Recently, at Series Magritte

The Castle of the Pyrenees, defaced

A painting in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem by the Belgian artist René Magritte
has been damaged by a 5-year-old boy wielding a pine cone.
CNN: 6.12.2026

Battlements on top, the rock beneath on which it's built, the ample space between
the rock & the sea below — should be enough.
But in air is light as.

The rock, carrying its castle cargo, drifts eastward across the Mediterranean
until it runs aground. Because of its uniqueness, is placed in a space
available in a museum in Jerusalem. Is held there,
exhibited, bereft of protective glass.

Years pass. Then one day a boy picks up a pine cone in the museum garden,
wonders if the magical assemblage inside that he & his grandmother
have come to see will withstand something more than a
human viewing.

Or maybe thinks the painting needs a symbolic addition of the real to
make it complete. The pine cone he is still carrying,
attached like a brooch to the painting.

The three AI images are from the museumnews Instagram account.

Tenderloin catnip

Petfood longs to be taken
seriously. Understandable
if it was actually ignored,
but it usually has an aisle 
almost completely to itself 
in most supermarkets. Still,
on a continent surrounded 
by seas in which fish are 

plentiful, & renowned for
the quality of its livestock,
it feels it should have, if 
not pride of place, at least 
be displayed somewhere 
more conspicuous. It falls 
to the pasta to be the voice 
of reason. "Humans might 

be the ones who buy pet-
food, but they're not the 
ones who eat it. Unless, of
course, they're homeless 
or extremely poor, & who
wants to be reminded that
that's quite possible in the
climate as it currently is."

geographies:Laverton

 

Interpretive dance as a means of window cleaning

    We're sorry, but 

       we can't find 

 the requested video.

At 3 p.m.

worlds collide, & 
I discover that 
a cannibal lectern
requires 23 ingred-

ients, &, in an
alternate timeline,
saves Lincoln from
being assassinated.

doodles / written in / the quiet times

a is an article
b is a buffalo

c is a crescendo
d is its downbeat

e is an eagle
f is its flighpath

g is gestation
h is how long it takes

i is indigestion
j is those jalepeños you ate 

k is a key
l is the lock it opens

m is a mnemonic
n is NIMBY

o is an opera
p is an opera — Parsifal

q is quotidian
r is non-mundane revelry

s is salacious
t is titillation

u is ubiqitous
v is very rare

w is welcoming
x is xenophobia

y is youthful & lively
z was zesty but is now a zombie

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump's $2B income from crypto, bibles, & scent in 2025 raises fresh questions about profiting off the presidency · Health Secretary Robert F. Coneverybody Jr. faced a wave of online mockery after he failed to complete a basic exercise demonstration despite his reputation as a fitness fanatic · E Jean Carroll demands her money from T.®ump — with interest · Secretary of Defense Putrid Hogsbreath suffered yet another loss in his legal fight to control the Pentagon press corps after a judge issued a preliminary injunction against him · a North Carolina pickle company has pulled the plug on supporting President DoNuts T.®ump's Great American State Fiasco after discovering a Confederate flag was included in the video display at the State booth · T.®ump takes maiden flight on Qatar's gold-trimmed jet as fury grows over 'gift' · it’s been reported that T.®ump’s administration has started construction on a new helipad for Marine One on the White House's South Lawn. Lockheed Martin reportedly donated $5 million towards the construction · Victor Wills, the recently deceased lead singer of the Village People, once asked DoNuts T.®ump to stop playing his band’s music. In a resurfaced interview with BBC News World America, he stressed that neither he nor his group endorsed the US president. “We have even asked him to stop playing our music at his rallies.” & dancing to it, we hope.

