Modern poetry collection by contemporary Cleveland poet Steven B. Smith
words since Mother Dwarf's death
reading room #16
death dance - 7.9.05 / prey has no name - 7.16.05 / lite verse - 8.6.05 noontide midnight - 8.6.05 / bad bush george - 8.16.05 + lab rats - the quantum collapse of mother dwarf smith +
no wailing offense - 7.26.05 / no bless oblique - 6.1.04 / poetry hamburgers - 8.21.05 none so blind as will not see see - 8.25.05 / from the log mines - 8.26.05 working class warfare blues by eberhardt & smith 8.14-29.05
Death Dance
Take one crisis forward
Two disasters back
Do the death dance baby
Spin the man in black
Don’t you mind the drooling
Or the puddles on the floor
I don’t care who you’re fooling
Death destructs the poor
And way before you’re dying
You creak and crack and groan
Then comes along the diapering
The one-way ticket rest home
Where drenched in piss and TV
You’re just one more peopled pod
I tell you life ain’t easy
With or without your God
Beware people with
Small heads
Big mouths
Bigger teeth
For they bugger ethics
Oil small boys
Soil
Dark questionables
Vestments drenched
In unholy liquid
Tears rise
Cry
Through my dry
Ness
It's noontide midnight
Gossamer's chalk line fault
Cherry red siren on top
Whip cream wagon waiting
For the sauce
Well fair thee well
Won't set you free
Won't get you room and board
Won't ease your pain of killing shame
Unless you're Uncle George
Can't kill the kids
Can't chop the wife
Can't ventilate the dog
Until mama boy George
And his fat nazi Dick
Cry out - Mothers may I?
Bad bush George
Gorging George
He kills in hordes
His God he whores
Lies he adores
In theft he scores
Always wants more
Sell you a Pinto
Make you a s'more
8.16.2005
in the early 1970s, Ford's Pinto gas tank had a habit of exploding and cripsy crittering
its occupants when rear ended by another vehicle.
Ford's accountants decided it was cheaper to kill the customers and pay off their
survivors than it was to recall the Pintos and fix them.
One of the perfect shiny examples of CorpoRAT Amerika.
(from Mother Jones)
Ford engineers discovered in pre-production crash tests that rear-end
collisions would rupture the Pinto's fuel system extremely easily.
Because assembly-line machinery was already tooled when engineers found
this defect, top Ford officials decided to manufacture the car anyway —
exploding gas tank and all — even though Ford owned the patent on a much
safer gas tank.
For more than eight years afterwards, Ford successfully lobbied, with
extraordinary vigor and some blatant lies, against a key government safety
standard that would have forced the company to change the Pinto's fire-prone
gas tank.
By conservative estimates Pinto crashes have caused 500 burn deaths to
people who would not have been seriously injured if the car had not burst
into flames. The figure could be as high as 900. Burning Pintos have become
such an embarrass - ment to Ford that its advertising agency, J. Walter
Thompson, dropped a line from the end of a radio spot that read
"Pinto leaves you with that warm feeling."
Why did the company delay so long in making these minimal, inexpensive
improvements?
Ford waited eight years because its internal "cost-benefit analysis," which
places a dollar value on human life, said it wasn't profitable to make the
changes sooner.
