Poems by Visitors 2003
When the scarabs hid from cherubs,
and the cherubim were scared of him,
the one we call the Noodle sold his friend
to an overreaching hermit
by the name of Mr. Kermit,
to go hustling used kimonos in West Bend.
Now kimonos take cajones
to get worn by one not born
to that bent and western part of Indiana,
so to lift his obligation
Noodle's friend went on vacation
with the hermit's brutal poodle called Diana.
It was lurid, it was sordid,
with the daily grooming looming
on that swampy stretch of beach-front black lagoon.
Though the pooch was overzealous,
there were fruit drinks with umbrellas
which put friend and poodle both away by noon.
Louie Meme
Doctor, please, my forehead chooses
fever over patent boozes
drawn from inorganic taps,
measured out in plastic caps,
flavor dismal, stale, and tinnish...
artificial cherry finish.
Louie Meme
In drought, a willow misses weeping
yet it celebrates the intensity
of becoming a slave to the wind
by dropping its leaves.
That flimsy giant, thinks the wind,
I'll go play with its cousin the oats.
Jen
Alligator ashes dug up special,
necessary spices worn at sea,
loose sacred leaves in a mystical mesh'll
hang by the door of her hollow thorn tree.
Louie Meme
His world a fragrant treasure-chest,
a mad and humble horse,
a losing honey-captured guest–
in summer weeds, of course.
Louie Meme
The pretender neither cooks
nor wishes to cook.
He holds his knees together
and pounces on the berets
of the unfashionable.
The veils of the unfashionable
go up in sympathy.
anonymous
The most illegal dust
Robert seldom checked out
but the odd champagne
was always in his ballroom
closing the balcony
to lying debutantes.
anonymous
Root through the bubbles
they're easy to capture
tell me your troubles
tempt me with rapture
toil in the tunnel
until you're a mole
bet that the fun'll
eclipse your new role.
Louie Meme
That party I owed to warm approval and
you, after growing through the picnic with me,
were bashful as we fell on one another—
tracing a rebellion of flat leather, all the way down
the beautiful border we never involved in confusion.
Joe Hundredaire
Valley of the thin smug princes,
alabaster fever blintzes,
heavy mounds of distant weeds,
teenage thieves with dreadful needs,
all conspire to crave and be craved,
gang up with their ill-behaved
sinister, unguarded guest,
block each other's impersonal best.
Louie Meme
This table pale, this torso damp,
the daily mail we got at camp
the coldest marble known to girl
a bashful, frozen Duke of Earl
now holding out his sopping suit
she's scandalized (but thinks he's cute).
Jen
In the fully dynamic vicinity
of rugged outdoorsy divinity,
a woodsman is liking
the chopping and hiking
and personal peaks of salinity.
Louie Meme
The zero symposium no one went to,
now that was a sad lesson
in irony.
The Biffster
One of the flat-bellied young men the women pandered to was Morris.
Barbers scared him, as did genies, mushrooms, volcanoes, waffles,
the Inquisition, giraffes, braids, mud, fame, and anyone named Irene.
The Biffster
Austere but molten, Sam says "Naw..."
blocking out the vague but raw
lovers who ascend the stairs
indolently seeking bears.
meme old meme old
Rich ghouls play a saucy café
and wish a tree frog could be involved
in their yearning production
but no,
there is only a llama with a canvas doll.
The Biffster
Connoisseur Dave caught an impartial wave
and attached a wet patch to his noodle.
He lay down his hat for the neighbor's orange cat
and he lay down his life for a poodle.
What I meant,
was he lay down his knife for some strudel.
Louie Meme
Consider the bridge a chamber,
consider the chamber a bridge
kissing your reason with danger
and lifting gazelles to the edge
of a country of sharp eucalyptus
or a kitchen from opera enchanted
where peppery angels once dipped us
in an oil that must now be decanted.
Louie Meme
Morris begins to get morally dependent on poison. In his volcano-like
ambition, he throws another king on the fire. "If they were meant to rule,
they wouldn't be so flammable," he drawls.
The Biffster
Cradled in his pie tub like a festival-day guest,
Frederic judges Karen an excruciating pest
but the cherubs judge her otherwise, and fill his tub with pie
until all we see of Frederic is one sour-apple eye.
Louie Meme
Jackdaws avoid the subject of premonition, for they are like the equinox.
Countries get lighter or darker when they arrive, as if blanketed in crystal or soot.
A zone in equinox claims no rebellion, reasons against no separate life of the exile.
Penelope stirred brightly to hear the jackdaw at her window.
The Biffster
Fixin' to shift
like a delicate lift
tempted by biscuits and fish.
Blurred and expensive,
ever defensive,
choosing to sell me a wish.
Louie Meme
Beasts of vanity learn by flattering
clouded judges gone to nattering.
Lacking shame, they hang wet crepe
with crocodiles they grabbed on tape.
Louie Meme
Frederic wouldn't catch grasshoppers for the contessa's frogs.
Instead he shops in vain for sugar at the Thin Foods store.
All they have is watercress today. Ramona celebrates this fact
in a festive green veil made, predictably, of watercress.
The Biffster
Artichokes have damp emotions,
mushrooms hunt for pigs.
Pumpkins speak of small illusions,
lichen speaks of twigs.
Louie Meme
Sixteen teeth assure me
that I'm ripe for something new
like a rich and fresh production
of an ogre-feeding zoo
with a sphinx to flatter guests
till they're mellow and inert
and an eagle-headed elephant
who converts them to dessert.
