i stuck my heart with a typewriter and sopped up blood with these pages
by tom miller
“Never confuse the author with the speaker.” — Professor Clay Arnold
once
there was a maggot
born with human
intelligence
he wanted to be
a butterfly, moth, frog
anything but a
fly
the maggot turned and
writhed and turned writhed and
pupated into a
fly
i get weird
on beer
queer
texas hole’m
play poker? asked stan.
sure, said dan.
stan anteed, mounted,
buttfucked stan
in his man can hole
when the drugs wore off
after i got the hair out of my mouth
wiped the swastika off my forehead
with soap and water
iced the bruises
soothed the fresh tattoo on my ass
that said, ENTER HERE
pulled the silver chopstick
out of my urethra and the shampoo
bottle out of my asshole
i thought how great this might have been
with me and at least one other person
what do you get when you cross an octopus?
a blessed octopus.
love
a roach came out of the darkness
to get a lick of something i left
melting on the kitchen counter
i smacked it with the palm of my hand
instead of a rolled up newspaper
it deserved that kind of respect
love
must have puked the most violently
on that colt-45 than any other beer.
goddamn good beer.
love
he was so beautiful, i offered a cigarette
bought him a beer, he looked into my eyes
can i read some of your poems? yes, i said.
wow, this is sick, beautiful, the extremes.
we must have talked for hours. i’m a musician.
really? i’m a musician too. i thought, i could
be with him.
well, he said, i gotta go meet my lady. thanks
for all the poems.
he went over to the other side of the coffee
shop and sat down with the most beautiful
guy i have ever seen.
betty’s sweaty lip
a girl named betty’s
lip was sweaty
the one
i had been so lonely for so long
and there was this beautiful girl
sitting at the coffee shop
i thought,
she’s not going to have me
so there’s nothing to lose
i went over to her
tried to say the most polite
thing i could possibly imagine
hey fuckbitch, how’d you like me
to jam my snot-stick in your dirty
stinking nasty yellow yank?
she replied,
do you have a place we can go?
my god, i had found the one.
good eating
it went down good
in three or four minutes
it came up bad
in three or four days
in three or four ways
i barfed and shat
and burped and farted
that’s good eating!
the rose
has been abused
literature has spread her
so thin as to invisible
her flavor make
the rose
coined, a phrase turned
as a leaf, her much maligned companion
scientists are making decisions
of her color, her fragrance
that bees notice the absence
of and thus begin to vanish
the rose clichéd–you gave me this
piece of shit? how much was it?
ten dollars? we could have bought
beans and rice for a week! the rose
if you loved me
you would be gray
you would die the instant
eyes set upon you
with only thorns to
remind me of your ghost
by pain and blood as
love demands
rebel
i swallow my gum
always have
i dye my hair
the wrong color of blond
big bird yellow
‘i don’t like your hair’
they tell me
good!!!!!
i didn’t dye it for you
i don’t take drugs for you
i don’t wave my dick in the wind
for you
i eat the boogers
right out of my nose
i eat them like steak
and pennicillin
i spell pennicillin my way
i piss on the side of the toilet
i drink on the bus
i don’t fasten my seatbelt
i smoke in the no-smoking zone
i don’t say ‘yes sir’ to authority
i shit in the punch
jerk off in the dog dish
if you text-message during my poem
i’ll kick your goddamn ass
i won’t no i won’t do it your way
i don’t take advice from my betters
if you say fire will burn my hand
i’m going to stick my hand in there
nobody ever got wise doing everything right
nobody ever got smart without breaking the rules.
have i misinterpreted you?
hi.
what?
you’re beautiful.
fuck off.
what?
fuck and off.
what did i say?
shit. i’m sorry, i thought you were somebody else.
who?
tom.
i AM tom.
right. get away from me.
tom miller.
who?
tom miller.
shit. i thought you were thomas reed.
reed is my middle name.
shit. that’s what i thought. fuck in the fuck off!
what did i do wrong?
you know what you did.
what?
i heard…
heard?
yeah.
maybe they told it different than how it happened.
bullshit.
who told you?
john.
john? which john?
i mean, mike.
mike or john?
mike john.
you’re not beautiful after all. you fuck off.
mike john thinks i’m beautiful.
mike john fucks me too.
marriage
(do you take his woman?)
goodbye drugs, booze, frequent and arbitrary sexual
encounters with men, women, men dressed as women, and
all the crack that let to it, the freedom to burn everything
you cook and leave it on the stove for the cat and the roaches,
the internet porn, the absence of reason, spending money
that does not exist on things which do not exist, the
guy talk, the girl talk, the belief in no god, every man
for himself, half of everything, the position of the
toilet seat, TV dinners, the band, the art, the poems,
smoking, up all night with the DVD player, jerking off,
farting, snoring, a bed to call your own, the enjoyment
and solitude of puking alone, washing dishes wearing only
a tie, the meaning of the universe, crying in the fetal
position, the feeling of disgust at pink dirty drooling babies
and their endless shrieking, being right, choosing your
own clothing for the party: a shirt with cum dried on it,
gym shorts with cum dried on it, socks with cum dried
on it, shoes with cum dried on it…
(yes, i’ll take his woman.)
squeeze out another…
i think i can squeeze out another,
i said
i was talking about a poem
the metaphor is fairly obvious
this is the poem
if i’d have written it on toilet paper
it couldn’t have been more perfect
unless i flushed it
i’m not that good.
his poems were crap
i knew this poet once
who i didn’t like
his poems were crap
crap about his girlfriend
crap about his life
crap about his poetry
and i said,
“dude, your poems are crap.”
and he said, “dude, my
girlfriend is crap,
my life is crap,
my poetry is crap.
what did you expect?”
i re-read the poem
i was right about me.
i was exactly right.
the result
i was the result of
drunk fucking
little things
it’s all little things,
they say.
they’re always talking,
giving advice ~they~
the little things
freak me out
it’s easier
to process a bomb
about to go off
under my seat
then worry about
keeping my job
because a customer didn’t get
enough ice in their cocktail
i want to throw the last 40 years
into the dumpster and start anew
but termites are eating my work
it’s all throwing itself away slowly
without any help from me.
who is this going to entertain?
it’s all little things,
they say
i’m going to find them
and I’m going to kill them
i’m
trying to scream
louder than the folks next door
they play war
and yell all night long
they love me because
i don’t care
I’ve seen war
been in it–doing it now
yelling is the least of my worries
they yell because some computer warrior
got fragged
oops.
shit.