An overloaded docket

Social sales are held on the Potomac 
each Wednesday night. Abide by the 
dress code. Always dress nicely &
wear the right shoes. Make sure the 
shoe shape resembles the shape of 

a ladle, is simple & mess-free. Keep 
any paint inside sealed plastic bags. 
Now add a heaped teaspoon of horse-
radish sauce. Multiply the number 
of teaspoons you need by the state 

of the weather. It's a tradition to get 
two spoons out when making quen-
elle. One spoon is peak technique, two
spoons is a lot more beginner friendly. 
Be on the lookout for rabid ocelots.

geographies: Plumridge Lakes

 

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump rejoices that the 'criminally made algae is gone' · a British man has been arrested in Ecuador after a woman’s body was discovered inside a suitcase · 'while mainstream headlines suggest Hogsbreath is motivated by race & gender animus, an even worse—& more dangerous—likelihood is that he is weeding out those he deems 'ideologically incompatible' with how he & T.®ump plan to use the military': Sabrina Haake · Australian man charged with murder after dead girl found in suitcase in Thailand · comedian Bill Maher was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday in what might be one of the last major onstage moments at the Kennedy Center for the next several years · Core 2 Quad Q6600 system runs Windows 11 on DDR1-era motherboard · the Australian sharemarket has opened in positive territory on reports the US & Iran backed away from a fresh escalation that had threatened the fragile ceasefire underpinning peace talks · Elongated Muskrat leaks banned film dubbed "most disturbing ever" on X for 48 hours. The move came after Citizen Vigilante was banned in Germany due to regulators refusing to grant the film an age rating because of its extremely violent imagery, with fears it would incite violence against immigrants.

geographies: Leinster

 

wednesday newstrip

Two-thirds of scam compounds 'bypassed' in Cambodia's crackdown, Amnesty finds · populist Australian parliamentarian, One Nation founder, & anti-immigration opponent apPauling Hensong’s speech ‘shameful’ & echoed ‘rubbish’ from rightwing figures in UK & US, critics say · Australia's richest person, mining magnate Gina Hancock, who is pouring millions into apPauling Hensong's One Nation party & who bought $1.5 billion worth of stock in the recent SpaceySex launch, has suggested that Queensland should offer Elongated Muskrat some of its islands. She also suggested that mainland Queensland could become a base for Israeli companies developing military weapons systems · Australia has emerged as a global hotspot for data center growth, driven by the surge in dependence on artificial intelligence · Senate lawmakers voted to freeze Defense Secretary Putrid Hogsbreath's travel budget unless the Pentagon answers for an Iranian school bombing & Caribbean boat strikes, Politico reported · 'this war was literally for nothing:' people left baffled by T.®ump's latest Iran concession.

now available for free download

Curtains, a 24-page pdf of mainly poems with a couple of prose pieces thrown in, is now available for downloading from Pat Nolan's Neo-Mimeo Editions.

The URL is Curtains.

geographies: Gibb River

 

wednesday newstrip

The T.®ump phone is literally a gilded cage for a two-year-old smartphone · Elongated Muskrat 'amplified anti-migrant content' amid Belfast disorder · T.®ump's lavishly renovated Reflecting Pool is already covered in green algae: report · a cartoon showing Israeli Prime Minister Been Jamin NotJustanyyahoo with a drum, to the beat of which were media mogul Rupert Murdoch, anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal, former PM John Howard, then-Liberal leader Sussan Ley, Liberal Senator Jacinta Price, & Nationals leader David Littleproud carrying a group of people calling for a royal commission, has been found to have caused or contributed to 'offence, distress or prejudice' by the Australian Press Council · UFC president Dana White was left confused on stage at the Freedom 250 press conference ahead of last weekend’s show at the White House – requesting a translator step in for a fighter who had just addressed the crowd in English · Marco Cubik’s Rube's comparison that DoNuts T.®ump's White House UFC bash is akin to the Apollo moon landing left an MS NOW panel stunned · is Justin Trudeau really Fidel Castro’s secret son?

wednesday newstrip

Byron Bay psychedelic guru accused of choking spiritual healer · DOJ tells judge T.®ump can 'bulldoze' Statue of Liberty with no consequences if he wanted to · the Department of Defense announced that it had significantly reduced the number of recognized religions within the agency, down from more than 200 to 31 · the Kennedy Center has continued its court-ordered purge of T.®ump's name by removing it from the online logo · Queensland government accused of operating secret agenda to purge Indigenous representation · multiple people were shot near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, with police still searching for the suspects following an outbreak of gunfire that sent people scrambling for cover · Sir Keir Starmer accused Elongated Muskrat of stoking division & meddling in UK politics after a week of intense posting on · a federal whistleblower has revealed plans by the US Department of Government Efficiency to falsely list millions of people in the Social Security database as dead in a scheme to pressure them to leave the country.

