forty three
summer 2021
July 15, 2021
Of a sudden – a downpour afternoon
A white heron stands fishing near the shore
the geese in the pond across the green swim
and shake the rain from their feathers
five small white birds fly above the heron’s pond
occasionally diving in to catch aquatic creatures
A roll of thunder
and the geese honk and hop out of their pond to sit on the green grass
sheets give way to drops
the sizzle hiss becomes staccato beats
The veil lifts incrementally and distant trees reemerge
in the grass a frog sings low
I sit on the porch and read about a young trans girl
fighting to exist in North Carolina
July 18, 2021
A scalded tongue
fields and wind break trees
A landscape of repetition
you reveal yourself in layers
July 20, 2021
Sitting in the silence of night
a yellow moon
airplanes, cars,
the cat’s water fountain in the kitchen
Straining my ears for crickets,
other insects of the summer night
but only silence
It could be winter
but for the open window
August 7, 2021
Reading a book in the morning
Observing the rotation of the earth
as sunlight spreading
across the page
August 24, 2021
1.
Warmth. Mellow depth appreciation. Smoothness of voice.
Third shift small town rave-up.
Cleaning an apartment bathroom, sun pouring through window.
Mexico is imminent.
Jazz chords and beats. Internal summer dance parties.
Recycled from an early millennium crushed out mix-tape.
2.
Ascending drama. A cavern. Night.
Golden slink opulence. A queen rather than lizard king.
Head nods. The nineties dream spanning decades.
Ecstatic pop. A smear of sound.
Canopied optimism.
New and old anthems.
September 19, 2021
Venus
the moon
behind clouds
dark trees silhouette
against night sky
April – May 2021
April 14, 2021
Midnight. The silence of the house. Computer fans. The whir of the refrigerator. The general sound of air moving through enclosed space.
A repeating muscle spasm in my chest.
Thinking of my friend spending tonight in the emergency room. All the comings and goings and noises of a space that never sleeps.
April 27, 2021
Midnight and cool breeze through open windows
(lilac in the air this afternoon)
The temporary novelty of bare skin on sandals
Sitting with the impossibility of comprehending the totality of the full moon
May 2, 2021
Warm air
Wind and onions cooking
Instant time travel
The kitchen in Turrucares
Mincing onions in a processor
And peeling garlic left my fingers sticking together
radio, radio!
Hello, I’ve been doing a radio show for a few weeks now. That’s kind of exciting. It’s an online radio station out of England. You can find that here:
https://bewaretheradio.airtime.pro/
My show is called Flux Capacitor and new shows air every other Saturday night from 10pm-12am Chicago time (UTC-05) with repeats the following Monday from 3-5pm Chicago time (UTC-05).
If you can’t tune in for the initial broadcast, you can find old shows over at mixcloud!
february
February 8, 2021
Ten mourning doves arrayed on tree branches and the cables connecting our house to the pole in the alley. Heads buried in puffed feather bodies against the cold. Backgrounded by gray sky and white snow roofs.
Febrary 21, 2021
1 am. Longing for an open window and the sound of speeding motorcycles on the highway.
reading watching listening
reading
Wanderer 6 – Alyssa Giannini
Merch Table Funnies – Shana Cleveland
King Cat 80 – John Porcellino
No Scene Zine 3
Paying the Land – Joe Sacco
Behind the Zines 11 – Billy McCall, ed
Tumultuous Times 1 and 2; Eureka! – EC Staniforth
A Conspiracy of Cartographers 2 – Eric J.
I Am A Camera 19 and 20 – Vanessa Berry
Glass Town – Isabel Greenberg
Is This How You See Me? – Jaime Hernandez
Seasonal Shift – Lala Albert
XTC69 – Jessica Campbell
Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief – David Kessler
China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen – David Hinton
Lines and Scenes – Harry Josephine Giles
The Golden Key – Marian Womack
The Mushroom at the End of the World – Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story – Celeste Bell and Zoe Howe
Kerbloom 99, 112, and 145 – Artnoose
watching
Appalachian Spring
Style Wars – Tony Silver
Orphan Black
Sanshiro Sugata 1 and 2 – Akira Kurosawa
Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson
Forbidden Room – Guy Maddin
Vendetta of a Samurai – Kazuo Mori
When I Get Home – Solange
Solo
Russian Doll
Raising Arizona – Coen Brothers
Samurai 1 Musashi Miyamoto – Hiroshi Inagaki
Beautiful Darling – James Rasin
Painters Painting – Emile de Antonio
Chicago Red Stars
Soul!
listening
EVOL, Dirty, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, Sonic Nurse, and A Thousand Leaves – Sonic Youth
The Punchline – The Minutemen
Talking Book – Stevie Wonder
Persian Surgery Dervishes – Terry Riley
At The Helm – East New York Ensemble of Music
Karma and Black Unity – Pharoah Sanders
Lost and Found – J Pavone String Ensemble
War Club – DJ Shub
Girl Like Me – Amy Dabbs
Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
NYC Ghosts & Flowers – Sonic Youth
Gaslit – Dvide and Dissolve
Stolen Car – Carl Stone
Labelle – Labelle
Cantus, Descant – Sarah Davachi
Demo – Scissor Girls
Overload – Georgia Anne Muldrow
You’re Dead – Flying Lotus
Stories from the City Stories from the Sea – PJ Harvey
Gyrate – Pylon
Phase One and Kabalaba – Art Ensemble of Chicago
Morricone Segreto – Ennio Morricone
Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick
Low End Theory – A Tribe Called Quest
The Return – Sampa The Great
Triumph! – Steve Colson and the Unity Troupe
alex
This is my friend Alex. Alejandro Morales Aponte. I miss him a lot already.
two snapshots
He rolls the dice in his hand and repeats quietly
butthole, butthole, butthole
as a small prayer for good luck with his roll
He stands inches from the tv screen
feet angled towards each other
the right toes resting on the left
intentionally mismatched socks
Narrates a running commentary of what he is doing
in the video game he plays while I sit and watch him
– July 11 and August 25, 2020
July 24, 2020
In the evening
cicadas chorus in trees
sun sets
The reeded whiiiir whiiiir whiiiir
rise fall overlap crescendo drone
We read a chapter
then notice
Silence
All as one
cicadas finish for the day
Then later
night
crickets and katydids sing
soft in grass
disparate soloists
a faint song to match tinnitus ring
Listen