What is it? I asked the gift giver.
It’s a voodoo doll.
Others laughed.
A voodoo doll!
I have always wanted one.
I take the pin and give it a solid jab to the heart.
The rest of the group is still laughing.
Dorothy could use a jab, I think.
And I give the doll another jab.
This time in the eye.
Then I laugh. My witch laugh.
The other laughter has stopped.
:And you get one and you get one and you get one!" I yell.
There are many people who annoyed me this week.
I begin jabbing the doll and I cannot stop.
I am now screaming with delight and the doll is in shreds.
All conversation between twelve women has stopped.
One of them asks “have you lost your mind?”
“No,” I say “but you have” and I begin jabbing the pin into the doll’s brain.
Alice actually ate an apple,
Billy broke building blocks,
Cora counted candy corn,
Donna drove decoy ducks,
Elliot's eating eggplant,
Frannie's filleting fish,
George's geeting Greta,
Harriet's hunting hornets,
Inez is irritating Ike,
Jasmine's jabbing John,
Karen's kissing Kevin,
Leon loves Luann,
Monte's mimicking Mary,
Nellie's not-so nice,
Opal's organizing origami,
Penelope's pushing Perry,
Quina's quietly quilting,
Ramona's reading romance,
Sophie's softly singing.
Ken lived in Alexandra town..Which you'll find within the
Borders of Vic..A family man who worked the hotmix
Hands moving strong and quick.' Although born as
A Kiwi.' He became an Aussie true' an ex pugalist who had
Challenged for middleweight dominance in the Oceanian
Games' now who'd have knew? He tuaght me how to come
And go' to walk back jabbing straight, to duck and weave
And use all speed.!! A man you'd value as your mate no
Gloves we wore and knuckles cracked we split a lip or two'
I gave him a black eye, he got up and said a good hit from
You. '
An honour to have known this gentleman' I tell each one
And all of you.'
Corked off glue, oral mucosa clamped, oyster bald razor, thumb running along twine binding the package, a conductor testing violin tension. Hairy balls of fire, a jackdaws caw, drawing her in with dirty sticky wet joy. Creaks on bed springs, open windows, neighbors staring, a drumbeat counting down to rupture. The squeezebox gripped tight, seething under bare back muds. Breath, a bird in a cage, jabbing at the bars of her ribs. Burnt-out fluorescent light, firefly flash caught behind bone. Hands unwrap with surgeon’s grace, flesh revealed: pink, marbled, mutinous. The cuts: rare, exotic jewels radiating a savory sheen. A finger tests the muscle, a pianist poised over ruin. And then: a grunt, “the trick,” a gesture, sleight masking ripened fruit. And my snake, swollen, pounding, thick and huge, slithers through her smooth underbrush. The Calvary arrives, a swarm of bees in spurred leather. Engines rev, Bouffants tumble, spiderweb eyeliner, one blink from collapse. Ten-gallon hats deflate, soft as old balloons left out in the sun.
Starlings chime down an alleyway.
Corked off glue, oral mucosa clamped, oyster bald razor, thumb running along twine binding the package, a conductor testing violin tension. Hairy balls of fire, a jackdaws caw, drawing her in with dirty sticky wet joy. Creaks on bed springs, open windows, neighbors staring, a drumbeat counting down to rupture. The squeezebox gripped tight, seething under bare back muds. Breath, a bird in a cage, jabbing at the bars of her ribs. Burnt-out fluorescent light, firefly flash caught behind bone. Hands unwrap with surgeon’s grace, flesh revealed: pink, marbled, mutinous. The cuts: rare, exotic jewels radiating a savory sheen. A finger tests the muscle, a pianist poised over ruin. And then: a grunt, “the trick,” a gesture, sleight masking ripened fruit. And my snake, swollen, pounding, thick and huge, slithers through her smooth underbrush. The Calvary arrives, a swarm of bees in spurred leather. Engines rev, Bouffants tumble, spiderweb eyeliner, one blink from collapse. Ten-gallon hats deflate, soft as old balloons left out in the sun.
Starlings chime down an alleyway.
Little feet tiny hands
Inside me growing and
Kicking my ribs jabbing my hips
Responding to noises voices
With a flip
“You can be anything you choose,” commencement speakers say.
“Your journey starts today. By persevering, you can’t lose!”
The graduates and audience all nod and smile and clap.
Some want to take a nap, but jabbing elbows interfere.
Conclusion: “Limits don’t exist unless they’re self-imposed!”
To have a holiday named for you,
you must be greatest we ever knew.
You must be the bestest of the best -
one who eclipses all the rest.
Some say, when all is said and done,
no one beats George Washington.
Others lift their voices in praise to sing
of the Reverend Martin Luther King.
