Submissions by Mark_Parsons (Mark Parsons)
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Poet Introduction
The acerbic tone of Greg Gutfeld, and the literary exuberance and stylistic flair of Joyce's Ulysses. Algernon Swinburne visits Twin Peaks.Follow my publications & activities here
The Spy Who Came in for His Appointment
The Spy Who Came in for His Appointment
The difference between an idealist and a man obsessed,
the difference between us,
doctor. Each successive ring of diagnosis
your clinical aptitude makes
draws out another unconscious, emotional malady,
begging from the first psychic wound the ultimate utterance like a tree, the ax.
When I came home today, coming in
out of the rain, and crossed the threshold into tongue and groove
wainscoting
stained sunset red orange
that filled the entrance hall with warmth inside
cold...
The difference between an idealist and a man obsessed,
the difference between us,
doctor. Each successive ring of diagnosis
your clinical aptitude makes
draws out another unconscious, emotional malady,
begging from the first psychic wound the ultimate utterance like a tree, the ax.
When I came home today, coming in
out of the rain, and crossed the threshold into tongue and groove
wainscoting
stained sunset red orange
that filled the entrance hall with warmth inside
cold...
#metaphor
440 reads
16 Comments
The Figurehead Has a Separate Itinerary
The Figurehead Has a Separate Itinerary
Carved in the sweep of a crescent facade
a statue niche
curves around and scallops overhead,
empty save for shadow no one walking past can see in
to see my white
flared pants and wife beater
stained with grass, dried manure
after spending the night in the pasture
outside the city wall.
Alcoves filled with statues
reeled away,
too numerous to count
as I dashed across a deserted court
in the languid, spaghettified moment that comes with
a surge of...
Carved in the sweep of a crescent facade
a statue niche
curves around and scallops overhead,
empty save for shadow no one walking past can see in
to see my white
flared pants and wife beater
stained with grass, dried manure
after spending the night in the pasture
outside the city wall.
Alcoves filled with statues
reeled away,
too numerous to count
as I dashed across a deserted court
in the languid, spaghettified moment that comes with
a surge of...
#metaphor
345 reads
10 Comments
The Galactic Herald of Daedalus Goes Shopping for an Engagement Ring, and Settles on the Perverse, Adolescent Genius of
The Galactic Herald of Daedalus Goes Shopping for an Engagement Ring, and Settles on the Perverse, Adolescent Genius of the Wenger Giant Pocketknife
“The smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.”
Werner Heisenberg
The silver body paint
Mother bought and applied to me
streaks and runs black.
Another needle breaks off deep
in my shoulder.
The oily suspension
requires a bigger gauge.
Anyway, ...
“The smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.”
Werner Heisenberg
The silver body paint
Mother bought and applied to me
streaks and runs black.
Another needle breaks off deep
in my shoulder.
The oily suspension
requires a bigger gauge.
Anyway, ...
#science
475 reads
11 Comments
Ars Poetica
Never pander."
Thank you, Norm.
Thank you, Norm.
#art
249 reads
3 Comments
Glass
Glass
If a colleague approaches you while you are smoking outside
the building where you work,
outside
the service entrance to the building where you work
quickly look away and
start to rotate
your head
having calculated
the time required for him to see you not
seeing him
as you're looking straight ahead, until your gazes intersect,
faces engaged and alive with spontaneous,
unrestrained greeting.
How you see
prismatic as a periscope,
the measured turning of your head
like the...
If a colleague approaches you while you are smoking outside
the building where you work,
outside
the service entrance to the building where you work
quickly look away and
start to rotate
your head
having calculated
the time required for him to see you not
seeing him
as you're looking straight ahead, until your gazes intersect,
faces engaged and alive with spontaneous,
unrestrained greeting.
How you see
prismatic as a periscope,
the measured turning of your head
like the...
#tobacco
339 reads
19 Comments
Fragment
Back from commercial the camera's on Mario,
dressed in his colors and gear,
crouched forward
on the bench, in the defecating position of athletes at rest—
He's the chief executive
now,
and principal owner—
playing
again, his return
as a player a grandiose gesture
to help
Pittsburgh become a contender.
Mario's virtuous angelic face, with his warm
brown eyes and
features symmetrically placed,
the magnanimous obverse in visual counterpoint
with the man
sharing his surname, Lemieux:
Claude's sneer and hot...
dressed in his colors and gear,
crouched forward
on the bench, in the defecating position of athletes at rest—
He's the chief executive
now,
and principal owner—
playing
again, his return
as a player a grandiose gesture
to help
Pittsburgh become a contender.
Mario's virtuous angelic face, with his warm
brown eyes and
features symmetrically placed,
the magnanimous obverse in visual counterpoint
with the man
sharing his surname, Lemieux:
Claude's sneer and hot...
