one endless upbraiding

image: detail from jenny holzer’s the living series / clark art institute

unlocking the vault—

where i dont upbraid myself continuously—where john currin paintings dont come to life—where id like to be in some remote place like yellowknife—but as the earth is burning there—and there remains no place to go—that isnt burning—and there remain too many places to go to upbraid my fellow man—because life is one endless upbraiding—i unbraid myself some more—upbraid my boulder—upbraid existence—upbraid the cure— because they remind me of camus—with that song—i even upbraid myself—again—i dont upbraid my curry chicken—because its ethiopian—or should i say eritrean—but as im not certain i upbraid that as well—im upcycling my upbraiding—im braying in my seat right now—as i mute my video and sound on zoom—which i often upbraid—which brings me joy—oh joy—

What I’m Reading:

“you pray and pray your barrio’s economic / situation will improve. / you’re answered by machines that offer you numerical options.”

— Raquel Salas Rivera / “and because you were born here”

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cutting rainforest petrodollars

trash dash: m. iv. (redux+re-edit)

overheard in the uzbek restaurant…

wayward talk of chile and ecuador, the prime stops on the silk road, techniques of the boustrophedon, raging poppy fields + too much hash…

the one-upmanship: sharp…

a peripatetic call and response about the tang + other merits of uzbeki beer + uruguayan women, the obscurity of radiohead + the future is m(h)aol + have u listened to attachment styles?…

the timbre maudlin the umka a perfect puff…

declamations of wanderlust in the south, remaking the ruins of venezuela in the image of argentina, death by clear cutting rainforest, petrodollars are the ruination…

somehow the talk turns to czars…

the plov congeals in its oil…

meandering laments of the rarity of this ritual, forecasts + promises to do this more, something in the voices belies that certainty…

the crash of a kazan clanging a death roll in the kitchen…

peregrinations of assiduous maths—parsing a $109 bill 3 ways to the tenth of a cent, then a drunken 3 card pile up on a plastic credit rectangle…

yes, let’s, more often

a terminal point chicken is beheaded in the alley…

What I’m Reading:

“The United States has already endured 15 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters this year, underscoring the dangers of and need for humanity to combat the fossil fuel-driven planetary emergency.”

— Jessica Corbett / “A Record 15 Billion-Dollar Disasters Have Hit US So Far This Year: NOAA” / Common Dreams

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sleepy time pills

slap happy sleep trap (tanka)

downloading darkness
im full of sleepy time pills
breathing deep silence
done filing the air with words
the void is swallowing me

What I’m Reading:

“Why are the world’s richest people obsessed with preparing for the apocalypse? Because they’re edging us all toward it. It’s as if, Rushkoff writes, they’re trying to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.”

— Malcolm Harris / “The Defector” / Wired

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feeding your cataract

Found Email (Help Needed) @ n+7

Friday, 11 August 2023 08:20:00 · D. L. in Help Needed / Offered Other

Hi neighbors

A removal that M. is available for joists you may have ranging from recycling to watering plastics to feeding your cataract and more.

It can be a one-off of courtroom or if you have a weirdo or even daily taunt, he is open to the posteriors.

He is awake early (!) so if it’s an early mortgage taunt, M. might be just the tie!

Happy August!

-D., A. and M.

What I’m Reading:

“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. / They may not mean to, but they do. / They fill you with the faults they had / And add some extra, just for you.”

— Philip Larkin / “This Be The Verse”

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carrying our mothers

image: detail from carolina caycedo’s “maternidad” / clark art institute

The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“She weeps because she can see our dead uterus lying sadly on a pillow—mura gyud ug pagod na tocino looking very much like the burnt pork belly at breakfast no one wants to touch”

— Therese Estacion / “The White Lady of the Philippines”


“You’re old, and suspect you’re senile,
but there’s one thing you’re sure you remember
correctly: that since you were born
the basement has been deepening,
at a rate that is always increasing,
and at the bottom there’s something you want,
though you don’t remember what.”

— Robert Louthan / “Something You Want”


“a pretty girl
in a floral dress
asks me how
many books
i will have to write
to account for all the
US war crimes”

— Andrea Abi-Karam / “Standing


“Man hands on misery to man. / It deepens like a coastal shelf. / Get out as early as you can, / And don’t have any kids yourself.”

