be released into the Kindle store a few days before 12/21/12.

Issue 2, got tied up by the juggernaught and will be a business days after christmas before it is released for public consumption.

Friday's Children by Afzal Moola

For comrade Chris Hani

    1942 – 1993

mowed down

by hot lead

your blood flowed

into our African soil

murdered you, yes, they did

silence you, they never will

for your voice

your spirit

speaks to us still

Copyright © 2012 by Afzal Moolla

Penhead Theater Presents: The Emperor Bonaparte

THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN DOWN!

Copyright © 2009 by Kurt Studenroth

I am a knight:

       the ones that people say

       go searching for adventures.

Friday's Children by Afzal Moolla

Walking.

I move through,

the alleys of yesterday,

searching for fragmented memories.

Untasted tears,

cascade,

drowning the sighs of a hundred and one muted cries,

filling a pool full of loss.

I walk amongst,

faceless loves,

I feel a familiar blade,

tearing across wrinkling flesh,

as,

a long stifled laugh,

settles on barren ground,

it claws deep into cold soil.

I walk between,

chilled memories of bygone days,

frozen by time fossilized,

under,

a foreboding downpour,

stiletto raindrops stab

my face rips apart.

I Walk away,

from broken shards,

of a limbo lived life,

dulled by drones,

of a thousand garbled voices,

I am blinded,

by reel after reel

weeping scenes

shot in black and gray,

edited,

sliced,

roasted,

a disjointed life,

on the pyre of the years,

feeding the flames,

with coarse untasted tears.

Walking.

Copyright © 2012 by Afzal Moolla

Guest Author: Don Comfort

Hard Labor

Roll up your intellectual sleeves, I say!

The lacy wreaths 'round effete wrists

And plow a different mind today,

The rocky road the world insists;

A kinder, gentler, compulsory way

Enforced by more-than-tolerant fists.

When the soil has been prepared,

Sown with seeds of subtle art

Pregnated with a beauty rare

Do not neglect to take your part;

Spend the hard-won wealth of care

And glean the rich fields of the Heart.

Copyright © 2012 by Don Comfort

Don Comfort is the Assistant Editor and Poetry Specialist of Randomly Accessed Poetics. He said, “Everything you need to know about me can be found on page 98 of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.'”

Guest Author: Changming Yuan

SNOW BEGINNING TO FALL OUTSIDE

While he tries to draw a mountain

With an ink-dripping brush

On a wide sheet of rice paper

It begins to snow outside

Paints the whole city with winter white

Dotting his work like a leopard, roaming

Looming along the borderline

Between the city and the season

His strokes getting blurry among falling flakes

All the trees become frozen, retreating to the horizon

Except a black bird still beating its wings

Against the mountain range in front of his eyes

Against the snowfall outside of his home

Copyright © 2012 by Changming Yuan

Changming Yuan, 4-time Pushcart nominee and author of Allen Qing Yuan, edits Poetry Pacific and has poetry appearing in 609 journals/anthologies across 23 countries, including Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline and Exquisite Corpse. Poetry submissions to Poetry Pacific welcome at yuans@shaw.ca.

Changming Yuan's poem "Confronting: Bird vs Sea" will be published in RAPoetics Issue 2, Paint Darkness into Day, which will be released into the Kindle store a few days before 12/21/12.

Friday's Children by Afzal Moolla

Trappings

Flitting in,

and out,

of malls,

Scouring the aisles,

for more,

always for more,

walking,

undead,

through glittering halls.

Seeking out,

Luscious fabrics,

softest silk,

satin velvet,

crushed denim,

faux-fur,

trinkets and biscuits,

sleek gadgets,

that perfect shoe,

a must-have accessory,

cars, curtains, silver-ware,

gold time-pieces,

that stunning set of pearls,

as empty desire,

gleefully unfurls.

Piling onto,

heaving trolleys,

food,

and,

more food,

and yet more food,

to lighten the spirit,

to elevate the mood,

as countless starve,

a prime pot-roast,

of dead flesh,

we must carve.

Yet,

emptiness prevails,

as quaint notions,

of professed humility,

silently creep,

scurrying,

out the back,

while unquenchable need,

mutates, grows, pines,

it's insatiable hunger,

no longer able to feed.

The saga continues,

smiling faces,

lobotomised,

in the intoxicated haze,

with eyes shimmering,

through a toxic,

consumption-fueled,

trance-like glaze.

Trapped,

within the trappings,

of excess,

the undead,

waltz on,

oblivious,

to the torn consciences,

that have,

been so neatly,

so brutally,

shred.

Copyright © 2012 by Afzal Moolla

Purple Words: Party Of The Blue August Moon

Party Of The Blue August Moon

The evening of the Party was as perfectly

temperate as the atmosphere of Dreams

which one rarely notices to be sultry or frigid.

The Theme of the Party was the word, ‘Filthy’

which meant there were lots of people dressed

in their best Slum-wear, Hobo Clowns, Bums,

etcetera.

Only a few bothered to look up the word

and its Thesauric variations, but they took those

to heart and they were truly abhorrent,

despicable, loathsome, obnoxious, reprehensible,

repugnant, vile and wretched.

A person named Simon was intoning from the

Necronomicon, not your usual Party trick,

“In the Time before Time, in the Age before

the Heaven and Earth were put in their places...”

When a great cacophony of Seagulls, Dogs &

Sirens broke in from the Outside

The notions of a Hovering Snake-Curse and the weird

endless rhythm of distant Indian drums formed a bad

combination which any added element of the bizarre

went far to render the event utterly unendurable.

It didn’t help that the Alcohol was flowing freely

and the Red Lights of the ancient Wurlitzer

bathed everyone in their lurid glow.

There were 3 Punch Bowls full of Service Punch,

Charles Dickens Punch and a third unremembered Punch

as well as Wine and a home-made golden Absinthe,

so the cavorting crowd were truly lunatics tonight

under the influence of the huge Blue August Moon.

---Purple Mark, 09/01/2012

Purple Prompts:                                                                         

1. ”The notions of a hovering snake-curse and the weird, endless rhythm of the distant Indian drums formed a bad combination which any added element of the bizarre went far to render utterly unendurable.” H.P. Lovecraft. ‘The Curse of Yig.’ The Horror In The Museum & Other Revisions edited by August Derlith. (Ballantine Books, 1970), Page 144.
2. “In the time before time, in the age before the heaven and the earth were put in their places,...” edited by Simon, Necronomicon. (Avon Books, 1977), Page 123.
3. “Filthy: abhorrent, contemptible, despicable, despisable, detestable, disgusting, Foul, loathsome, lousy, mean², nasty, obnoxious, odious, reprehensible, repugnant, rotten, shabby, sorry, vile, wretched.” Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus. (Berkley Books, 1988).
4. “The evening of the party was as perfectly temperate as the atmosphere of dreams, which one rarely notices to be sultry or frigid.” Thomas Ligotti. ‘The Lost Art of Twilight’ Songs Of A Dead Dreamer. (Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1989), Page 142.

Penhead Theater Presents: The Emperor Bonaparte

Your name's Kurt? Oh yeah - TO THE DEATH!

Copyright © 2009 by Kurt Studenroth

I am a knight:

       the ones that people say

       go searching for adventures.