Louie Meme
Winged elephants are vodka-pink,
carrying in my frozen drink.
Vodka brings elephants in profusion,
all as pink as a light contusion.
Elephants stay til the light of day,
when all the elephants go astray.
Craving more, the elephants pout,
for all the vodka has run out.
Big Daddy Ira
It's a royal lost neurosis
when the reeds who own the water
part for bebop baby Moses
blowing sax to pharaoh's daughter
from his quilt of straight papyrus
to her broken-hearted jewels
drifted liberation virus
and an urge to bend the rules.
Louie Meme
Giant snails
grow giant tails
and glide ahead of
giant trails...
of slime.
You cling to rhyme
on account of the time
you traveled the trail
of a giant snail.
Jen
Oaken bells have drawn their moment
greeting mice from the sulfur sea
offering the alchemy of mad knocks
a bell not made of gold
is a giant hollow log
sunk in the flesh of the island
the mice scare me with their intensity
the bells are just this side of drums
and we forsake prosperity for rhythm.
Big Daddy Ira
Moisture clings to the feverish girl. Rooting through the pieces of ice, she wants nothing more than eerie inertia, and she'll float with the roses to get it.
"Get out of that frozen parlor, Irene," says the cold woodsman. "Deceive yourself no more. You aren't a ghost, you're just a fine faded connoisseur of tiny vices."
The Biffster
Verdant river tempts the king
Is swimming ever urgent?
Mournfully, he asks one thing:
Hey, why's this water verdant?
Louie Meme
Oscar glimpses smoking sand
along the silver pier
as pirate fish begin to stand,
and bringing up the rear,
a yellow dog from different times
is blending with the soot
and Oscar thinks, despite his crimes,
he'd better just stay put.
Louie Meme
If a liquid force like solitude
seems legal to be throwing
in the hands of one who's knowing
happy pain,
then the wild languid urchin
holds the beast for whom you're searching,
as the bridge on which they're perching
gathers rain.
Checking only scientific,
deadly games from the Pacific,
loads the urchin with terrific
deep disdain
for Doctor Jane.
Louie Meme
Farmers' sons catch scary weeds
squandering the clay
branching out to sorry deeds,
focusing the ray
of chilly sun that keeps the name
it got in greener times—
toiling leads to leaner fame;
castles lead to crimes.
Louie Meme
The shoe protects my belly
when it's underneath my frock
as the gate protects the jelly
when it's flattered with a lock.
Should a glossy cardboard photograph
sleep past the light of day,
it will generate like Van de Graaff
and send you on your way.
Louie Meme
The English uncle horses around
between eerie triumphs.
You wouldn't bet on him in a game of chance
or a different kind of mistake
might prevent further trials
of his carefree pepper noodles
in indigo mugs.
Paulie Pecans
Stomach uses its resolve
to anxiously pounce
on new solitude
Jen
Beyond the mind's immortal trust,
in warehouses of lurid lust,
a pilgrim forms from frozen tears
to hunt the Princess of Algiers
because a troll-like jungle ghoul,
in order to prevent her rule,
is glowing with the lowly aim
of challenging to Frederic's game
a connoisseur of Ancient Greek
who seems too frail for hide and seek.
The pilgrim opens up the door
the Princess trundled through before
and draws the ghoul a fragrant bath
to wash away his evil wrath.
Louie Meme
As if to yearn for times as wild
as Buster's teenage journey,
the figure in the labyrinth
explodes upon his gurney
and seeks the steely noodle brains
of showy pumpkin babies
whose funeral beasts fill tape machines
with ouches, darns and maybes.
Louie Meme
Bugged by all the monsters
in the sunny gutter sea,
Xavier lies to Vincent
that they live on salty tea.
But the map of sacred photographs
sinks through the sea alone
when Vincent lies to Xavier
that they sleep in his trombone.
Louie Meme
The street (Pepper Street) was sorry. It had directed its electric buses to the edge of the road, and hunted down
all the dewy bricks that wash themselves wet in the rain. Although fun, this didn't really serve its elusive agenda,
which was to learn more about the darling Irene and her delectable hobnail boots.
The Biffster
Sailors share the town with servants,
ditched by Ramona again
in the steady orchard with its young leaves,
wilting for humanity.
The rabbit spends his advice freely
on August prosperity, lemon-food
for teenage Alice,
and clouds of strange cellophane obedience.
Have silk, will tremble.
Have devotion, will bend.
Arm in arm, Ramona and Alice stay true
to the mysteries of delightful magicians.
Louie Meme
Duller apples have petulant thighs.
Meadow trout, gift apparitions from the uncles,
send Morris to the pool
eyeing shrewd jackdaws
loading metal cases full of honey
defending somber charities
to the guest, in consideration
of his truth.
Louie Meme
Owl-dreaming lilac branches,
corrupt oxen,
shy monsters with cups of greenhouse wheat...
my supple lady encourages them all.
Louie Meme
Shadows wash across the factory streets
leather urchins encourage foul affinities
pitted against corrupt guests
on revolutionary roads
stirred beneath excess industry
to appear less avid
than necessary.
Jen
Chimpanzees have supple knees
the donkeys all admire them
octopi's have alibis
but ducklings don't require them.
Louie Meme
Paths cling to the ravine
noodling from vine to blossom.
I squander the holiday,
like a spry wolf,
in humble adventure.
Jen
Be drawn fast,
like an awkward zebra,
in black and white,
and lions will witness your hungry bond
with all nocturnal chances drawn
to a big conclusion.
Jen