10/9c

[rowens]

Now that there was no telephone
in the house,
those late night strangers never called
anymore.

There was a burned out cigarette
that looked like
the bent leg of a weird puppet
like you saw
in stop motion animation

shows. That reminded me,
I watched it
drooping like that and I dropped it
on the floor.
The ashes anyway.

I turned
the tv on
and heard it say:

"He burned like that,
oh man,
something, really something weird.
I'm just, by the way, oh,
good God. Uh huh."

Some girl was talking on the phone,
her back turned
to the person approaching her
from behind.

Then it went to commercial.
A show I liked was coming on next.

I put the tv sound on mute
but left it
on that station while I went out
of the room
to find the pack of cigarettes

I'd forgotten in the freezer.
Now the show was back on.

A cigarette from that pack was cold
like a frozen carrot stick.
I chewed on the end as I lighted it.
It came on like a flashlight
while I watched tv.

It hadn't came back to that scene
with the girl,
instead there was a room of men,
some police
talking at the police station.

I wondered what I'd do if the show I wanted to watch
didn't come on for some reason. Then it said it
at the bottom of the screen:
"Special Two Hour Season Finale" of the show that was still on.

So that was it.
There was nothing coming on tonight,
I'd have to wait to see if it came on next week.

Somebody in the house next door
cut the air conditioner on
to drown out the sound of the dogs.

People say America is such a bad and scary place
so to make life interesting enough
to live in these times.

[Erthona]

I just hate that when it happens,
of course I have no TV,
I had to give it up for health reasons,
it was rotting my brain!
I gave up cigarettes because
I didn't like paying for other peoples
health insurance...yeah, that was the reason!

Dale

[rowens]

I never do anything but make up characters and let them watch TV and smoke cigarettes and masturbate and do the things that make life bearable. I just sit in the little storage room I rented, and write stuff down then come up here and type it up on the computer to have something to do. I have no health and I'm young, so I'm free to write and make stuff up.

[Erthona]

Careful, in the future your characters will have health "issues" living like that.

"I have no health and I'm young, so I'm free to write and make stuff up."

Good days those. I remember with fondness those days when I was young and in poor health and still had an imagination. Now all I have left is poor health.

"I just sit in the little storage room I rented"

Wow, you have a room. I walk half a mile from the tent I sleep in on the greenbelt, to ride a bus to the library, so I can wait three hours to use the public computer for fifteen minutes (which is OK, cause it gives me three hours to pick of the ticks and fleas). You're living large my friend. I thought about getting (stealing) a phone with the internet, but I have no electricity to charge it, and I don't have enough money (actually I don't have any money) to buy a mile and a half extension cord. Living off the gird use to seem so romantic, now I am wondering about some of the choices I made. Well my 15 minuets is abo

[rowens]

I have no running water, remember? Except the water that runs out down by the woods from the washing machine in the house where I use the computer. My uncle used to live in my room, an old barber shop converted into a storage room, then converted into my room by building an extra room, a closet. I won't work a real job because I was brought up to be anticommunist, so I don't believe in the proletariat.

A girl made my stomach big, more than one girl really. But I can't just pop a baby out and go back to normal, no matter how many wormed beer shits I take. Men have stomachs; women have bellies. That's all the difference.

My room is haunted. By me from when I lived there years ago. When I came back I didn't recognize the place. There were Nirvana posters on the wall. Alice in Chains. Pink Floyd, even. Now there's nothing but a portrait of Anais Nin, and a bookmark with a quote from Edgar Poe, that Poe's great great nephew gave me when I used to turn the air conditioner on at the Poe Museum in Richmond.

Anyway, that's the vibe behind this poem.

[Erthona]

I have no running water, remember? Oh yeah, I had forgotten that. I have a creek about 25 yards from my campsite. The problems is that it runs hot and cold, and about half the year not at all. It's pretty good tasting water, except for when people piss in it upstream. You can always tell when women piss in it as it taste a lot worse. I guess it is kind of exciting never knowing what you're going to get. Hey, I don't work either, but it is because of my religion, I was raised as a Nonworkatherian MO. Senate. We don't go with them Nonworkatherian Northern Senate, who believe it's OK to do temp work, or even clean your own house. Those people disgusts me. Of course I've had problems within my own congregation, as some people say that riding the bus is a form of work, but I guess I'm just a wild younger generation that can't do without the internet. Oh, I'm about to get booted off ag

[rowens]

I write books that I don't tell anyone about. I have to pay to use the library now because I live in the county. They made that change. The county library is farther away than the city one I go to. The county is understandably bigger. The bus stop is farther away than the sidewalk. I get rides. Girls' piss tastes better if you're into girls. Because it's O.K. to like girls' stuff.
The strong thing about American history is that it's custom. You have the right to come up with it as you go. That's the American dream, you don't have to sleep to dream.
If I didn't write, I'd be a wrestler again.