AHHHHHHHH!
i dig in the cat litter
with my slotted spoon
dig out clumps of shit
and put it in a bag
so it doesn’t smell.
this is a battle
a battle I will win
no matter your religion
i have a poem for you
you’ll love this one
it’s not about you but
you’re in it.
bland… boring… bad form…
this poem isn’t going to make it
into the so-called poetry magazines.
why? don’t worry… it’s not your fault,
it’s me.
too many contractions.
like a woman birthing
something she didn’t want
to begin with.
they have no taste for the unborn
ugly,
oh, there it is…
find me a toilet or a
trash dumpster to get it
out of my soul.
no, they don’t want to judge your
unborn, born, thing nobody wanted.
it’s for madonna.
she’ll love it.
and the cat barfs,
wet, ugly, and on something precious.
cat barf
i heard
a grumph
two or three
grumphs
then
spat
wet
gross
cat
barf
found its way
on something
Precious
now, the video won’t play
anymore
memories
got barfed on
gone forever
i’ll miss you,
but that’s how stupid and ugly
and quick,
these things go
my cat is a really good cat
she just does it just like nature intended
with no regrets.
nothing natural says, ‘i’m sorry.’
church
i came home
took off my socks
the next morning
i went to put them on
they were soaked
with pee
my cat,
one of the two
peed on my socks
why?
i thought about it
picked up my socks
smelled them and said,
“jesus christ!”
i said, “what the fuck?”
and i said, “holy jesus!”
threw the socks
into the closet with the other
dirty laundry.
i have a place for this.
i’ve maintained a sanctuary
for my cats to pee in.
here is the lesson:
no matter how kept the sanctuary,
pets will find their own way to pray.
i miss sleeping with you
i miss holding you
i miss kissing you
i miss touching you
i miss spending time with you
i miss talking with you
i miss listening to music with you
i miss I miss I miss
i missed again.
you’re psychic!
he said,
“you’re wearing a bonnet in your hair”
“no i’m not,”
“it’s green and is tied in a knot”
“no it isn’t”
“sure it is”
“no, really. look at my hair. there’s no bonnet in it”
“and it’s green”
“okay”
“yes, it’s green, and it’s tied in a knot.”
“sure, whatever”
“thank you, ladies and gentlemen, thank you”
(audience applause)
no dracula, just blood
my cats know how to love me
better than you
i’m bleeding
i just got home from a show
you weren’t there
that was expected
everything you do
is a known quantity.
you’re old math
i don’t know if i poked myself with a guitar string
or if your teeth got under my skin
either way
there’s no song, no dracula,
just blood, cats, the end of the show
that makes me sad
sad and angry
angry and poetic
poetic and happy
look!
another poem!
i should thank you for that, but so many
people who I thought loved me,
have become poems i never ever
want to read again
dropping in
to say hello
hello.
now that that’s over with,
goodbye.
everything is a lie
he had something to say
and he said it
it came out differently
than what he was thinking
but at least it was out there.
the other guy heard it
but what he heard was
an interpretation of what was said
which was not exactly what was meant
and he interpreted it wrong
as he said, “i understand”
the other guy didn’t believe him
and he was right. so was it a lie?
nobody knew
but at least something was out there
in one form or another
Unidentified Flying Object
These little things bother me.
Like for example, the fact that
What is happening happens differently
Than how it did.
Like if a butterfly goes by and you see
A bird instead, who’s to say what it really was?
Maybe when you saw it, it became a bird.
I’m pretty sure it was a butterfly, but I
Didn’t look so carefully. It might have been
A cricket. Did anyone see a cricket?
Another little thing that bothers me,
Is when you tell me you’ll be there if you can make it.
That leaves ambiguity and if you don’t show up,
I can’t complain because you obviously couldn’t make it.
If you did show up, then you made it. Either way,
You win. I think it was a butterfly.
At least when I was looking at it. Maybe it was
Everything we all saw, a bird and a cricket too.
Another little thing that bothers me is when
I want to meet someone. If our eyes lock, I
Look away. It’s my shyness. I’m thinking the
Other person will notice my shyness and come
Over to talk to me. What actually happens is they
See me turn away and figure I don’t like them.
That’s the total opposite of how I feel. There’s
No way it was a cricket. No fucking way.
Or when I feel good but I just don’t show it on my face.
Somebody passes me and says, “Smile!” which makes me angry.
Sometimes I don’t smile when I feel good.
Sometimes I smile when I’m sad.
Do you know how lonely it is knowing you’ll
Never see anything exactly the way someone else does?
How lonely it is that what you thought was love
Might just not be love? It might be a UFO.
That what is happening happens differently
Than how it did?
How did it happen?
Something flew by.
I don’t know what it was.
Fuck Fish
I took some pills
I’m not a genius
I took pills like many of the great writers
I’m not a great writer
I took pills like the greatest rock-n-rollers
They died… I didn’t… I’m not a super star
I can’t River Phoenix or Jimi Hendrix or
Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison
I’m doomed to be an interesting ordinary
Who takes pills to forget he’s not going to change the world
Yes, many who are great didn’t take pills
And they’re more important than me too
So now it’s between me and God
Whom I don’t believe in
I can’t do anything with conviction
Isn’t that right, God? I know you’re listening
I feel pain and pleasure and remorse and passion
I have all the proper tools to be somebody
So why am I here? Why isn’t this poem any good?
Why do I use the word “I” so much?
Why did I pop out of the womb at a particular time
In a particular place with a particular nose?
I am a fish, like many fish, some get caught
Some are in the news, some swim the wrong way
Who really cares in the end? I, I, I do. Me, me, me!
Fish don’t take pills. Fuck fish. Fuck them!
The Little Girl Who Was Really Mean
There once was a little girl who was really mean. One day, she was playing in the yard when her mother shouted from the house, “Get in here! It’s dinner time!”
But the little girl, who was really mean, didn’t want to eat dinner. She wanted to play in the yard. So she went over to her mother and stabbed her in the brain with a rusty screwdriver.
The little girl, who was really mean, continued playing in the yard. She was playing with her cat by pulling on its tail and smashing it with a rock. “This is fun,” the little girl who was really mean said.