wednesday newstrip

An environmentalist drag queen who goes by the name Pattie Gonia has called on the outdoor clothing brand Patagonia to drop a trademark infringement lawsuit it filed against the influencer · T.®ump dodges rules in rush to douse the Lincoln Memorial bronze horse statues with gold · Homeland Security Secretary MarkTwayne Mullet has proposed plans to stop processing international flights at airports in 'sanctuary cities' · JaDed Vance warns crowd of graduates at the U.S. Air Force Academy not to boo him: 'I'm the vice president of the United States' · judge orders T.®ump to remove his name from Washington’s Kennedy Center. T.®ump claims 'Kennedy Center will collapse' without his name on the building · Australia to buy three second-hand United States submarines under AUKUS shake-up · the arrival of a purpose-built ship owned by Chinese car manufacturer BYD that docked in Melbourne on Sunday carrying 5000 vehicles has been described by an analyst as a "turning point" in the electrification of Australian road transport · Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in their deepest incursion into the country in 26 years, the military says.

A quote from Niccolò Machiavelli

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

Remind you of anything?

wednesday newstrip

Forty-two US aircraft have been lost or damaged in the Iran war according to a congressional report · a bomb scare plunged a Melbourne Airport into lockdown for several hours & forced flight cancellations on Thursday morning after a suspicious package was flagged by security. The package was later confirmed to be a laser hair removal device & a cylindrical cardboard hot chocolate container · the United States has brought murder charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro, in a major escalation of the T.®ump administration’s campaign against the country’s government · Israel's ambassador to Australia hauled in for a "please explain" after the country's national security minister posted a video of himself berating detained pro-Palestine activists · Elongated Muskrat's X Corp ordered to pay $750,000 after admitting it contravened Australian child protection request · 'Get-out-of-jail-free card': T.®ump lawsuit deal bars tax probes against him or his family — forever.

wednesday newstrip

Residents in a sleepy North Carolina town are at war after a nature-loving couple encouraged hundreds of vultures to roost on their roof, causing chaos on the streets · $1.5b T.®ump Tower deal on Gold Coast scrapped, developer says. "Let's just say that with the Iran war & everything else, the T.®ump brand was increasingly toxic in Australia," he added · 'Authentic follower of Christ' pleads guilty to stealing $140M from MAGA donors · NotJustAnyahoo signals possible US-Israel ground mission in Iran · DOJ seeks death penalty over killing of Israeli embassy staffers · secret documents reveal preferred Australian nuclear submarine base – & warn it could be a military target · a bride says her dream wedding turned into 'a day from hell' after the Philadelphia coordinator she paid more than $6,000 to handle everything from catering to decorations allegedly failed to deliver & never refunded her money.

wednesday newstrip

Verdict is in on T.®ump’s America: Voters say nation going 'all the way to hell' · Danish rightwing leader asked to form government after the Social Democrats fail to form coalition · an explosive report states Israel operated a clandestine military outpost on Iraqi soil without permission, bombed local troops who found it, resulting in the death of a soldier · the US President went on one of his infamous posting sprees to share images of sinking ships in Iran, explosions & a UFC fight on the White House front lawn. In one image, captioned ‘Bye Bye, Drones,’ an AI image showed an American warship blasting Iranian drones out of the sky with lasers. Another showed Iranian drones dropping like butterflies into the ocean, with images of actual blue butterflies next to it. It appears the President got the phrase ‘dropping like flies’ mixed up with butterflies · when MarkTwayne Mullet attempted to install his personal pick to lead Immigration & Customs Enforcement inside the Department of Homeland Security, the White House shot it down immediately · a trespasser died after he was sucked into a plane’s engine as it prepared to take off, Denver International Airport authorities said.