excerpt from September/October 1977 Issue - story by Mark Dowie
don't take my word for it original article on-line
or do your own Pinto + Gas + Tank + Exploding search on any search engine
There will be
No tears
No wailing
No gnashing of teeth
When I go
When I'm gone
When I die
When my flesh
Is sold
For packets to eat
Or door's stop
What knot
Plot not
Best to burn me baby
Use me as sand
Grit to rough the bland
Just call me
Oyster helper
Pearl point
Beginning irritant
Smooth in end
strange urban dog art
not to old to lick the jar cowboy poetry
pass no stranger with an unseeing eye god may be sending a new friend by
black hole on liver
my mom du nude to a mun
people eat placenta amish
fungu for getting high
pleasure garden and goat testicle
swollen lips
8.21.2005
(a found poem - 1 nite's harvest from the log mines)
I knew JC / and he ain't me / I drive devils in / not out
Turn wine into water / make the living wish they were
Dead / the dead glad to be / So go thee / heal thyself
The unworking rich with their unfertilized minds need
Be sent to compost heaps / let em rot / mix with their
Own kind / better yet / let's flush em down the loo line
Big company chiefs = big company thiefs / CEO = Chief
Excrement Offal / if their product costs a child a finger
Give Chief Excuse the finger / chop one of the boss' own
Lawyer = liar / Republican = thief / the 7 day earthers =
Shallow end of gene pool / it's the is / not the want / it's
The should / would / could / not what's in it for me buddy
Let's make the come around = the go / the pay = effort
And intent / let's stomp the cause when effect's neglect
Let's reward this life / not some next / prick the pricks
Steal from your customers / lose your life / lie to voters
Lose your life / kill women & kids in illegal war / lose your
Life / serve yourself not your constituents / lose your life
Mistakes are made as part of growth / and yet again from
Greed / some reach in helping hand / others grasp in need
Some toss good bath water out right along with the babe
8.25.2005
you don't have to die to lose your life - jail does just fine
see pictures of naked girls takin of f your clothing
diacritic sonnets
foreskin lickers
You know, I've had this here foreskin nigh on 59.5 year now,
and never did I suspect there was a foreskin licking service out there.
My my my. The things we must miss in our ignorance.
You know, foreskins being enclosed and all and trapping odors and
sweat and small critters, I wouldn't imagine licking one would taste
all that good. Maybe the real good foreskin lickers have their taste
buds and smell glands removed first. You know, for professional
standards and all.
Maybe I had me a real good foreskin licker, I wouldn't have to shower
every couple weeks. Although there's always the anus and the armpits.
Not sure I could afford lickers for all those areas. Plus, 4 simultaneous
lickers has to tickle - a lot.
And what about after - do you tip tip lickers?
8.26.2005
Working Class Warfare Blues
by Kevin Eberhardt & Steven B. Smith
I see a sign on a locker at work 'Lightning Safety'
Is that a sick joke / am I not getting it / what's
Next / 'Proper Procedures For Slitting Your Wrists'
I worked my ass off and now my pants won't fit
Kiss so much behind my lips are starting to stick
This working class hero bit's just another bag of it
This work is not my work / this life is not my life
I'm a government mule with Uncle Sam on my
Back climbing that endless mountain to my grave
My work is my family / my friends / my dog / my
Would would be word work / or casting asides
Not pimping lawyers and their Babylon bride
Or fighting for companies pumping more blood than
Oil / wood on the fire / no longer desired or believed
Stock sliding down / limp shadows on the ground
Ghosts of gone before host our yet to be / no
Flowers for the finished / no hour for their song
Ground zero works in theory only when you're wrong
With guts for garters / lipstick around the rim / the
General drinks from the bidet while the Major wipes
His past of all mistaken identities and innuendoes
Reason drips in dropped disguise red through white
Through blues departing in the night / the never right
Hype the Man / his chicken stripe / and his doo doo do
Da Da says you did good under the hood of military
Cuisine / cookin' that poteen 'til you can't see
Straight / no chaser / no later than you think (it is)
Weren't for Monk I'd catch Coltrane / weren't for TV
I'd have a brain / heart and soul sold for junk / if I'm
The rat / best step back / I'm not the one gonna jump
We proffered from their genius / they died from all our
Sins / The psychiatrist pronounced them crazy but the
Verdict's not in / I'm keepin' my old records just in case
Our case of killing softly for another's song is based
On Fundamental heresy / their God not near as strong
Says our Mr. Murderer who grows in nose quite long
Pay no attention to the man pulling the strings / it's a
Minimum wage job and the maximum age is 55 miles
Per hour / with clown suit and headset / optional
Give motley to the mass / money to the crass / crack
To the ass / rules to road / fools to goad / loopholes
To close / and to me? / an all-ee all-ee out's in free
Check the eyes of all the passengers / check the
List for all their names / nobody told the engineer that
God was on his train (say 3 Our Fathers & 4 Hail Marys)
I'd eat the rich / but their taste is so bad / I'd serve
The poor / but too many have / I'd play with myself
But I'm not all here / so I asked God She still there
Shake shake shake / shake your booty / dangle your
Diamonds / rub your rubies / Pirate disco / so mis-
Understood / shiver me timbers / island fever reruns
Our country's murdering for profit while dancing
Their lice away / our leaders keep filling their pockets
Costing how many American coffins they won't say
They can't say / they can't count that high without
Removing their shoes / haven't seen their toes in
Years / pot-belly politics staining their white shirts
Mad militarians licking their bombs slowly seal our
Doom / not enough toilet paper to clean Republican
Goons / lie now / pay later / C.O.D. to Judge Crater
Comin' off the freeway / lookin' for that free lunch
Nothin' left of my pay followin' a misshaped hunch
I'm off the screen / can't hit my ass with both hands
My taxes go to Intelligent Design / yet monkeys mock
My monk / dry hump my rub for luck / for butter or
Verse such clues in the blight bring about the dollar
I looked up at the night sky / searchin' for my sign
Realizin' that it dates me / prayin' no one notices
Tryin' to get even just gets me more behind (?)