A little while later, her father came outside to see why the little girl who was really mean hadn’t come in for dinner. He saw his dead wife, and the bloody cat, and exclaimed, “God damn, bitch. You are a really mean little cunt! I don’t know where you learn this kind of fucking behavior.” Then he grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to the dinner table and jammed a leg of lamb in her face until her jaw broke off.
“I hope this teaches you a lesson,” said her father. “And the lesson is this: If you kill your mother and beat the cat with a rock, I’m going to shove a leg of lamb down your fucking throat until your jaw breaks off.”
And after the little girl who was really mean healed from her injuries, she shot her dad in his sleep and anally raped his dead corpse with a pitchfork.
And the moral of the story is: There are a lot of people in the world who are totally fucked up and they are written about in the mainstream news media, much to the horror of normal ordinary people who are just trying to make a living and enjoy their lives without pain and suffering.
Poem Number Three Hundred and Seventy-Three Thousand Four Hundred and Sixty-Four
I’ve written many poems
Of this you can be sure
And most of them were failures
And many of them poor
But still, I keep on writing
For the best is yet to come
When I get to number three hundred and seventy-three thousand four hundred and sixty-five, hopefully I’ll nail one.
Poem About The Nanotube
The nanotube, a tiny thing
No poem is written for it
And as I like to lead the herd
My nanotube poem now is word
For there’s no other poet who has
Dared to write of nanotubes
I stand alone in pantheon of
Lesser lame-ass poet boobs
I’m proud to say my poem about
These tiny worthwhile mini-straws
Is with no doubt a masterpiece
That may elicit rude guffaws
To slight me, you may feel the need
Though quite a tiny need it be
Apply a molecule of lube
I’ll pass it through my nanotube
Fuck Poem
I like to fuck
And fuck I do
Often and with
Wild abandon
All I need is a
Magnum condom
Roll it over my
Shaft of wisdom
Then into your
Void I go
In and out
Ew, is that blood?
Barfing, to the
John I run
You must be on your
Peri-uhd.
gurilla tacktics
sometimes, you have to squeeze it out
like a sponge, or the love from two people
who pretend to be with each other
i can’t fuss with kites or puppets,
or anything attached with strings to
god, or whatever is controlling the weather
i walk under my own power in my own way
from here to there or side to side going
nowhere or somewhere as i see fit.
sometimes, you have to let your fingers go
and do what they want, especially if you forget how to snap,
clap, gesture, type, or fuss with strings on
kites and puppets. sometimes you have to let fingers
be fingers.
there was a really clever rat once, who
got into the candy. if we put it in a box, he
opened the box. if we taped up the box, he
chewed right through it.
i admired his conviction even after i snapped
a photograph of him in the trap with his head
slammed shut forever. in death, he was as beautiful
as in life. haven’t seen any rats since, and that
makes me sad.
isn’t there enough candy for everyone?
sometimes, what is required is abandonment of
the very idea of purpose. why do anything? if you
think deeply on this, there is no reason. and that is the reason:
to give you something to do before you realize everything
you do has no purpose. so let go of purpose and do something.
letting go can be a powerful reminder that you
don’t have to hold on. if you didn’t know that, you’d be
stuck there, like that kitten in the
hang-in-there-baby poster, which by the way,
is a photograph in which the kitten will never, and
can never, let go.
i’m pretty sure the kitten from that photograph is dead.
but the memory lives on. you can get this poster in
the mall somewhere. which one? i don’t know.
i bet craig’s list has a few. that guy, craig, has so
many things to sell.
sometimes, gurilla tacktics are called for. actions
unexpected, startling explosions least expected,
like in a fishtank, or a butterfly garden. i’ve never known
a butterfly to expect an explosion. and fish, well let’s just say
they have no idea what’s coming, and never did.
i wonder about fish. if i could feed all the flying termites
in my house, the ones eating my poems, to fish, i would.
but i could never keep fish going for more than a month.
i don’t think about fish much, and prefer them outside
the realm of my inaction. fish are as loyal as the food you provide.
this is why cats eat fish. they’re just like each other. fish
are like cats and cats like fish. it’s a perfect circle. you can
see an order in a relationship like this. i never saw any order
in any of my relationships. cats, i can deal with. food, water
and a place to shit. that’s all they need. cats are like me. i like cats.
don’t worry, it’s almost over. i was just letting go, taking a ride on
a track that appears as you roll over it, never knowing which direction
it may lead. it’s a fun ride. but like all fun rides, there’s a time you
have to get out of the vehicle and wait in another line for another ride.
isn’t that right, cat? fish? butterfly? rat? puppet? kite?
when i let go of the string, the kite flies away and the puppet
falls asleep.
but if you think this is the end,
you got another thing coming.
today i decided,
i’m going to get you back
i don’t care if you don’t love me
or even like me
i’m going to get you back
anyway
it’s not up to you anymore.
it’s a decision i made.
now, how to do it:
first, i’m going to inform you
i’m having you back,
you’ll just have to accept it, and deal.
second, lunch and flowers.
you can’t beat lunch and flowers when a decision has been made.
third, i’m going to make you feel good.
whatever it takes: money, hugs, a big dick in the ass
whatever! i’ve got it handled. if i have to push an old lady
in front of a moving vehicle, i’m having you back.
i’ll kill children in a schoolyard with a shotgun if i have to.
you’re coming with me, bitch.
this was meant to be, asshole!
cocksucker! most people just let love die.
i’m going to beat on love’s chest, cut love’s throat open
and make it breathe with a straw, i’ll electrocute it, resuscitate it,
blow life into it, WILL IT back from the grave.
i’m not a quitter. i’m taking a stand. the love we had will
live again, and there’s nothing you can do about it, you piece of shit!
you dickhead. you asshole. you mindless soulless rotting garbage
the cat threw up and the dog ate!
i’ll get you back so we can re-live the glory days
when you lied and said you loved me, and i believed it.
i got the fire.
ever get the fire?
it’s so warm.
it’s so good.
when you have the fire,
everything is in order.
you can see a path.
you can find a way.
fire illuminates
the path and the way.
fire warms the walk and
ignites the soul.
let me tell you about fire.