From the archives

Homeland Security

Certain words are flagged
for recognition. The surrounding
passages on the endless
monitoring tapes are
isolated & extracted, sent past
voice recognition software,
digitalised for immediate
interpretation of permutations
& association. Names, times,
places. More words to add. This
is no brief history of the world
but a paranoic infinite
dictionary. By themselves
the words are meaningless.
Meaning is added later. “I am
going to the shops” is sufficent
reason for assassination. 

Included on the video: Mark Young reads at the NZEPC 3rd Birthday Gala in 2004.

First published on Pelican Dreaming as "Caught on Tape," June 7, 2004.
Included in episodes, xPressed, Espoo, Finland, 2006. 
Also included in Pelican Dreaming: Selected Poems 1959-2008, selected & introduced  
                    by Thomas Fink,Meritage Press, California, U.S.A., 2008.

now out from Sandy Press

Mark Young
synecdoche
Sandy Press
url: Amazon
available in paperback ($US10.00) & Kindle ($US5.00)

Immersed in the speech acts of the "inescapable maelstrom" that characterizes "this rapidly evolving digital land-/ scape," Mark Young is equally focused on the "censorship-industrial complex" of burgeoning "law & ordure" fascisms. The riotous poetry of synecdoche displays Young wielding his "wizard’s mojo" to deepen our awareness of "risible inanity," "semantic non-sequiturs," "battle[s] of concepts," and "invented amulets." — Thomas Fink

Coincidentally, I read Mark Young’s synecdoche while in the midst of moving to a new house. And I noticed a relationship between the poems and contents that I unpacked. I chose boxes to unpack at random so that what surfaces from one box would not necessarily relate to what surfaces from the next box, and so on. Narratively, such, too, would seem to be the case with the poems; at one point I wondered whether the order of the poems mattered since the references are so diverse: a beggar, the pith of sugar cane, a wizard’s mojo, Margot Robbie, licorice, math...

But just as my boxes’ contents reflect me as their owner-packer, these wide-ranging poems share a common (and ambitious) interest: the entirety of existence. Poems are minimalistic snapshots of their concerns so that each poem is just a part of a larger something (perfectly exemplified by the poems whose titles are complete poems in the hay(na)ku form but whose text bodies flesh out the titular themes). Each poem reminds of a larger—immense!—truth: humanity is a shared condition. It’s a worthwhile reminder given these, our, troubled times. — Eileen R. Tabios

In synecdoche Mark Young displays the gamut of what shorter poems can do—including realistic sketches, clever realizations, and linguistic sleights-of-mind. It’s like an orchestra, and Mark is a master of every instrument. Like an amazing radio dial, whatever page/station you turn to, you’ll find something you can hum along with. — dan raphael

With his signature confident spark of higher-order humor in synecdoche, Mark Young presents an ironic reality as he slips off the cloak around the putative whole, greater than the sum of its parts and observes that the parts themselves, in their granularity and uniqueness, may in fact transcend the whole. He states, “Decompose the outline / of complex parts” before ushering in the question “But why can I see only the ingredients?” The book is replete with delicious linguistic wit, as in “Random / noises from / the vowel house” as Young wild-rides us through a series of near homophones, “ballet,” “bullet,” “belet,” “billet,” and “bull at a gate,” yielding an array of sharply different signals. These bright, clipped spurts of compressed language play their part in a leaping-off point toward an endless imaginative prowess reflecting Mark Young’s marvelous capability to re-envision the world. Apt social commentary abounds, notably in the poem “Trapezoid lunch pails,” where we hear “Now all I need is / a sports car with a big enough boot / to keep a mid-life crisis in.” Warning: The mind of Mark Young is sterling, fluid, smart, and thus addictive. As always, highly recommended. — Sheila E. Murphy

wednesday newstrip

Australian activist says crew of Gaza-bound aid flotilla was beaten by Israeli sailors · US Defense Secretary Putrid Hogsbreath has ordered the withdrawal of about 5,000 troops from Germany within the next year, the Pentagon said on Friday · T.®ump claims hostilities have ended in Iran in letter to congressional leaders. Tells Congress ceasefire means he does not need their approval for Iran war · Tasmanian capital records its hottest day in May, breaking 144-year-old record. The city hit 26.9 degrees just after 3pm, more than 12 degrees above its average May maximum of 14.6 degrees · Pope names Catholic priest who criticized T.®ump as new bishop of West Virginia · Republicans are facing a perfect storm heading into November's midterms, with new polling revealing that white voters — a demographic the party has relied upon for decades — are defecting in significant numbers & favoring Democratic control of Congress · Israeli military bulldoze Catholic convent buildings in Lebanon border village.