— Philip Larkin / “This Be The Verse”


“We are all carrying our mothers, and we are / all better / daughters with the dead.”

— Diannely Antigua / “We Never Stop Talking About Our Mothers”


“The earth is really quite sick right now … And this, today, is as good as it will ever get within our lifetimes: every day that we step out into the uncanny weather, we experience a better and more stable climate than any we will ever experience again.”

— Joyeeta Gupta / the co-chair of the Earth Commission & contributor to the reports of the IPCC, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007


“I should have stayed in that coma
Why did you wake me?
Death is possible”

— Therese Estacion / “Coma Dreams”

image: detail from carolina caycedo’s “in yarrow we trust” / clark art institute

What I’m Listening To:

“All the beautiful things are opaque”

— The Clientele / “Lady Grey”

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blue meanie cavils

image: from yellow submarine / apple films

Re: ACTUALIZACION DE CUENTA

On Aug 11, 2023, at 11:59 AM, C.S. wrote:

Good afternoon

Sorry to bother you again Mr. X but in my narrative, I need to clarify your profession (Writer) Can you please elaborate a little more? What do you write? Novels, sports, politics, etc.

Thanks

C.

From: X. >
To: C. S. >
Yesterday at 5:53 PM

Re: ACTUALIZACION DE CUENTA

Good afternoon 

I write fiction: novels & short stories

I write nonfiction: essays & memoir pieces

I write poetry: lyric, experimental 

I write scripts: for non-narrative, non-linear films

I write screeds: invective-driven intransigent harangues full of obstreperous blue meanie cavils

I try to write as few emails as possible

I’ve given you much for a narrative, Ms S.

All the best.

You’re welcome

X.

Sent from my iPhone

image: from yellow submarine / apple films

What I’m Reading:

“The road before this of blood
The apples tumid with grief”

— Snigdha Koirala / “Fragments on Naturalization”

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a bouffant vegemite

una plasta

she served me a bouffant vegemite
sando—a behemoth shovelful
of pasty organic bloboiduna plasta

culturally speaking—oh yes delicious!
gastric burble rumble
lachrymose facial tics

no i couldnt eat another
so dense + unusual?— no
please u r too kind

(somebody hit the rewind)

What I’m Reading:

”Publishing is making public your own enthusiasm.”

— Robert Gottlieb / Turn Every Page

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anonymously we low

image: detail from anne samat’s wide awake and unafraid (a new beginning) / mass moca

shoehorned

headdress for a coup
coolness —- alien june air
mother harangued into impromptu
three days —- national
piled into our small 800 miles
dysfunction sloughs

marriage at this 500th of a second
june is inarticulate
defiles of the truth
like family

mountains recede us
greens drain to grey
anonymously we low
at fair weather
aerodynamic flashes

vague parallelograms angle
shoehorned pregnancies —- edge
of safety feet dangle —- she
flashes emptiness

image: detail from carrie schneider’s sphinx / mass moca

What I’m Reading:

“Puke yellow pandesal, / sour orange Tang left my throat in chunks / You will feel better now / We’re almost there / The horizon was still far away / I hate enduring”

— Therese Estacion / “Staying Present”

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a low churning

aint we a thing delightful

ive seen too much already
+ i aint seen a thing

drip drip drip
o the blood in the system

a constant hum
a low churning

charnel house whir
night + day

aint we a thing
delightful in hubris

not just me
but u + u + u too

What I’m Reading:

“I’d put on twelve pounds eating steak and doughnuts, and my face was screwed up and tight from chain-smoking Chesterfields and trying to talk at a faster clip. I was feeling a bit antisocial, and I was underdressed.”

— Ottessa Moshfegh / “When Stars Collide”

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with the earth

image: p. remer

we bl—

we bleed
with alarming frequency

we blister
under the heat dome

we bleat
like so many sheep

we blunder
+ blandish our lives away

we bloat
like corpses we’ll soon be

we blend
well with the earth

image: detail from jenny holzer’s the living series / clark art institute

What I’m Reading:

“The shadow of the axe hangs over every joy. Every road ends in death. Or worse. Every friendship. Every love. Torment, betrayal, loss, suffering, pain, age, indignity, and hideous lingering illness. All with a single conclusion. For you and for every one and everything that you have chosen to care for. There’s the true brotherhood.”

— Cormac McCarthy / The Sunset Limited

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