[Erthona]

I tried wrestling once, but I'm not into groping men and it's too much like work.

Well of course I don't actually ride the bus as I have no money. I hold on to the back of it an huff the fumes cause I can't afford cigarettes, so it's actually better than riding on the inside as they don't allow you to smoke. Speaking of history, I remember when my grandfather was alive back in 1917, the same year as the Russian uprising in Europe, when they ran out of potatoes and stewed the Romanov's trying to make Vodka, which led to the famous phrase,

Romanov no taste good to you,
no matter how long you stew!

Oh, have to go again, my times u


.

[rowens]

I wrestled on the same card as the Koloffs back in the '90s. They still hail from the Soviet Union.

[milo]

I used to manage a wrestling team, quite successfully too, I might add. Sadly, my pride led to our downfall when some jerk challenged us to fight a lion.
http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/~jh/BBC_NEWS.htm

[ChristopherSea]

I used to manage a wrestling team, quite successfully too, I might add. Sadly, my pride led to our downfall when some jerk challenged us to fight a lion.
http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/~jh/BBC_NEWS.htm

I just spit water at my monitor, after I clicked on the link!

[rowens]

Ricky Morton from the Rock 'n' Roll Express told me just to watch. Just to watch. There was something big coming from the Rock 'n' Roll Express. That was in '99.

[Erthona]

A pride of lions will always lead to ones downfall.


Hey, Roky Erickson told me the same thing, of course he was psychotic at the time, that time lasted for about 20 years. He is now the spokesperson for the "Don't touch that acid, you don't know where it's been" campaign. I believe he teamed up with Nancy Reagan, and Ronald also, after he died.

Sorry got to go catch the huff, er bus.

Later dude

[rowens]

Roky Erickson had a new album a few years ago where he remade a song I liked.

[Carousal]

I have no running water, remember? Oh yeah, I had forgotten that. I have a creek about 25 yards from my campsite. The problems is that it runs hot and cold, and about half the year not at all. It's pretty good tasting water, except for when people piss in it upstream. You can always tell when women piss in it as it taste a lot worse. I guess it is kind of exciting never knowing what you're going to get. Hey, I don't work either, but it is because of my religion, I was raised as a Nonworkatherian MO. Senate. We don't go with them Nonworkatherian Northern Senate, who believe it's OK to do temp work, or even clean your own house. Those people disgusts me. Of course I've had problems within my own congregation, as some people say that riding the bus is a form of work, but I guess I'm just a wild younger generation that can't do without the internet. Oh, I'm about to get booted off ag

Christ, you two haven’t escaped from a Python sketch by any chance?

You were lucky to live in a shoe box. We lived in a brown paper bag. All 300 of us! Got up at 6 a.m., ate a crust of stale bread, and worked in the mills for 12 hours. When we got home Dad would beat us and put us to bed with no dinner.

Well you were lucky! We used to get up at 3 a.m., strain the lake clean with our teeth, eat a cup of hot gravel, work 15 hours int the mill and when we got home our Dad would beat us about the head and shoulders with a broken beer bottle and use us for kitty litter.

[milo]

I have no running water, remember? Oh yeah, I had forgotten that. I have a creek about 25 yards from my campsite. The problems is that it runs hot and cold, and about half the year not at all. It's pretty good tasting water, except for when people piss in it upstream. You can always tell when women piss in it as it taste a lot worse. I guess it is kind of exciting never knowing what you're going to get. Hey, I don't work either, but it is because of my religion, I was raised as a Nonworkatherian MO. Senate. We don't go with them Nonworkatherian Northern Senate, who believe it's OK to do temp work, or even clean your own house. Those people disgusts me. Of course I've had problems within my own congregation, as some people say that riding the bus is a form of work, but I guess I'm just a wild younger generation that can't do without the internet. Oh, I'm about to get booted off ag

Christ, you two haven’t escaped from a Python sketch by any chance?

You were lucky to live in a shoe box. We lived in a brown paper bag. All 300 of us! Got up at 6 a.m., ate a crust of stale bread, and worked in the mills for 12 hours. When we got home Dad would beat us and put us to bed with no dinner.

