Submissions by williamcook
POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
Observations In a Den of Inequity
went to the casino the other night
sitting there
stone
cold
sober
pumping coins into a punk of a machine
& she wasn't giving me anything
in return
in this Mickey-mouse
neon tragedy
with all its banal bells & whistles
I looked around
at the dead flowers
being ground, into the putrid colours
of the casino carpet
& everyone looks like they're going down
on this sinking ship
& everyone looks like me
ten
twenty
thirty
Christ! even forty years
tomorrow
sitting there
stone
cold
sober
pumping coins into a punk of a machine
& she wasn't giving me anything
in return
in this Mickey-mouse
neon tragedy
with all its banal bells & whistles
I looked around
at the dead flowers
being ground, into the putrid colours
of the casino carpet
& everyone looks like they're going down
on this sinking ship
& everyone looks like me
ten
twenty
thirty
Christ! even forty years
tomorrow
748 reads
0 Comments
Petrification
some say it takes a lot of things
to break you down
but when it is given from above
one time - without justification
is all it takes to break
your world
when above
is where you only look
& more times
are sure to follow
as the hunter stalks prey
& this one time
is all it takes
to allow more of the same
the chocks beneath the wheels
have been removed
have disappeared, like so much dust
to set in motion
this caboose of pain
careening down your life
a drunken master steering
these are...
to break you down
but when it is given from above
one time - without justification
is all it takes to break
your world
when above
is where you only look
& more times
are sure to follow
as the hunter stalks prey
& this one time
is all it takes
to allow more of the same
the chocks beneath the wheels
have been removed
have disappeared, like so much dust
to set in motion
this caboose of pain
careening down your life
a drunken master steering
these are...
896 reads
1 Comment
one moment of freedom
realization
a never-ending vision
the horizon perpetually receding
solitary, spinning
quite alone
eyelids dissolved
that second of freedom
when the heart
skips a beat
where is the ritual
that means more than this?
where has it all gone
if it ever existed at all?
opposite each other
a naked couple
straddles a white steel flagpole
gazing hungrily at the twisting flag
flapping lazily
in the warm breeze above
sweat glistening on their slick backs
they squat in unison
tilting heads back...
a never-ending vision
the horizon perpetually receding
solitary, spinning
quite alone
eyelids dissolved
that second of freedom
when the heart
skips a beat
where is the ritual
that means more than this?
where has it all gone
if it ever existed at all?
opposite each other
a naked couple
straddles a white steel flagpole
gazing hungrily at the twisting flag
flapping lazily
in the warm breeze above
sweat glistening on their slick backs
they squat in unison
tilting heads back...
877 reads
2 Comments
Last night, again today
running thru a large deserted factory
broken glass explodes beneath my feet
refracted light
breaks across the floor thru a broken door
where shadows sit hunched, with death
insipid yellow green swamp light
from a cordoned perimeter of council barriers
floods the inner sanctum
blasts across the cold-gutted room
like a strobe
light
flash
when running, past the windows
the stairwell blackly looms
filled with gasping spectral screams
and somewhere deep down inside
something moves with a throbbing lilt
as the building...
broken glass explodes beneath my feet
refracted light
breaks across the floor thru a broken door
where shadows sit hunched, with death
insipid yellow green swamp light
from a cordoned perimeter of council barriers
floods the inner sanctum
blasts across the cold-gutted room
like a strobe
light
flash
when running, past the windows
the stairwell blackly looms
filled with gasping spectral screams
and somewhere deep down inside
something moves with a throbbing lilt
as the building...
719 reads
0 Comments
Blue Collar Blues
i’ve got the blue collar blues
still, even tho’
i’m lower mid now
it all feels manual
like a noise-filled factory
clamping down
churning out
grease deep under my nails
blood thick with diesel
a ram-rod for a spine
it feels like
my eyes & hands are drinking in
more than my soul can take
ass holes of the world unite!
lay your multitudinous wrists
on the tracks of the few
& let that slow pig of death
chug across your future
but that’s romanticising
the mendacity of it all
the long...
still, even tho’
i’m lower mid now
it all feels manual
like a noise-filled factory
clamping down
churning out
grease deep under my nails
blood thick with diesel
a ram-rod for a spine
it feels like
my eyes & hands are drinking in
more than my soul can take
ass holes of the world unite!
lay your multitudinous wrists
on the tracks of the few
& let that slow pig of death
chug across your future
but that’s romanticising
the mendacity of it all
the long...
765 reads
0 Comments
Substance Abuse
a piece of news
in platitudes
hybrid hyper media
seconded to
a lesser kind of life
a soft intelligence
far from cut up
rearranged
reconstituted
just opaque
shamelessly profane
this is
a lesser kind of
layer cake
more a multilevel glass box
fixed together with
the filaments of yesterday
& the lifeblood
of tomorrow’s dreams.
in platitudes
hybrid hyper media
seconded to
a lesser kind of life
a soft intelligence
far from cut up
rearranged
reconstituted
just opaque
shamelessly profane
this is
a lesser kind of
layer cake
more a multilevel glass box
fixed together with
the filaments of yesterday
& the lifeblood
of tomorrow’s dreams.