imagine something from nothing
that glows red, yellow, and white
a ghost that beckons you,
‘stare into me and lose yourself’
it kills and comforts
it controls and is controlled
it cleanses and destroys
it is the closest thing to love
i got the fire
ever get the fire?
it’s so warm.
it’s so good.
to the people who say i can’t write a beautiful poem
to the people who say i can’t write a beautiful poem
fuck you!
you don’t know what beauty is.
when you see a guy like me, cursing, talking about poop, vaginas,
pets that die, when you see a guy like me in a vulgar display
talking about my dick or sucking dick, or sticking a pumpkin up my ass,
when you see a guy like me
drunk and puking and high, and maybe even on crack, rolling in the glory of all that is foul like a pig rolls in mud as if he’s cleansing himself at the spa
instead of preparing to be bacon at redneck farmer brown’s holy table of God, when you see a guy like me setting a bible on fire or hosting a local crucifixion
a guy who paints with his ass and writes poems about roaches
a guy who’s possibly insane or drunk or a genius or maybe just pissed off
a guy who can shoot 151 without blinking and ask for a match
a guy who can suck his own dick and ask for seconds
if this isn’t a guy who can write a beautiful poem, who is?
Jimmy Carter? His poems suck.
Jewel? Her poems suck.
Gandhi? His poems suck.
Hitler? His poems suck.
Ayn Rand? His poems suck.
Everybody that raps? Their poems suck.
Poets? All poets? Frankly, their poems suck.
I got yer beautiful poem hanging,
I can suck it, and so can you.
books where you number things sell
like the 5 ways of love or 10 things to
bring you happiness or how to get rich
in 12 easy steps or 20 steps to stop smoking
or stop drinking or 50 things your mother
should have told you or 100 things i learned
from watching mr. rogers neighborhood or
10,000 things to do with your dick.
that last one doesn’t exist yet but i’m
damn sure the one to write it.
in twenty minutes, my teeth will be whiter
i got one of those kits to brighten my smile
from the green gnarled amphibian thing i
do with my mouth which i think is smiling to
what the beautiful people do with their mouth
that looks like smiling but is actually frowning
on the inside
i hope i can get depressed enough about myself
to make this thing work so i can have a better chance
of getting laid. now if only they made a beer-belly
kit and a self-esteem restoring cream and a penis
reduction pump. yeah, i said it.
then maybe i can find one of those pearly white smiling
depressed beautiful people and convince them their
value won’t go down if i jam my dick in their ass.
i tell ya, fuck these people! just fuck ‘em!
there’s one thing, beyond all measure
that i love more than anything else and that thing
is finding a roach broken in half in a cup of coffee
i almost finished. it’s very emotional for me and i
like to feel emotion.
a sugar bug
took a suicide dive
into my glass of red wine
that’s the kind of commitment
i aspire to
in my drinking
a lady passes by
a bit heavy in the breasts
wearing a tight fitting
zebra pattern blouse
and it is like
i am at the zoo
there are so many things
i do not know
and that is something
i not only know,
but am sure of
i want to be a private investigator
so i can investigate myself and
see if i’m any good at it
if it turns out that
i’m not a very good private investigator,
i refuse to hire me– although if i’m
not a very good private investigator,
how would i know for sure?
i’m going to have to look into this.
a shitty poem
why
do we have to shit?
what in indignity!
i heard Arthur rimbaud
liked to play with his shit,
sexually
i also heard Hitler liked to
put leaches on his penis
but i digress
some defend the practice of shitting
they talk about the earth
bukowski said something along the lines of
to fully love, you also have to love the asshole
and everything that comes from it
i paraphrase, naturally
and naturally, i shit but
i don’t have to love it
i don’t have to love
gay people tell me
if something that big can come
out of your ass, why can’t you take this?
do you know the kind of bacteria
going on in shit?
if you eat it, you can potentially die.
and some people who love each other
eat that shit, and i reiterate:
i don’t have to love, but i have to shit.
which begs the question
i began with: why?
this poem is shit
but i had to do it.
there wasn’t any choice.
i am going to use this poem
to wipe my ass
and then i’m going to
fuck it and eat it.
who could worship a god
that could make a
man like me?
When you’ve done something worth remembering
and people forget,
there you are where you started.
you begin as if you just came out of the womb
brand new, ready to do something
people will remember
this is the god damned circle
the Buddha spoke about
when he said, “life is suffering.”
in other words, you are eating your own
ass, and it never ends.
i met a guy,
and he thought i was a fucked up artist.
and i thought he was a fucked up
redneck.
after we exchanged blowjobs,
he wanted to kill me
and i wanted to paint him.
ME poems,
i don’t like ME poems
every poem is a ME poem
it’s all about ME.
if you say it’s about you,
it’s about ME
i’m the one reading myself
into it
you wrote it so i would feel it,
and to feel it, it has to be about ME
if a poem is good
it is about ME
even if it is about you
in order for a poem to be good
it must be about ME
you have turned ME out,
ruined my ride
spun my head around itself,
forced ME into your thing
but no matter how you try,
all your efforts could fail
unless i approve!
every poem is for ME
and if i decide the poem is
about YOU
what business do i have
bothering with your words?
it’s the thing between us
that makes a poem
it’s the thing we have in common,
the thing we fight over
you write you,
i see ME
a poem about you is
a poem about ME
and now, the dramatic ending
of this you-ME diatribe:
sit in your shadow and beg for light.
sit in my light and beg for words.
life lessons that glow in the dark
if you write on a sidewalk
with the ass of a firefly,
the firefly dies and the words
glow in the dark.
the words were,
“hello, world.”
they faded out the next day.
a little girl
caught glowing angels
and put them in a jar
for a magic night-lamp.
the next morning
the light was gone
and the angels were dead
she did it a few more times before
she realized what was really happening
and what was really happening
was a number of things we will never understand
and the words were,
“hello, world.”
THE CRACK CRONICLES
(The words below have been influenced by Crack
Cocaine, Zanni Bars, and three Draft Beers.)
I don’t want to stay in the middle of things
Sometimes you have to get high
And sometimes you have to get low
The way to get high and be low at the same time
is Crack Cocaine.
I rarely do it. It’s got such a stigma.
It’s supposed to be only for black people in ghettos
Or white people who wish they were black
Who live with their parents.
Honestly, both sides of that coin probably
need a little crack. It makes everything smooth,
Except for the mad sex, gunfire, and blood.