Well you were lucky! We used to get up at 3 a.m., strain the lake clean with our teeth, eat a cup of hot gravel, work 15 hours int the mill and when we got home our Dad would beat us about the head and shoulders with a broken beer bottle and use us for kitty litter.

You were lucky to get beat. We begged dad to beat us but he just sent us to bed with no beating for night after night.

[Erthona]

I have no running water, remember? Oh yeah, I had forgotten that. I have a creek about 25 yards from my campsite. The problems is that it runs hot and cold, and about half the year not at all. It's pretty good tasting water, except for when people piss in it upstream. You can always tell when women piss in it as it taste a lot worse. I guess it is kind of exciting never knowing what you're going to get. Hey, I don't work either, but it is because of my religion, I was raised as a Nonworkatherian MO. Senate. We don't go with them Nonworkatherian Northern Senate, who believe it's OK to do temp work, or even clean your own house. Those people disgusts me. Of course I've had problems within my own congregation, as some people say that riding the bus is a form of work, but I guess I'm just a wild younger generation that can't do without the internet. Oh, I'm about to get booted off ag

Christ, you two haven’t escaped from a Python sketch by any chance?

You were lucky to live in a shoe box. We lived in a brown paper bag. All 300 of us! Got up at 6 a.m., ate a crust of stale bread, and worked in the mills for 12 hours. When we got home Dad would beat us and put us to bed with no dinner.

Well you were lucky! We used to get up at 3 a.m., strain the lake clean with our teeth, eat a cup of hot gravel, work 15 hours int the mill and when we got home our Dad would beat us about the head and shoulders with a broken beer bottle and use us for kitty litter.

You were lucky to get beat. We begged dad to beat us but he just sent us to bed with no beating for night after night.

"a Python sketch" is it, oh..look whose mister big and fancy, must have been pretty rich to get to see a "a Python sketch". Did your rich mumzie and daddy take you to see a movie at the big fancy theatre where only royalty and rich people can go. And did your mumzie and daddy tuck in the wee little babe at night and read ya some sopping bed time story? You make me want to puke!


.

[milo]

Christ, you two haven’t escaped from a Python sketch by any chance?

You were lucky to live in a shoe box. We lived in a brown paper bag. All 300 of us! Got up at 6 a.m., ate a crust of stale bread, and worked in the mills for 12 hours. When we got home Dad would beat us and put us to bed with no dinner.

Well you were lucky! We used to get up at 3 a.m., strain the lake clean with our teeth, eat a cup of hot gravel, work 15 hours int the mill and when we got home our Dad would beat us about the head and shoulders with a broken beer bottle and use us for kitty litter.

You were lucky to get beat. We begged dad to beat us but he just sent us to bed with no beating for night after night.

"a Python sketch" is it, oh..look whose mister big and fancy, must have been pretty rich to get to see a "a Python sketch". Did your rich mumzie and daddy take you to see a movie at the big fancy theatre where only royalty and rich people can go. And did your mumzie and daddy tuck in the wee little babe at night and read ya some sopping bed time story? You make me want to puke!


.

It's quite disgusting, actually, the way this kid was spoilt. The closest we got to seeing a movie was when we snuck in on lunch break from 15 hour shifts at the tire factory to scrape the gum off the floors for our lunch.

[Erthona]

You were lucky to get beat. We begged dad to beat us but he just sent us to bed with no beating for night after night.

"a Python sketch" is it, oh..look whose mister big and fancy, must have been pretty rich to get to see a "a Python sketch". Did your rich mumzie and daddy take you to see a movie at the big fancy theatre where only royalty and rich people can go. And did your mumzie and daddy tuck in the wee little babe at night and read ya some sopping bed time story? You make me want to puke!


.

It's quite disgusting, actually, the way this kid was spoilt. The closest we got to seeing a movie was when we snuck in on lunch break from 15 hour shifts at the tire factory to scrape the gum off the floors for our lunch.

You had lunch and you've been inside a building? You blighters, you was living it up, you was!

[milo]

"a Python sketch" is it, oh..look whose mister big and fancy, must have been pretty rich to get to see a "a Python sketch". Did your rich mumzie and daddy take you to see a movie at the big fancy theatre where only royalty and rich people can go. And did your mumzie and daddy tuck in the wee little babe at night and read ya some sopping bed time story? You make me want to puke!


.

It's quite disgusting, actually, the way this kid was spoilt. The closest we got to seeing a movie was when we snuck in on lunch break from 15 hour shifts at the tire factory to scrape the gum off the floors for our lunch.

You had lunch and you've been inside a building? You blighters, you was living it up, you was!

You were allowed outside?