dumb tears
pouring forever in and out of a concrete urn
no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
no latin
no grammar
no pronouns
no rapid associations
no deliberate associations
no rhetoric
(guru method teacher)
no allusions
no street cred
no indie cred
no swift patterns
no getting the vibe
no building towards a climax
no denouement
no avoiding words you aren’t sure how to spell
no self recrimination
no self loathing
no superiority
no false love neither though
no beginnings and no endings
no reason
no existence
no excuses
no classes
no wives no mothers
no girlfriends no lovers
no rhyme
no time
no time
no time
no theatrics
you’re getting old
your hands look like claws
you’re a funny old bird
someone’s talking in the background
sounds of the office
no chance
no retaliation
no redemption, god forbid
it’s too obvious to say no god
but no avoiding the obvious either though
no repetition
no echo
no worrying about what you forgot
no regrets
no landing this plane just because you left the oven on
no checking the mileage
no elevation
no retardation
no rules
no rules
no rules
no rules
no rules
no rules
no rules
no stopping
no not stopping
no frantic sweaty urgency
no regrets, did i mention?
well, maybe regrets are okay.
OH my fucking god, she said, elbows all over my side of the fence, I am SO SICK to DEATH
no memory
no conversation
no roses
primroses
no morning glory
no glory
no guts
no ruts
in the soil where the pumpkins grew last year
no kids
to come along
no random smashing
guts
all over the yard
no rabbits
twitching in the firefly light of the stadium at night
no self consciousness, mkay? i mean, no trying to get it just right.
no deleting
no not deleting, hey look, fuck you, no one
is going to know
if i deleted or not
no maudlin threnody
no decrying the decay
no civilization
no kids
these days
no lawn to get off of
no getting cute
you used to be kind of cute
but you wasted it
you wasted it on dollar beers and hot pockets in the bathroom at the bath house
what?
NO QUESTIONS
i’ll ask the questions here
no stupid conversations with yourself
no interviews
no ads
no subscriptions
no new purchases
no black friday, red monday, green thursday fucking i don’t know none of that
no money
no empty space
no filling
up the empty space
no bullshit
no thinking you’re so cool
no editing
no proofreading
no abandonment
no spaceships
no flying off in a spaceship this time, you hear? what
the fuck, where do you think you’re going to go in that thing, you do realize that’s a cardboard box
no homeless
no streets
no prisons
no universe
no saying the universe doesn’t care; it’s an uncaught exception, a buffer overflow
no programming analogies
no not knowing what you’re talking about but talking about it anyway
no satisfying click
no butterflies
no switchblades
hey, no tears, get back up against the wall
no walls
no walls to tear down
no tears
no fears
haha i thought we said no cutesy rhymes
no dogs nor cats nor is it raining
no way out
no straining to think of the next thing to say to keep it going
did you know you can just let it stop?
and go on and do something else?
yeah, it’s cool
no lines
no sets of four dashed lines
no borders
no pages
no lines of asterisks, no exclamation marks superpressed, no clacklacklacklacklacklacklacklacklacklacklacklack across the page
no pages
no indentations
no ink
no oil
no gears
no on off switch
no THWACK hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmmmgmmmmmmmmmm
no gurgle
no potato potato potato potato
no cool jackets sunglasses wave in the hair over the broad forehead no
swagger
no mick jagger
no airplanes
no flying high
no soaring lows
no synthesizers
no piccolos
SHIT
no SHIT
STOP DOING THAT
(no more rhymes now, i mean it)
yeah but we already said no allusions or teenage agsty indy cred
no drama kids
no facepaint
no favorite words
no yes
no no
no no
no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no going gently
no night
no in between times
no quiet time
no dawn
no crepuscular animals pittering around your little hamster shack
nothing absurd, let’s not *try* to be poetic, shall we?
no voice, no she said, no fault
no divorce
no marriage
no bullets no guns
no fortune cookies
no unswerving arrows
no unwavering devotion
no focus
no hot sauce
no saucy stares across the balcony, wind swept, star curtained, overcome
no sea
no peaceful little lagoon
no where we slept
no summer nights
no fond remembrance
nostalgia
no
no
no
no
no no no no no no no no no no no no no
right angles
twists
no turns
no sudden revelations
no deus no machina
no truc
ne ce truc la
no self-referential memories
no salvation
no army
no naked ladies
made of inkblots
no dream fever stories
only you would understand
no extra blank lines to signify
no transitions
no flickering of the fluorescent lights
no buzzing
no flies
no electric blue zap death
no porch
no swing
no guitars no fiddles
no mandolin
no harmonica
no rocking chair
no rock
no roll
no dinner
go to bed
no
no
no snow
no days
no perfect
pairs
no uninterrupted hilarity
no haiku for gods sake whaddaya think this is, a hair salon?