I have had moments stoned on crack where I thought
I was the most brilliant person in the room. I demanded
Attention, the attention of clowns or loud birds.
If a bird squawks loud enough, somebody looks for a BB gun.
It’s not singing, it’s screaming. It’s bird squawk.
And clowns, nobody likes clowns anymore. Not after
John Wayne Gacy. It’s so sad, because Marcel Marceau
was the most beautiful clown, without sound you heard
music. Without words, you heard conversations. The beauty
of his hands–they made dragonflies and currents of water,
the Comedy Tragedy face, the so many faces…
Nobody likes mimes either. They don’t like mimes worse than
they don’t like clowns. What do they like? Crack. On crack,
mimes and clowns are okay. They are birds. They are dragonflies.
They are currents of water. Until somebody gets stabbed or shot.
I only do crack once in a rare while. I can count the number of times
on four fingers. I’d do more of it if I thought it would get me a Nobel
Prize. I’d do more of it if I thought love would burst into the room, instead of the cops. Isn’t a star something burned out, or burning out?
There is no argument of the beauty of stars.
The “I” Poem
I don’t want to read about you
and what you thought.
What makes you worth a poem?
A poem should be firstly, not about poems or poetry.
It should be a way to see something that’s not
been seen or read before.
A leaf as blue crab.
A stone as jaundiced eye.
Then comes, “I”.
I did this and that. I saw this and that.
Throw in an unusual color, to make it poetic.
I saw my room, indigo.
Put in a French word.
I saw my room, indigo–
Au Revoir.
Rearrange words for the academia and
throw in a fancy one or two:
I saw indigo, my room… Au Revoir
Euclidean eponymous ball sucking
Cunt scab licker.
Then, fuck it up at the end,
now you’ve got a “ME” poem.
You’ve got a Tom Miller poem.
I don’t have the time
to think so deeply about my words
i’ve heard it said, Leonard Cohen
crafts a song a year or more before
he plays it to the public.
that’s Leonard’s way, I have mine.
I want it raw, fresh, and now.
If not the prettiest stump on the log,
there is a way to see every stump as
beautiful. Even the one that popped up quick.
And from one difference to the next,
this shape, that color, the way two ugly stumps
are different, makes them all the more beautiful
and each in their own way.
would we rather do one thing well, or one thousand
things poorly?
Let us examine this:
I kill poetry well with bad poems, one thousand at
a time.
Why would someone want to kill poetry? For the same reason
Leonard Cohen puts so much time into a song; to render a work in such a way as to make it live on beyond him and remain beautiful.
I don’t know what point I’m trying to make here.
Maybe if I had put more thought into it.
For now, let’s just call this a bad Leonard Cohen poem.
Or call it, two ugly stumps on a log.
Did anybody notice the log, by the way?
I might have, but I didn’t have time.
I heard it was a great log that’s been loating there awhile.
Not Quite Famous
Not quite famous
Not quite cute
Not quite ugly
Not quite talented
Not quite not.
Not smoking
Not drinking…
Or am I?
Why don’t you call me?
I loved you, you fucking bitch.
Time for some serious poems
I’ve been writing
Cheap dirty schlock poetry
Exploiting vulgar language for
Vulgar people
I’ve done nothing for the poem.
Forgive me…
It’s time for some serious work
Something real, something from my gut
Something that when put on the page
Might write me back, it’s got such balls!
And maybe not write me so well.
Something that may come alive and
Absorb me into it
Like all the loves of my life never did or could
Something that can call me out for what I am;
A shadow, writing invisible ink on pages made of ash.
Burn, baby.
I wanted to set you on fire.
But now, I really do.
Not in a poetic way,
I just want to throw gas on you
And light a match.
When you wake up screaming,
I’ll say, “Now you know what it feels like to be me!”
My teeth are falling out.
My belly is hanging over my belt,
Covering up my dick.
I’m 43 just a week ago.
Worst birthday I ever had.
Nobody called.
Somebody bought me a drink.
I can’t remember who.
I’m growing hair in weird places.
The top of my ear, and one from a mole on my chest.
Cancer!
When it all comes tumbling down, and it always does,
And it’s doing that now, and here I go…
What am I going to do?
My back hurts, I’m tired and lazy.
If you ever came back to me, I’d be
Too tired and lazy to fuck you.
That’s why you left me anyway,
But you’ll be there, in time.
I hope not alone, like me.
I hope not hungry and alone and scared,
Like me.
Shattered Glass Birds
Poems with birds
Have always turned my stomach
Poems with birds made of glass
Have always made me wretch.
Poems with shattered glass birds
Have always caused me to puke.
I think, how awful! What horrible poetry!
And I think how much I’d like to glue those
Shattered glass birds back together again
And let them fly away from every poetry reading
In the world.
My Final Poem
This could be the one.
I’m feeling like I’ll either have a heart attack
Or hang myself.
What can I leave behind?
What grand few words of meaning
Could I poke out on this fancy computer?
When a super charged flair up of the sun
Erases all the hard drives in the world,
Or maybe a nuclear war…
I want my final poem to be the best one ever
To be erased from time.
This isn’t it, is it.
Cheese
My cheese poem is
Perhaps my best
So lovely are its lines
A poem of cheese
I wrote with ease
So fancy is my wine
And wine I drink
While reading cheese
A poem I wrote while drunk
And read it, please!
It stinks of cheese
I eat this nasty junk!
r intrudes
You play chess, but there is no queen. Instead, there is a thimble. You and your opponent agree: The thimble will be the queen. It will follow her rules. The pieces will regard her as the queen. It is a thimble, and it is the queen. On the board, between the two opponents, it is simply, the queen. It is no longer a thimble. It has all the powers, rules, and appearance of the queen. The thimble is the queen.
