Threatened / by a / plastic razor blade

Employers can eliminate the
frames of our back patio doors
& turn what could be a life-
threatening situation full of un-
necessary gimmicks into an
organ theme brimming with
allure. There are some draw-
backs — opening those doors
can produce epic sounding 
pieces, but they do contain a
kind of darkness within them.

Meanwhile, at the Kunstmuseum

A freight train goes by as I am
listening to Bach's Air on the 
G String. It howls in the night. 
Pizzicato cellos follow through 
at a walking pace. All vision im-
pairment stems from a simple 
cause which has nothing to do 
with the eyes. & then I'm in 
Lithuania, in Vilnus, & an a 
cappella choir tracks the same path 
as the freight train. Home security 
companies don't want you to find 
out about this new device that is 
cheaper, simpler, created by two 
engineers from Australia, by which 
time, in a baroque hall, a seated 
string group line up behind some 
very popular cellist & it's last year 
in Marienbad, where a several hun-
dred voice male Mormon choir 
tells me it's nearer my god to thee 
which means we're heading back 
to a basilica in Milan where Booker 
T is dining out on a mix of green 
onions & listening to some serious
players & I'm replaying all the 
poems I've written over the years
that have Bach as counterpoint.

wednesday newstrip

Marjorie Taylor Greene claims New York City's recent earthquake was God telling America to 'repent' · Fox host vexed by BidenMyTime’s good job numbers finds a solution – give the credit to T.®ump · McDonald's to buy back 225 franchised outlets in Israel after it was criticized for giving away thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers · Robert F. Kennedy Jr. retracts false statement that no J6 rioters carried weapons · Italian island giving away its goats after numbers overwhelm human population · army of ladybugs deployed in Darwin to combat exotic papaya mealybug infestation · former president DoNuts T.®ump has privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory.

100 Titles From Tom Beckett: #74

Contexts Collapse

Your audiences have merged into one.
The borders have collapsed of their
own volition. Homogeneity prevails.

Isn't how it was meant to be. A filing
cabinet without any dividers? A Venn 
diagram that resembles a labyrinth?

Facebook by any name won't smell
as sweet once current employer dis-
covers past opinions & indiscretions

or family unearth those snaps of you
in a Gay Pride march. No more diff-
erent strokes for different folks. Will

take much more than digital surgery 
to fix. Où sont les cartographes d'antan?

A rectangle for the horse

People should not talk to please 
themselves, but those who hear 
them. Only thought resembles, 
resting silently in a discursive 
space, as completely invisible as 

pleasure or pain. Many believe 
that politeness is merely hypo-
crisy & dissimulation. The visible 
can be hidden, but the invisible 
hides nothing; it can be known or 

not known, no more.  Who speaks 
in the statement? Having all the 
talk sustained by one person is not 
conversation. Transference? Doubt-
less. But from what to what? Even 

though words do not replace missing
objects, if your companion uses words
or expressions which you cannot 
understand, ask for an explanation.
What lady likes to be treated rudely?

Sources:
This Is Not a Pipe, by Michel Foucault
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette (1860), by Florence Hartley

geographies: Meeniyan

 

404 error

I go looking for the
early prognostications 
by Bruce Sterling on 

the potential rise & 
rise of link rot. He was
probably correct, but it's

impossible to be certain —
 many of his given links 
have rotted away. 

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump believed Nepal was part of India — & he thought it was pronounced 'nipple' · US firm AT&T says data of 73 million customers leaked on ‘dark web’ · India bans Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts on Sikh separatist killing · ex-T.®ump adviser says former president 'hasn’t got the brains' for dictatorship · 2022 video shows California police fatally shooting teenager who was reported kidnapped · Truth Social shares go into freefall after investors learn how much money it really makes · Botswana offers to send 20,000 elephants to Germany · Helldivers 2 players finally liberate Malevelon Creek, aka 'Robot Vietnam'.