#metaphor
279 reads
11 Comments
Threatens to Bloom
Threatens to Bloom
Dressed in black
skin-tight jeans
and a matching black turtleneck
Karen taught
in a solemn atmosphere
private students
her best
severe academic French
at a kitchen table as big around as the one
that seated King Arthur's knights in his court at Camelot.
Mixing white skin-tight jeans
and a knitted black turtleneck,
or a knitted white turtleneck
with a pair of black skin-tight jeans,
Karen taught academic French
to her son and daughter and closest friend
in the...
Dressed in black
skin-tight jeans
and a matching black turtleneck
Karen taught
in a solemn atmosphere
private students
her best
severe academic French
at a kitchen table as big around as the one
that seated King Arthur's knights in his court at Camelot.
Mixing white skin-tight jeans
and a knitted black turtleneck,
or a knitted white turtleneck
with a pair of black skin-tight jeans,
Karen taught academic French
to her son and daughter and closest friend
in the...
#PowerOfWords
351 reads
7 Comments
Mary and Barb Get Divorced
Mary and Barb Get Divorced
The sooty water churns, marbled with foam
that reticulates lace.
We've been in the water
seven minutes;
something like silt or grounds
fastens collars around our necks of high, black rims.
An ashen swipe on Tyler's chin,
our faces streaked.
The salesman squeezes in
next to Mary,
shoving me over a nozzle
that gouges a watery jet in my flank.
Trying to make a little room
I look up at Tyler.
Mary says she doesn't want a drink without booze
till she's the hell out of French Lick—...
The sooty water churns, marbled with foam
that reticulates lace.
We've been in the water
seven minutes;
something like silt or grounds
fastens collars around our necks of high, black rims.
An ashen swipe on Tyler's chin,
our faces streaked.
The salesman squeezes in
next to Mary,
shoving me over a nozzle
that gouges a watery jet in my flank.
Trying to make a little room
I look up at Tyler.
Mary says she doesn't want a drink without booze
till she's the hell out of French Lick—...
#metaphor
374 reads
7 Comments
May, 1976
May, 1976
Father works at his lathe, the crank-handles
capped with yellow plastic.
The shuttered garage door
raised up
as high as his shoulders.
Rain drizzles and beads on oily blacktop smeared with
a sheen like colored cellophane.
The dowels become
thinner. He stands them in a five-gallon bucket.
His eyes are small.
He secures each dowel in serrated jaws of an iron vise,
marking the dowels with a see-through
mechanical pencil.
He sets me down
on the stepladder, hangs the saw ...
Father works at his lathe, the crank-handles
capped with yellow plastic.
The shuttered garage door
raised up
as high as his shoulders.
Rain drizzles and beads on oily blacktop smeared with
a sheen like colored cellophane.
The dowels become
thinner. He stands them in a five-gallon bucket.
His eyes are small.
He secures each dowel in serrated jaws of an iron vise,
marking the dowels with a see-through
mechanical pencil.
He sets me down
on the stepladder, hangs the saw ...
#childhood
500 reads
15 Comments
I Believe You
I Believe You
said what you said. And beyond that,
not much.
The resulting sadness
concentrates my self-awareness,
at the same time
smashing it into abundant refractions that dazzle like afternoon sun
I enter squinty-eyed
after drinking in a darkened corner of the bar all morning,
the sequined bodice of a day
gaudy and overexposed through a tangle of eyelashes.
What the taste of chocolate frosting
waxy with
too much paraffin does
to every thought you have about
cake.
Often I’m able to
reason...
said what you said. And beyond that,
not much.
The resulting sadness
concentrates my self-awareness,
at the same time
smashing it into abundant refractions that dazzle like afternoon sun
I enter squinty-eyed
after drinking in a darkened corner of the bar all morning,
the sequined bodice of a day
gaudy and overexposed through a tangle of eyelashes.
What the taste of chocolate frosting
waxy with
too much paraffin does
to every thought you have about
cake.
Often I’m able to
reason...
#metaphor
396 reads
11 Comments
Success Comes to a Place Too Sad to Have a Name
Success Comes to a Place Too Sad to Have a Name
We started with communal living, drugs. Then got involved in real estate
scams, extortion. We blackmailed a restaurant owner
because his business partner
was a pederast who used the restaurant to cruise teenage boys
working first jobs.
A guy who serviced the air conditioning
flew a single engine airplane down to Florida
and returned with cocaine
on the weekends. We stepped on all of them.
The prospect of a violent death along a lonely stretch of country road
didn’t faze me. For...
We started with communal living, drugs. Then got involved in real estate
scams, extortion. We blackmailed a restaurant owner
because his business partner
was a pederast who used the restaurant to cruise teenage boys
working first jobs.
A guy who serviced the air conditioning
flew a single engine airplane down to Florida
and returned with cocaine
on the weekends. We stepped on all of them.
The prospect of a violent death along a lonely stretch of country road
didn’t faze me. For...
#friendship
#identity
408 reads
13 Comments
Chlorine
#childhood
539 reads
14 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by Mark_Parsons (Mark Parsons)