When the game is done, the thimble will figure prominently. It will have overrun pawns, knights, bishops, and castles. In the end, the thimble will corner the king, and bring it down. Was it a queen when he saw it coming, or was it the thimble he thought it was? Too late– he is lost.
line from a Little Rascals short feature film:
“i gotta’ stay home, and grease Wheezer.”
sick bunch of fucks, the Little Rascals!
i would have made out with Orson Welles
i would have watched his magic tricks
if i knew the secret, i wouldn’t have told him
i don’t care how fat he got, or whether or not
the wine was before its time
i would have kissed him
tongue and all
if for no better reason,
War of the Worlds!
if you can fool that many people
and have them running scared
then you understand the terror of love
and that is what i want to taste from your lips,
Orson.
boone’s farm
one time my high school buddies and I drank so much boone’s farm wine that we destroyed the entire golf course behind my house: the stand where the water fountain and the ball cleaner is, four posts, a roof, a bit of shade, let’s knock that motherfucker down!
we pushed this way and that and the posts gave out. the whole thing vanquished by drunk teen assholes. and then, we went to the green with a pick axe, and carved a tic tac toe into the moist soft grass. we made our Xs and Os out of upside down empty bottles of boone’s farm jammed into the dirt. i don’t know who won, but that game was highly regarded the next morning by somebody… i’m absolutely sure of it.
sorry, but i only liked the golf course when i was getting hurt, running scared, or when i could make it my adventure, which had nothing to do with golf. it had only to do with boone’s farm, youth, and destroying everything the rich covet with their dirty balls.
i’m confused by boone’s farm
the label reads:
boone’s farm – American original
then it says, ‘sangria flavored grape wine’
the more i drink of it, the more i realize
that label don’t know what it am talking about
a grape wine flavored as sangria
can not be an American original
if sangria is from Spain!
and on the re-think, maybe
that’s just what makes it an American original:
the lie.
cats figure me out
got these two cats
who have figured me out
they have me on their routine
pleading eyes direct me
mrs. crabtree?
(Background Noise – The Little Rascals)
they sleep, and shit, and sleep
all day and night
S: hey, don’t forget that watermelon patch
BW: you said it, bud! i can taste them watermelon in my mouth right now…
…and piss, sometimes in the box
i clean the box as best i can
they don’t use it very much
mostly, they use the floor
god, they’re so beautiful… so beautiful.
i can write a poem about a particle of crap on the floor
it’s a claw this time
i pick it up and examine it
it’s a claw shed from one of my cats
still pointy, still dangerous
i put it to the side, next to the butt of a
hand-rolled cigarette in the ashtray
swig on the boone’s farm
i’m going down for another
here is a piece of cat litter
probably once stuck on a cat paw, now deposited here,
once, soaked with cat piss,
now all dried up, i throw it back
i reach down, catch a twist of mangled
hair, it looks like a praying mantis
i can write a poem about a particle of crap on the floor
but for which one? how do i gauge? how do i judge the best?
there’s barf down there, and sand, and mold,
paint blobs, bits of straw, a 1933 penny, heads up
1933…
President Lincoln was so God Damned ugly
the weird bug poem
i write this poem
for the weird bug
i don’t know what it is
i don’t know if it bites
what i do know,
it frightens me.
this bug comes in its own pocket
it peeks out, red worm eyeball
creepy, creepy
carrying its little sock body
that seems to be made
from fabric collected
over a long journey across the floor
does it turn into another bug?
does it bite? does it carry a message?
i don’t know how to kill it
or whether, or why, i should
it’s a weird bug is what it is,
and it’s a weird bug poem.
i write this poem
for the weird bug
i don’t know what it is
i don’t know if it bites
isn’t that what poetry
is all about?
the horror of The Little Rascals
the horrible abuse,
cabbages, and hard apples
thrown at alfalfa,
jesus Christ, his parents named him, alfalfa
the wart-girl, darla, the beloved
starlet of all the boys, even
the fat doughboy, spanky.
jesus Christ, his parents named him, spanky
the negro boy
wide-eyed heidi-ho boy
what a clump of tussled
afro-nest on that poor kid’s head
jesus Christ, his parents named him, Buckwheat
and all I smell is pee and diarrhea!
alfalfa singing, ‘Barber of Seville’
in a dream sequence
I can hear the movie director,
“THROW FRUIT IN HIS FACE!
THROW THE UNRIPE MANGOS,
THROW THE PAIN FRUIT!”
and alfalfa really did look pained
i don’t think he was doing any acting
looked like he was about to cry for real
his face shamed silent with purple ugly fruit
jesus Christ, his parents named him, Froggy
jesus Christ, his parents named him, Stymie
jesus Christ, his parents named him, Wheezer
jesus Christ, they’re all dead! they’re all dead!
Here’s a Poem I Wrote about a Nickel
Oh look! a nickel on the ground!
Let’s examine it:
Heads up, I pluck it from the floor,
In God We Trust; fucking bullshit right from the start!
2004, what a dumb year.
Nothing ever happened in 2004.
Liberty!
What an ugly fucking mug on this guy.
I don’t even know what President this is.
Every year, they make their faces larger.
They start ugly, and go to giant-ugly,
Godzilla!
Godzilla–Presidents of the United States.
Liberty? Stomp down the buildings!
Scare the Japanese!
Is that a wig you’re wearing?
Doesn’t it cost more to print you
Than what you’re worth?
Oh yeah, that’s the penny…
Lincoln. He freed the slaves.
Oh look! A nickel on the ground!
two strangers pass
drunk, down a street, any street
I touch your body – electricity – earthy
a familiar smell
we pass and
you here – now – touch – pass
we pass along
me this way, you that
we pass along whatever we had
or thought we had
we pass like
what the bird thought it understood
before crashing into glass
kesl
i’d probably say,
thanks.
probably, thanks,
the most.
the best time i had:
serving you free popcorn and soda
and sneaking you into the movie.
that’s when I knew,
you were a real artist.
* (to lennie kesl, my friend.)
