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-- word biscuit --
-- sliced heart edition --
03-15-99 -- ray heinrich
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luckily i like my dog who likes licking hand lotion off my hands
-ray
< life can become concrete >
quite easily
- - -
< cut like a movie >
as if a picture of my hand
taken in Texas in 1983
(on the causeway to Galveston)
could reach out
and open a door to the east coast
just wide enough
to shout through
anything
that might stop you
"it's all pieces now
(you tell me)
gray, white, black
i spend afternoons
cutting them
like a movie
and in the evening
i spread them out
great rolls of them
always in ink
thick black lines of them
even and straight"
- - -
< ice cream >
my little brother never liked ice cream
and the rest of us kids just couldn't understand this
why
we always asked
don't you like ice cream?
and how
we always asked
can you NOT like ice cream?
years later
we still ask
he still doesn't
- - -
< full pigeon, press here >
'she's a Merill's Blue'
he said
handing the bird to me
'there's fewer than 50 of them in the states'
she squirmed
and as i tightened my grip
somewhere
a tiny asshole
(measuring about 2.5 millimeters fully dilated)
was
- - -
< death valley >
the slow lean of an afternoon
plays us down
a dull needle of a day
rusts away
dust
skin
breathing a gallon of water an hour
not having to piss all day
i need a rock to be under
i need to stop this cooking
white powder for sweat
- - -
< joining jesus >
i was joining jesus to his cross
using galvanized 6 inch decking screws
and the cordless drill
you gave me for christmas
when the phone rang
and it was some roman
wanting his sword back
when i think of what the republicans
could be up to now
then impeaching seems harmless enough
and i'm sorry
to hear about your condition
maybe the second opinion
will be better
today
was too warm for january
it woke the squirrels
and the neighbors
gnawing with motorized teeth
made me skip a track
on my next belief
or some vitamin
or arrangement of words
that could have fixed it all for me
so i'll just go back
to nights
filled with black plastic bags
i don't know what's in them
but whatever it is
is leaking out
- - -
< houses of flesh >
a slight pressure
an invitation
i make you
arrange your furniture
i stretch you
exactly so
as you watch yourself
drawn
into my picture
- - -
< jesus gives me a hard-on >
fixed up there
on his nails
(as i dream he becomes you)
me
and my hammer
sculpting
not around
but through
- - -
< off hunting >
will you open your chamber
to my silver round?
(off hunting again
the smell and the sound)
your hair
and your claws
my canines
and paws
the grasp of your barrel
the fix of your sight
my jacketed bullet
fully in flight
- - -
< the child of the hoodlum >
the child of the hoodlum
(somehow manages)
to be wrapped in white
so she shines
all through
this too-long night
the child of the hoodlum
comes pre-subscribed
to the pleasant channel
of the new-born bride
without a mistake
without a miss
the child of the hoodlum
is wrapped in bliss
- - -
< clocks and refrigerators >
staring at one
into another
- - -
< men in general, me in particular >
yet another opportunity to watch
you
through the fence that separates our yards
me
(pretending to sleep)
as your long arms sweep
tracing the sun
with your breasts
- - -
< yours >
is so soft
- -
< $wi$$ bank, 1943 >
hand$ $hook
and they all di$appeared
behind a $mile
- - -
< the great bear >
while running a newspaper
in columbia
the great bear
was left in a headline
starving
and desperately splendid
a hero
that fiction
could never possess
(As has been widely reported, the cartel's concentrated
economic power has enabled it to buy off vast sectors
of Columbia's military, police, judiciary and congress.
Those who cannot be bought off, are killed.)
- - -
< hearts >
mostly broken
these
carefully fitted
between the metal
of filing cabinets
another valentine's day
the lights
on at seven
off at six
- - -
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- legal notes - subscribe info - back issues - bio - copyright -
legal notes:
all registered subscribers to 'word biscuit' have my
sympathy as well as my permission to publish any
individual poem or poems contained within it
(or the whole dang thing if you get to feeling like it)
so long as you obtain no commercial or barter
considerations in exchange for such copies, it's not
part of any pro-republican campaign literature, and
you do it within two years of its original publication
date. anything else requires my permission which might
be obtained (depending on the mood i'm in) by writing to
me at: ray@wordbiscuit.com -- and yes, i love it every
time someone is amused enough to make copies and send
them to friends, pass them out on street corners, read
them in coffeehouses, post them in laundromats, or wrap
them in a good, honest fish.
subscription info:
if you're not a registered subscriber and would like to
receive 'word biscuit' irregularly (of course it's free),
just send an email saying something like yes to:
ray@wordbiscuit.com -- and don't forget gift subscriptions
for your friends, relatives, and casual acquaintances.
back issues can be found at:
http://wordbiscuit.com/
stock bio:
ray heinrich is an ex-texas technofreak and hippie-socialist
wannabe who lives on the outskirts of washington d.c.
he writes poems for thrills and attention. over the years
his work has appeared in many small, insignificant publications
both in and out of cyberspace. in real life he repairs
computers, has always been married, loves dogs, and owns
a BLUE fish.
copyright notice:
all this is copyright 1999 by ray heinrich and the free
state of dogs. comments are VERY welcome (send to:
ray@wordbiscuit.com ), ALWAYS read and LOVED as proof
that someone out there acknowledges my existence, but
not always responded to which is a greedy, selfish act
on my part which i'm trying not to commit quite as often
(though, maybe, i have to admit i've pretty much given up)
-- i'm not wearing any pants though the shirt i used to wear
had a quote on it from noam chomsky and i still have some
chew marks left on me by a small, obstinate poodle who was
curled up, sleeping, resting his head on my feet a few minutes
ago but is now upstairs barking at a squirrel -- and now
he's back -- time, what can i say?
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