#drugs
2033 reads
0 Comments
Past Midnight
past midnight
tired as hell
eyes cracked/crapped
blood bulbs/egg shells
& the fingers click
on the keyboard, arthritic
& it’s medicinal heaven – eyes zoom in
eyes zoom out
u tripping
or just flippin’ me the bird?
yeah, me the bird
& i’m flying home to you
that’s right
if your looks could kill
i’d be cut up
mutha . . . .
o, never mind then
just go.
you better call the shots
see the arrows for
where they lay & cast your gaze
‘cross that beautiful smile
in the mirror
of my heart...
tired as hell
eyes cracked/crapped
blood bulbs/egg shells
& the fingers click
on the keyboard, arthritic
& it’s medicinal heaven – eyes zoom in
eyes zoom out
u tripping
or just flippin’ me the bird?
yeah, me the bird
& i’m flying home to you
that’s right
if your looks could kill
i’d be cut up
mutha . . . .
o, never mind then
just go.
you better call the shots
see the arrows for
where they lay & cast your gaze
‘cross that beautiful smile
in the mirror
of my heart...
884 reads
2 Comments
XI
they dream in unison
but only he knows this
he always closes their eyes
or places coins over their eyelids
one time he sewed with needle and thread
their eyelids shut
he is afraid of being seen
not so much of capture
only that it would stop his work
destroy his art
very annoying
the fear is ever present
but strangely compelling
of losing his power
over something else
which must come inevitably
in order
to be immortalised
the loss of invisibility
one superpower traded
for another
but only he knows this
he always closes their eyes
or places coins over their eyelids
one time he sewed with needle and thread
their eyelids shut
he is afraid of being seen
not so much of capture
only that it would stop his work
destroy his art
very annoying
the fear is ever present
but strangely compelling
of losing his power
over something else
which must come inevitably
in order
to be immortalised
the loss of invisibility
one superpower traded
for another
985 reads
1 Comment
X
under the bridge
a body lies
all spread asunder
red ripe with decay
rank in age and laugh amazed
all plastered still on
dead eyes glazed
crimson splatters, freckles face
looks like it’s been dragged there
from coast to coast
a gaping toothless smile in gut
all ripped and torn
from digging holes in pink
the white flesh drained of blood
to drink, to paint
my Guernica.
a body lies
all spread asunder
red ripe with decay
rank in age and laugh amazed
all plastered still on
dead eyes glazed
crimson splatters, freckles face
looks like it’s been dragged there
from coast to coast
a gaping toothless smile in gut
all ripped and torn
from digging holes in pink
the white flesh drained of blood
to drink, to paint
my Guernica.
935 reads
1 Comment
IV
The red lamp-shade glows
a torch underneath your maroon lace negligee
Your naked face neck & breast
matt-blood washed, four-dimensional - stark
like smoke lit up to play your part
Pantomime of intoxication
Penumbra you hex me just with your sight
spells lick my heart & you taint
with warm poison your burning cathartic
beauty, bred in purgatory . . .
My warm loving cadaver
we are one, forever
a torch underneath your maroon lace negligee
Your naked face neck & breast
matt-blood washed, four-dimensional - stark
like smoke lit up to play your part
Pantomime of intoxication
Penumbra you hex me just with your sight
spells lick my heart & you taint
with warm poison your burning cathartic
beauty, bred in purgatory . . .
My warm loving cadaver
we are one, forever
1039 reads
2 Comments
III
Killer head hung over
Cocked killer Cautiously
Levelled power at yer prospective youth
Nestled in poisoned loins
Rain & always Rain
Wept down cheeks/bed-sheets
With that stepped into the tired street
Kissing Neon
Kneeling to a Broken Virgin
Bleeding Black Blood . . .
-Saints
-Sinners
-Sacrifice
Living as one in Concrete
Hand in hand slid
Between shouldered buildings of Fear
Back
Head
Face
Neck
Laying Shredded
Killers head hung
Eyes Peeled like Shattered eggs
Hung over w/...
Cocked killer Cautiously
Levelled power at yer prospective youth
Nestled in poisoned loins
Rain & always Rain
Wept down cheeks/bed-sheets
With that stepped into the tired street
Kissing Neon
Kneeling to a Broken Virgin
Bleeding Black Blood . . .
-Saints
-Sinners
-Sacrifice
Living as one in Concrete
Hand in hand slid
Between shouldered buildings of Fear
Back
Head
Face
Neck
Laying Shredded
Killers head hung
Eyes Peeled like Shattered eggs
Hung over w/...
867 reads
3 Comments
Evil Speaks
evil speaks to me
like a mother fucker
spitting words into my ear
like a dirty punk
hell-bent on scalping me
of my last twenty dollars
for nothing
i couldn’t give myself
like a cop with an attitude
hell-bent on half measures
& beating the difference
out of some poor sap
violence with words
stabbed me to near death
i’m speaking good stuff
to myself
but i ain’t listening
and you keep talking, evil
i can smell your breath on my neck
as you fuck me again
i can feel your sweet fluid
drowning my lungs...
like a mother fucker
spitting words into my ear
like a dirty punk
hell-bent on scalping me
of my last twenty dollars
for nothing
i couldn’t give myself
like a cop with an attitude
hell-bent on half measures
& beating the difference
out of some poor sap
violence with words
stabbed me to near death
i’m speaking good stuff
to myself
but i ain’t listening
and you keep talking, evil
i can smell your breath on my neck
as you fuck me again
i can feel your sweet fluid
drowning my lungs...
#dark
#evil
2173 reads
4 Comments
DU Poetry : Submissions by williamcook