The Perfect Poem
the perfect poem is this:
don’t try to write one
if you do
you might end up with
perfection
but that’s not what poems
are about
poems are about
mistakes
mistakes like flowers and birds
and how ‘blue’ those eyes were
no poet has ever written
the perfect poem
because
no poem can ever do poetry justice
Pissing Beetles Out My Dick
I read some stuff. I read this kid had maggots or something growing in his nut sack and he’s pissing beetles out his dick. Read about how kids with pin worms scratch their assholes in their sleep and the eggs get under the fingernails and they put their fingers in their mouths and that’s how them things keep their life-cycle going. Read about the worm the doctors took out of that guy’s eyeball. It really happened. Heard about the dude who was picking scabs off his wiener to spoon cocaine into the wound, habitual, and how the wound kept getting bigger and bigger over time until now he’s got a big bleeding lady gash. He can get a whole lot of coke in there, too. It’s not like he cares at this point anyway. He has to jerk off with a toilet plunger handle. Read about the fellow that fell out of the bed and his night-time boner fractured on the floor. Read about the girl who has got stuff coming out of her doughnut and the doctors can not identify this fluid. Repeat: Can Not Identify This Fluid. Then there was the guy who exploded in the morgue from a build up of gas. Some of that guy got in somebody’s mouth on that one, I heard. So, weird shit happens all the time is the best way of putting it. Okay, true story this next one. Guy’s got some kind of rare bacteria in his shit and I kid you not, they have to do a fecal transplant–that’s a transplant of shit–using donors. In other words, he’s gotta’ have his shit ripped out and have shit from other people put inside of his hole. Grossest thing about this predicament is that the dude’s wife got to examine the processed donor feces, feces made up from several people who, I guess, got paid to produce charity dumps, and she said it was, like, clear, and didn’t have a smell. Fuck me, dude. Fuck me. If I start shitting clear shit that doesn’t smell, that would gross me out worse than what I have coming out of there as it is. Or if it was yellow, could you imagine how fucked up yellow shit with no odor would be? I’d freak out and die if my shit was yellow and didn’t have a smell. Here’s the next one. This kid, I forget his name, he got a bite from a Brown Recluse spider and didn’t know it. It started itching and he was scratching the poison all around in there, spreading it around. Before he figured out what the problem was… well, let’s put it this way. He’s got no mouth and there’s no skin where his ears were: Just holes. Red wet smelly holes. Seriously. Alright, here’s the last one. This is a doozy. All of this is true, by the way. You can look it up on the Internet. Two year old girl has a parasite twin growing in her abdomen and the doctors decide it’s in her best interest to cut this thing outta’ there. So they give her knockout stuff, you know, the stuff that killed Michael Jackson, and start cutting into her pouch. They get to the parasite twin, which sort of looks like a row of teeth and a patch of gnarled kinky hair and some of a nose, and the fucking thing starts screaming! Screaming, man! Fucking screaming! And it sounds like a cross between a horny Tomcat and a brutally loud tea kettle whistle. Doctors can’t believe it, and they stab it in the partial nose area and mouth a couple times to put it down. And just before it gives up the fight, it says two words, two words clearly pronounced with no question among those who were there to hear it. It said, “Tom Miller”. And then it died.
Tasteless Poem
I have to write a tasteless poem
For David Maas’s reading
It shouldn’t be too challenging
Since now my dick hole’s bleeding
It must be gross and quite offensive
Sick on every level
So here’s my take on tastelessness
My dick hole’s really bleeding
Wait a minute here while I
Diverge to get a napkin
There’s so much blood that’s pouring out
That Jesus Christ would maybe doubt
I’m bleeding more than he did
When they nailed him on the cross
At least I didn’t shit the cross
When people die, their sphincters toss
The contents of the bowels right out
He may have shit on Mary’s snout
I’m warming up, I’m almost tasteless
Pissing beetles masturbating
Blood and beetles, Jesus poop
Grab a tampon, let’s make soup
I know I’m going straight to hell
But by that time my dick will heal
I’ll pick the scab ‘till it’s infected
Pissing pus through my erection
Pus from which the beetles crawl
From maggots buried in my balls
All this talk has made me hungry
I hear beetles are eaten in Hungary
From my dick they come with sauce
That’s red and green and David Maas
Is hosting shows of tasteless prose
Is this poem good? I think he knows.
Throw up in your panty hose?
Does that taste good? I think it’s gross.
The Gay Buttfucking Old Man from the 70’s meets Little Billy
It was dark and smoky in the Brown Flower Lounge and the smell of diarrhea was in the air. The closer you got to what they called, The Back Room, the smellier it got. There were wet sloshing sounds and Little Billy was almost sure this wasn’t where all the kids were supposed to meet for the field trip to the local pool. But curiosity got the better of him and he ventured forth into the darkness to see what all the sloshing sounds were all about. “Maybe the pool is back in there,” he thought to himself.
Little Billy turned a corner and was suddenly shrouded in darkness. Then, he heard a voice call out from the void. “Hey kid, help me get this brick into my bloom!” He said.
“What’s a bloom, mister?” Said Little Billy. Is that like a flower?”
“That’s right, kid.” The man said. “When your rose has been forced open for so many years by bigger and weirder objects over the course of two decades, what you got left where your asshole used to be is what we gay buttfucking old men from the 70’s call, a Bloom.”
“Uh, mister…” Said Little Billy. “I’m only six years old.”
“Kid,” said the voice, “I ain’t gonna’ fuck you. I just need you to ram this brick up my ass.”
“But is there a pool in here,” Asked Little Billy, suddenly becoming aware that the sloshing wasn’t the right kind of water.
“Let me explain something to you, little boy, that you’re gonna’ learn something from. Sometimes in life you get in a circumstance where you’re in the darkness, it smells like shit, there’s an anxious bloom plumping out of an old man from the 70’s ass, and he’s gonna’ need a little help getting a God Damn brick stuffed up in there. So the way I see it, you got two choices. You can either run-the-fuck out of here and be a normal kid for the rest of your life, or you can guide this greased up brick into my big blooming A-hole. Now what’s it going to be kid?”
Little Billy thought about it for awhile. He remembered what his parents had told him about not talking to strangers and staying far away from 70’s leather-man bars. Then he remembered all the good advice he got down at the Catholic Church from Father, Diabolical Suckadingy. And from the confusion of the completely mixed messages, Little Billy was going to form his very first decision all on his own; a decision that was going to be uniquely personal, and one which would set the course for the future of his life.
“Sure, I’ll help you out, mister. Where’s that greasy brick at.”
It took several thrusts for Little Billy to jam the brick into the gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s ass. But once it was finally in, the gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s took a deep breath and then power-pumped his colon, blowing out the brick which flew through the air and entered another old gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s asshole. Then that gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s, in turn butt-chucked his brick into another gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s ass. And so it went back and forth down the line of leather bar-slung sissies until everyone finally blew a hot steamy load.
There was a group-grunt followed by sighs and moans of pleasure. The slings stopped swinging on their chains and the odor began to gently clear away as the mop man came in with his bacterial disinfectant spray cleaner.