geographies: Cohuna

 

wednesday newstrip

At least 12 Palestinians drown trying to retrieve 'useless' aid parcels dropped into sea · family group charged with stealing $16,000 worth of groceries from an Auckland supermarket, walking out with six trolleys full of goods · a viral video is claiming to show the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse from a large explosion; the video actually shows an explosion on Kerch bridge between Crimea & Russia in 2022 · also in New Zealand, Gisborne's rainbow crossing has been restored after a protest group linked with Destiny Church covered it over in white paint in protest of a drag event · Moscow has vowed to build two entire new armies before the end of the year amid fears President Putain is planning an eventual strike against Europe · Prince Harry named in $30m sex abuse lawsuit against Sean 'Diddy' Combs.

Today the post-
woman brought
me the macaw
I'd ordered

off the internet.
Caveat emptor —
I got sent a
Scottish crow.

geographies: Longerenong

 

wednesday newstrip

Man dies after falling from hot-air balloon in Melbourne’s north · Putain has no successor, no living rivals & no retirement plan – his eventual death will set off a vicious power struggle · Uber to pay Australian taxi operators $272 million in class action settlement · Sharon Stone names co-star she was told she had to sleep with to ‘save’ a movie · billion-dollar deal to supply Australian-made Boxer military vehicles to Germany signed · first patient of Elongated Muskrat's Neuralink brain chip implant demonstrates playing online chess with his mind · DoNuts T.®ump has promised to "root out" what he called "radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie & steal & cheat on elections".

headline & response

Whatever, Thor.

wednesday newstrip

Swept away: $500,000 sand dune built to protect US homes in Massachusetts disappears in days · McDonald’s restaurants hit by technology outage at outlets across Australia · vote against T.®ump, former supporters urge in $50m video campaign · Pandemic PPE: how Australia entrusted a small-time retailer with $100m & got 46m unusable masks · Covid-19: U.K. Government writes off £10bn on unusable, overpriced, or undelivered PPE · fury as waste disposal firms are given £35million of taxpayers' money to burn unused PPE · the Australian Tax Office is reviving old tax debts totalling billions, threatening some taxpayers with bankruptcy · Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart in a blood-splattering revenge tale that is already queer heart-throb canon.

geographies : Newmerella

 

wednesday newstrip

South-east Australia to bake in near-record heat while cyclone threat returns to north · as Gaza teeters on the brink of famine, Israeli girls drink water & try to block aid trucks at the border · Tasmanian dumpster divers tell supermarket prices inquiry about 'massive' food waste · Irish referendums: voters reject changes to family & care definition in the constitution · ‘Not good enough’: Australian Federal Minister lashes Meta as losses rise from scams on Facebook · a video of three children with their wrists cabled-tied together was taken in Broome, Western Australia, earlier this week, & sparked national outrage.

geographies: Callawadda

rare bits

wednesday newstrip

Out-of-control wildfires scorch Texas Panhandle, prompt shutdown of nuclear weapons facility · T.®ump's claim of being a 'prophet' appears to be a sign of his 'mental disorder' · University of Florida terminating all diversity, equity & inclusion positions · changes around Māori language come into focus as New Zealand government approaches 100-day milestone · thousands defy Kremlin to attend Navalny’s funeral · Haiti violence: gangs free 4,000 inmates in mass jailbreak · new RMIT, CDU study finds cannabis has 'deadly' effect on melanomas in laboratory · proposed class action lawsuit accuses Apple of monopolizing cloud storage for its devices · controversial pro-life society at University of Manchester founded by a male president who 'opposes abortion' shares photo of its first official meeting after the event was met by thousands of protesters · DoNuts T.®ump suffered his first loss in a GOP 2024 primary on Sunday, & he didn't take it very well.

Ruby Tuesday

A couple of notices.

Have a chapbook, Melancholy, out from SurVision Books.

(Cover image by Victoria Chernyakhivska)
Available at http://www.survisionmagazine.com/jamestateprizewinners.htm.
Price €7.50 plus postage.