8 ball boogie gets you every time / tried to fax the
Factors in / they made me stand in line / try to share
My truth with them / they stamp my life as lie
Ain't got no passport / ain't got no visa / ain't got
No ticket to ride / I'm gamblin' with a heart attack
Takin' sucker bets on the side / coughin' up alibis
I agree to agree & consume / my job's to nod and buy
Nod and buy / material junk / shoot and die / lick
Your boots / hold you high / and nod and nod and die
But not to cry / all is rust and dust / particles of life
Dry as a bone / yet happy as a clone in a fun house
So / which is the real me / quick now / time is money
Tithe me 37 cents of your time / I'll make you heel
Brain limbic do limbo in ritual repeal / never kneel
Never bow your head until their money you feel
Or steal before their steel finds you out / out and about
Without a gizmo to re-peal you / to re-seal the deal / all
Miracles happen at closing time / last call / wind fall / ya'll
There's steps in / steps out / there's thoughts to
Conceal / barking wrong tree ain't the right way to
Win / dead don't make you hero / nor loss of limb
Don't rise again / the Beast goes East and the Pest goes
West / the Minister votes for assassination / the Mistress
Missed their assignation / must be his time of the month
We worship Amway / Scientology too / as long as it's
Brand Named / we pay full first born foreskin / may
Be a nipple or two / so break out your dead deal duel
It's high noon at the loony bin / draw your weapons /
(crayons only) / don't eat the yellow snow / remember
Which side the moss grow / and double dippin' is a sin
Take four paces / turn and lie / reach for word with
In / the winner gets to sunset ride / with a new bag
Of begin / the loser goes skinny dipping with friends
Jesus wasn't a Christian / He was a militant-pacifist-Jew
Identities always get us into trouble / especially mistaken
Ones / I crave anonymity / some passions prove painless
I ache therefore I am to thine own self be cruel / or
Others surely will / nothing is free / pay / or pain / or
Suffer shelf / you become your lies / so make em good
Forescore and so many foreskins ago our great forefathers
Forethought themselves out of getting fornicated by the
British / the French make better foi grois anyway / oui oui
This little piggy / that little piggy / all feeding at the
Fray / but these little piggies are already biggies / so
Why not let some of the skinnies play / what you say
The disease spreads from tongue to tongue / from ear to
Ear / from gland to gland / the antidote is given a hand
While the autocrat juggles your balls / turn head / cough
We need autopaper for the autocrap we're fed hourly
Daily weekly monthly forever & never all men and woe
Men too / hear me see me free me Mammon overdrive
For if I am imposter don't tell me / don't remove the mask
To reveal the charlatan beneath / I bequeath to all the fools
And fooled my ignorance / wear it in good health / happy
Happy mirth day certainly for Lady Earth / may Her
Nipples nibble nicely / Her cures move at will / Her
Byways ooze unsightly / best beware / She's no fool
She's the summer rain / she's a hurricane / she's a force
Majeure that can't be bought / can't be taught 'cause
She's always changin' her mind / it's a female's prerogative
I change my mind it's via Dr Frankenstein / he makes
A new man of me / from leftover parts and pieces of
hearts / he re-soles my soul with recharged art farts
And ignites the spark that excites my engine / that races
The Reaper / that misses the turn / that changes direction
And brings me back to the unanswered question / who (?)
And who it goes / this funhouse pome's clone of a close
Now excuse me / in proper procedure I'll slit my wrist
Soon's these reruns of Fever Disco Deceivers are done