“God Damn! Best action I seen in years,” Said the gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s. We owe it all to this kid, men. Let’s give him a big enthusiastic hand of support.” The men all spontaneously broke into applause, which sent ropes and spatters of semen flying all over the room.
“Little fellow,” said the gay buttfucking old man from the 70’s, “You helped us out real good! So now we’re going to help you out too. We’re going to help you get exactly what you need.” There was a long, thick, hard, angry, purple, wet, uncomfortable pause.
Then he said, “The public pool is right across the street. Go out the door you came in, look both ways – which is real good advice for a kid, and then cross the street and you’ll surely find all your little school buddies over there having a great time swimming.
“Gee, thanks mister,” Said Little Billy. He ventured out of The Brown Flower Lounge, across the street and to the public pool where all his classmates were laughing and playing in the water. Little Billy dove into the pool, splashed innocently around a bit, and found a perch by the ladder at the deep end. Suddenly, Little Billy formed a second big decision of his very own, a decision that would affect him and all his little friends for the rest of their lives. A course was set. A path had begun. The future looked gay and rosy. The world was filled-up-the-ass with possibility. And in the glory of that one liberating moment of reflection and independence, Little Billy closed his eyes, smiled brightly, and began to shit the pool.
The End
I’ve been killing the termites
That fly around my apartment.
They’ve been eating at my greatest works,
The archives of my poetry and tape recordings and paintings.
I pulled out a cassette tape and saw where the tape had been food
And wondered what words or music they might have consumed.
Maybe when I smash them, I’m smashing small pieces of my history
And I’ll be lesser the man for it in the memory of time.
But no matter, I annoy myself to death anyway.
Where It Came From, and Where It’s Going To
for 15 years. She was never very good at it, from what we could tell. We used to say to her, “Gina, you have to get out of it.” But she’d never listen. She just kept cooking those horrible cookies and trying to give them away. Everyone knew they were turds.
Later, when she was cast in the play as the pregnant daughter, nobody thought it was funny but her. We couldn’t figure out why, especially after her—what was it? 5th abortion?—she would covet such a role for herself. Who didn’t know it all? Hell, the administrators knew, and they encouraged her.
Her dad was at the show. Embarrassing. She had this way of smelling things. Now meanwhile, Dan hadn’t even finished the book by the time this happened. He wasn’t really reading it anyway. There were unusual shadows that crossed the wall every so often, but he didn’t buy it. Nobody believed that ghost shit. I mean, seriously, who would? The stories were absurd. Going to the well for water and, oh oh, there she goes. Patently absurd!
So the play begins. There’s total silence. Everyone’s giving Gina a chance. She clamors out to the lip of the stage and
grandmother smell
the feel of wood
unnatural colors posing as poetry
when it’s put on a bird
how fancy can you make your words?
fancy enough for people to care?
mosquitoes hover hungrily before my eyes
and all I can do is slap my face
first of the new year
no poem comes
too many poems about poems
about writing
about not paying the rent
about craving something new
for the new year
but only the old remains
and grows older
chasing the tail
boring myself
wondering if at the same old poetry reading
i’ll read the same old poems
about writing
about not paying the rent
about craving something new
for the new year
but only the old remains
and grows older
chasing the tail
boring myself
wondering if at the same old poetry reading
i’ll read the same old poems
about writing
about not paying the rent
about craving something new
for the new year
repeat until merciful death
Another Magic Trick
By Tom miller
The magician puts a volunteer
Into the box
Grabs a sword
He stabs one in
Then two
Three, four, there’s no way…
The phone doesn’t ring tonight
With your voice
I drink alone but it’s okay
He must be stabbed!
Six or seven swords
One must have hit his heart
I hoped you would come back
If I was wrong, I was wrong
If not, maybe we’d see each other again
He opens the box
The subject has vanished
A dozen swords, crossed over emptiness
The magician bows
The audience applauds
I wonder where he went
the end after the end
i saw you through the window
we had some times
but was it real?
did you lie and get scared?
are you who i thought you were?
i don’t care if you saw me back.
yesterday, yes, today, no.
i moved quickly away
to get here to this typewriter
and put you down
like old yeller.
dionysus drinks boone’s farm
in my greece, dionysus drinks boone’s farm
anyone dares text-message or take a call during oedipus rex
is killed and raped
aristotle masturbates to the climax and the critics are doused with oil
and burned
immortals
the gods look down and say,
“tom, you’ve had too much to drink. here, have another.”
i drop to my knees, spit the butt of my clove cigarette
into the face of god and say, “sure, why not.”
sucker
having never enough money
for anything i want
i take what little i have left
and spend it all at once as if i’m rich
i dine in the finest restaurants
buy all my friends round after round
pick up some weed and some blow
and smoke and snort and toss my seed
when all the money is gone
i am unwelcome in the finest restaurants
my friends offer no easy drinks
and my cock retracts back into my brain
where it most certainly does not belong
and my brain says, “get the fuck outta’ here,
you BUM!”
i wait for the next student loan check
to bail me out; i am getting an education
after all–
if you are wondering where the money went
the government stole it from you and gave it
to me. i am a 44 year old college student and
i’m as smart as a
tick.
the sun singles me out I COULD NOT FIND
from table to table A SHADY SPOT IN THE PATIO
baring down with her cancer OF THE COFFEE SHOP AND SO
they tell me I WENT INSIDE
scientists
with each new study
love and hate her
but always awed
settle in to
a piece of shade
that dissolves
when her eyes set upon it
leaves me naked
exposed like Dracula
to light the stake
death of the immortal
death
i shelter myself
inside the coffee shop
air-conditioning and darkness
cancer, yes, but also
good things come from the sun
but not in here
where it’s safe and sad
she stalks me
she waits and burns
blood on the typewriter
above the ‘()* keys
blood on the typewriter
spilt in the service of poetry
as if a murder has been done
as if menstruation had occurred
as if a baby had been born
screaming and wide-eyed and
been smacked on the ass to life
to breathe, as if old man
coughed up the blood from his lungs
just as his metaphor flew over the
mountain like a bird, a bleeding bird
a reminder of the pain, a symbol of
the struggle, a monument to the flow
we dare not clean it
typewriters are not for museums
as love is not for poems
it is the other way around
to know what is inside us
and bring it out into the world
there is blood on the typewriter
good dark rich red blood.