no going back
(duh)
no balding old men in the park
no chess
no pieces
no peace
no quiet
no new york
no york
none of this was ever
no none of any of this
nor was nor never nor ever will be
no drowning
no murky bottomless pools
no irrevocable grief
no sream of sorrow
into the silent night
no chasing the birds out of the singing tree
no making yourself cry
no making yourself come
no give no take
no shake no bake
OH MY FUCKING GOD STOP IT
no caps
lol
no abbrvs
no trying to be cool (no going back to check we already mentioned that one)
no we
no you
no us
no fucking none of that
no stubborn lip
no arms crossed chin down eyes up mad striped shirt dirty jeans sneakers
no
it’s not the 60’s anymore my friend
no cousin
no drugs
no beer
no hotrod
no am radio
no country
no old men
no country for the men who will never be old
no lingering smell of lotion
on your fingers
no thumps in an occupied house
no dreams
no mares
no lurking around the empty stairs
no fucking way.
you have got to be fucking kidding me. are you fucking serious? holy mother of mother fucking shit i cannot even fucking believe that
no thinking no sinking no singing no winging it
no form no format
no formaldehyde
no that’s too easy
no pershidium
no ethos
none of aristotle’s other bullshit either
no pretending to be cynical
no implements no devices no literary elements ugh give me a fucking break
NO BREAKS!
no punctuation, apparently, nor no sense of scansion, meter, prosody, or any of that shit
no you don’t need any of that shit to sit on a asthmatic mattress in a old motel somewhere in nebraska
no painting me a picture, please
no mini fridge
no bedbugs
no neon lights outside the double curtain
no conclusions
no introductions necessary
no fluttering bits of recognizable cultural detritus
no going back to pick up the pieces
shredded bits of kleenex floating down to the cold old hexagonal-tiled bathroom
floor
no bottom
no bottom
no end
no end
no sight
no sight
help me
help me i’m scared to stop and think
no lies
no lies
no lies
no confessions
it’s ok.
no one’s watching
shrug
hand out
hand out hands meet
pull up
push up now we’re both standing by the lockers
no awkward looks
no need to forgive
no shaving off the burrs
no sawing off the rough hewn edges
no two by fours
no building materials
no goods
no services
no purchases
no body
no
body
no
body
no gravity
no vessel
no container
no oxygen
no neural net
no quantum leap
no destination
no stellar system
no change
no doctor
no medic
no time no time no time
no pulse
no i can’t believe this
nobody found him for days
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no one to tell you to come back
no fog
no wet weeds
no wet toes
no shoes
no frog song all around you
no north star
no constellations
no lucid moment
no reruns
no replays
no do-overs
no makeovers
no
hold on a minute.
no satisfaction
hahahaha
no raucous laughter
no bar
no grill
no crowd
no shots
ring out
no back door to this place
no desperadoes
no getaway
no kickin back
talkin shit
fuckin shit up
no shit
sherlock
no way man i gotta piss
no bathroom
no problem
whip it out
no electric fence
no drums
no bass
no light show
no acid
no staying up late
no indigestion
no gaining weight
no none of this none of that
everything is timeless, weightless, ephemeral, and never happened
no perfect ending
it just keeps dragging on
god help us
god
yeah, i know. no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no
no cheating
no
no
no
no
no
no tomorrow
no friends
no dissolving into syruppy sympathy
no simpering
no thesaurus FUCK
no word no, what’s that word,
no
no
no
no oh yeah,
SENTIMENTALITY
no cardinal sin
no screwdriver no arcing over and over and over
no slow motion no anticipatory gaze
no reaching up at exactly the right time
no catch
no bleeders
no one is impressed
no wonder
no job
got no future
dirty feet
occasionally, something positive slips through
a blip
of structure, grammar, intent
no finishing that thought
no stern overlord
no going to bed
before you’re sick with it
full of it
defeated by it
degraded by it
no sex no gender no cherry no orange in the orange
no bookshelves
no harmony
no dust
no fingerprints
no nonsense
no anything
anything at all
*THE KEY TO IT IS GETTING OVER THOSE HORRIBLE HUMPS WHERE IT DOESN”T SING AND ISN”T PERFECT; LET IT SING WHEN IT SINGS; LISTEN WHEN YOU LISTEN: AND LET IT RUN RIGHT OFF ThE TRACKS WHEN IT WANTS TO. IT”S OK. EVERYTHING DIES AND LIVES*
(no wisdom)
remember: **DRUM FIRST, THEN HEARTBEAT**
(sometimes it really is the “bad” teachers that teach you the most. maybe just because they were there, who knows)