Friday, February 27, 2009

Oil derricks in the gulf by John Grey

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You figure the city would have ended by this,
with the water soaking your shoes and socks,
salt nipping your nostrils.
But derricks extend commerce out beyond dry land,
convert wavelets into main streets,
tides into traffic.
You want to believe that every other
person in town, the world,
is behind you
as you dip your feet in summer's warm.
But there's hard hats minding gushers,
steering cranes, guiding choppers onto helipads.
You can't shake the dirt
not even with this water.
All around you, the gulf's freckled with light
but look up and illumination
only goes as far as mast and flare,
platform and tanker.
An untethered horizon is what you need.
But a steel tongue pokes at you
through lapping lips.



John Grey has been published in Agni, Worcester Review, South Carolina Review and The Pedestal, with work upcoming in Poetry East and Cape Rock.

Photo by Adam Lawrence.
Street art by celso.

"When the sky turns to black" is from Blake Miller's forthcoming album on Exit Stencil Records called Burn Tape.



Thursday, February 12, 2009

To John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982) by Philip Estes

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Maybe one day the Vet

will have you back Muldoon.


With the other greats:

Bednarik, Jaworski, Cunningham,


they never won anything in Philly either.

Bednarik did, but he sure as hell doesn’t act like it.


Maybe it won’t matter one day

and all the children’s librarians, pipe fitters, and financial advisors


won’t stuff d-cells in their pockets

before heading into the stadium.


And you’ll stand proud in a red winter coat like my mother’s,

the fur around the fringe of the hood,


You’ll hold your arms out, smile bright, and

release your love, without the fear of batteries,


the doctors taking your dick away,

or the accountant from Omaha that never called you back.


That shit doesn’t hurt like getting on the turnpike

and driving by the vet every day.


You know you can’t go back,

at least not just yet


Touchy - D. Rider


Philip Estes grew-up in Dayton, OH, home to Mike Schmidt, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and The Wright Brothers. He now lives in Kansas City, MO.

Street art, main piece - El Coucho.
Street art, Woody - Jef Aerosol.
Photo - Adam Lawrence.


D. Rider is the latest and darkest project from Chicago's Todd Rittmann.