*
At Dichtung Yammer, Thomas Fink has an exchange with me about "A line from Mick Jagger," a poem included in my recent Ley Lines II, out from Sandy Press & available through Amazon.

Mick Jagger seems quite excited about it.

Don't ask why

because I have no idea, but Ogden Nash is running around in my head this morning.

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all.

(&, in passing, I never knew, or perhaps had forgotten, that Joyce Kilmer was a guy.)

wednesday newstrip

Kilt-wearing pervert is arrested after going into antique stores & shoving items up his rectum before placing them 'back on the shelf for display' · Victorian man vanishes after receiving about $500,000 in cryptocurrency account error · DoNuts T.®ump wins South Carolina Republican presidential primary beating out the state's former governor Nikki HailMary · Australia is condemned as a 'police state' after Americans notice unusual detail at Taylor Swift's sold-out concert in Sydney · China's new patriotic education law targets its people living overseas, but is law possible to be enforced in Australia? · Ukraine war: Zelensky says 31,000 troops killed since Russia's full-scale invasion · NotJustanyahoo: Cease-fire would only delay Rafah invasion 'somewhat.'

Now out from Otoliths

Otoliths has just released my un saut de chat.

Mark Young
un saut de chat
b&w
118 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6455483-2-7
$US17.45
Direct URL: https://www.lulu.com/shop/mark-young/un-saut-de-chat/paperback/product-v8k9n2k.html?page=1&pageSize=4

“I’m a couple of years into my ninth decade, & have decided it’s time to tidy a few things up, specifically creating some trope-based collections, rather than collections of recent work.

“Retrospectively, my Ley Lines II that came out in November 2023 from Sandy Press should probably be considered the first collation: a single trope (‘A line from . . .’), a significant number of poems (just under 100), & written over a number of years (2014-2021).

“un saut de chat is composed primarily of prose poems, with some found poems & a few ficciones included. There are around 140 pieces in the book, from the past twenty years. I feel, displayed this way, that it gives greater insight into thematic aspects of my work that are not so easy to discern otherwise.

“The next book in this loose grouping will be my entire Magritte poems, all twenty years of them. It will probably come in at around 600 pages, & be ready for printing around the end of the year.”


[Lulu have discounts running during the week. Promo codes for the current week can be found each Monday at the Lulu Press Facebook page.]

wednesday newstrip

DoNuts T.®ump must pay $US355 milllion in penalties, barred from NY business for three years, judge rules · key event in Sydney Mardi Gras calendar scrapped over asbestos mulch concerns · fake alligators at Riverview Park in Mesa, AZ., fooling people into calling emergency services · Federal politicians pass motion urging US & UK to allow Julian Assange's return to Australia · Kristen Stewart stripped down for the most recent cover of Rolling Stone last weeek, posing with her hand inside a jockstrap · getting the brush-off: First Nations artists walk away from Brisbane Portrait Prize over AI · jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dead at 47, region's prison service says · DoNuts T.®ump again threatens to sacrifice NATO allies to Russia.

wednesday newstrip

Israeli prime minister rejects Hamas cease-fire offer, vows to fight until 'absolute victory' · Woolworths responds to mud cake outrage after ‘final straw’ for Aussie shoppers · Pink is partnering with PEN America to distribute 2,000 banned books at her shows in South Florida, CNN reports · Taylor Swift has issued a cease & desist to a Florida college student who uses public data & social media to track her private jet · Sydney motorist ordered to surrender 'OCT7TH' personalized number plates · World Surf League spits on greatest ever surfer Carissa Moore after Lexus Pipe Pro exit · Notjustanyahoo tells Israeli army to prepare to evacuate Rafah before invasion to destroy Hamas — but where can 1.5 million Palestinians go?

geographies : Caniambo

 

Today the post-
woman brought
me a fart in a

jar. Damn that
voice recognition
AI software—I'd 

asked for a jam 
tart to go with my
morning coffee.