wednesday newstrip

Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions last Friday by President DoNuts T.®ump · right-wing activists ejected from Canberra Anzac ceremony for heckling during indigenous welcome to country. Similar scenes occurred in other Australian cities · when his ratings are down, suddenly there's a shooter nearby. DoNuts T.®ump evacuated from White House correspondents' dinner after suspected shooter apprehended · former Georgia Congressman & conspiracy kook Marjorie Taylor Greene is the latest high-profile political leader in the United States to raise questions about the official story regarding the 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump · NotJustAnyYahoo orders army to 'vigorously attack' Hezbollah in Lebanon · Royal aides rush to 'T.®ump-proof' King Charles' US state visit to prevent 'unpleasant surprises.'

wednesday newstrip

'Looksmaxxing' influencer Clavicular breaks silence after suspected overdose during livestream · Katy Perry being investigated by Victoria Police over Ruby Rose sex assault claim · Saudi PIF 'on the verge' of cutting LIV Golf funding · he exposed corruption & walked across Hungary. Now Péter Magyar has defeated a powerful state machine · YouTube has removed a channel belonging to a pro-Iran group producing AI videos that ridicule US President DoNuts T.®ump · Energy Minister Chris Bowen has warned an out-of-control blaze at an oil refinery in Geelong may impact domestic petrol production for some time. The Viva Energy facility is one of only two operational refineries in Australia · the White House has broken their silence on the disturbing string of deaths & disappearances involving scientists with knowledge of America's biggest nuclear secrets · FIFA World Cup fans set for $150 train tickets for 15 minute trip from New York to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Normal price is $12.90 · the Strait of Hormuz has reopened. & closed again.

recently, at Series Magritte

Le Cicérone (1948)
The temperance advocates come
knocking at my door but I haven't
had a drink for days. Nor do I
feel like one. Sorry to disappoint.

The pentecostal proselytizers pause
in the pathway. I instantly recog-
nize the pairing, can see more pairs 
over their shoulders, say no thanks 

politely to them before they have a
chance to open their mouths. & they, 
inured to rejection, offer their equally 
polite blessings & walk quietly away. 

Then the politicians, the outliers only — 
independents who seek to save the
planet; or those far to the right, want-
ing to stop immigration or gender e-


quality or renewable energy sources. 
The mainstream parties mainly leave 
us alone. Impersonal. Letterbox drops 
& billboards. Polling booth handouts.

In the early evening the cicerone comes
calling. Said: "Saw you had a lot of
visitors today, thought you might like
to know their antecedents. What drives

them, what is behind their focus on a
singular cause whether it be bigotry 
or hope or a need for an answer as to 
why the world turned out the way it

has, & how it might be rearranged to
match their vision of it." "Come in" I
said "& get comfortabable. Will make
you a coffee. Going to be a long night."

wednesday newstrip

'No Deal'— Bitcoin braces for crash after fruitless DeeJay Vance Iran talks · 'Communist cult' is pushing 'insane' climate change agenda · Iran war forces small Australian supermarkets to lower margins as suppliers, farmers pass on rising costs · what was Artemis II really about? · Cameron Diaz asks guests to "change [their] clothes" before they set foot into her luxurious New York City apartment · iPhone Fold’s crease-less display longevity claims will be scrutinized as OPPO Find N6’s real-world use exposes its exaggerated marketing · Melania adviser reveals why she gave Jeffrey Epstein statement · Chernobyl organism raises new questions in radiation biology · eligible US men will be automatically registered for military draft pool beginning in December.