But who's the best at running at a hole,
and jabbing in it a long pole,
and sailing high up into the air,
and clearing a bar with room to spare?
All I'm really trying to say,
is Happy Mondo Duplantis Day.
UNLOVED 2 (EXPANDED)
The stinging is particularly painful today,
Needles of sharp cold burning blood stab and sear my heart
The jabbing jagged thousand little holes stay
And begin again tomorrow to flay each part.
Rejection is a drowning drunk
Gasping with each mouthful of pride
Another trophy now lies lifeless and sunk
Another screaming day that died.
For all the steaming dreaming part
I played in the capture of my choice
Flat failure is the guide of my loveless dart
And a choking silence is my only voice.
When the punished pillows murder cry
Silent clocks and secret swish
Of thick dark failing falling curtains fringed with notoriety
Rip the seams of a ragged wish
Until the spleen sheds its poison deep below
Swimming into the fathom of night and day
Where no tender fingers reach my depth
And only the claw grasps its prey.
Liar lord of loyalty the infidel of opera cloak
Sweep and cover a collapsing shroud
Leaving only the tomb and the weeping womb
For the remnants of the uncertain crowd.
As a smokless; human spirit; I yet celebrate'
New Zealands move, not to bin it.' The choice
To use that nicoteen.. Or not.' Is what
We now; are seeing..A drug if types.? Yet not
Invasive, unlike the jabbing drug paraded on
Every screen and radio.' Hordes of presenters
So gung-ho.! So positive in much unknown to
Kids adolecents and fully grown, past 2008 no
One it seems? Can be self determined it hits
My spleen, a different bile allbeit so' we all must
Prevent deny, it though' might and bluster will
Be used' yet the corrosive threat; is our freedom'
Being abused, a crushing of soul specially among
The younger.' Is there a move that this group are to
Be senseless intended? Just malleble drones i well
Consider? This should through all Nations send
Great shivers.!
The stinging is particularly painful today,
Needles of sharp cold burning blood stab and sear my heart
The jabbing jagged thousand tiny holes stay
And begin again tomorrow to flay each part.
Rejection is a drowning drunk
Gasping with each mouthful of pride
Another trophy now lies lifeless and sunk
Another screaming day that died.
For all the steaming dreaming part
I played in the capture of my choice
Flat failure is the guide of my loveless dart
Choking silence is my only voice.
Preening, posing, mouths always in motion
jabbing your fingers high in the air
Shouting and yelling, and screaming an ocean
of high-intensity rubbish and verbal warfare
O, progressive politicians, you make my day
you never let fiscal reality get in your way
You cut dashing figures in your pin-striped suits ~
as your 'tax-base' you fleece and you loot
Whats going on with Russell Brand? Over six million
Followers have penchant, he was once a man i did
Not admire..Yet over two years it has transpired Brand
Has burnt a brand, a searing line through mainstream
Medias fervid minds, though they'll rant and pant and
Roll the dice..Its not about whether Brant is nice.'
We know his past of women and wild, nights and drugs
And other vice.' Yet then no problems all was well, of no
Rape assertions did the media tell, no police statements
No interest true.' So like Julian Asange whats the real
To-do.? There's lots about Letby and some hospital dead?
Babies sadly we've read thats mainstream, covered.' They've
fired
Real heavy lead.'
And yet the number of wounded and dead, from jabbing
With m n r a..? Well they've seldom said.' Its mainly the
Green gods agenda they speil.' They feed out a line to
The people and then they reel' not as in real! You may
Understand, and genocide is just a word.' Do they have
It banned.? Not among the balanced sensible folk but
Among the zany, menageri of the most uncouth woke.'
The chains of freedom
A fire burning in my hands
A societal lie made by heavy pockets
Of extremists like the Nazis
Jabbing whatever they want , where ever they want
For any reason they find plausible
A belief so heavily inflicted that it makes us forget out pasts
Our purpose and our right to exist as humans
You can use your voice to scream but you are mute
Even the loudest voice becomes no more than a whisper
When in the shadow of fear
A shadow that creeps upon me
When i am alone, i know i am next
A subtle premonition of the chaos to come
Porcelain dolls hanging from the ceiling
Wearing red and cherry white
But their hair to soft to be toys
And their skin to warm to be fake
Strung up with crosses marked on each of their faces
When the bell rings
A distant chime of terror digs their graves and yet they can not run
The smell of putrid among us and rotting flesh
Frozen by the sense of lingering despair
My road is predetermined by those before me
Lead me to be hung up on a pillar like one of my sisters
Up i go
The world i see as life escapes me is bittersweet
I can find no excuse whatsoever for cruelty
Signifying an absence of compassionate acuity,
Especially meanness toward little children
And unnecessarily hurting animals, a villain,
With no empathy for the suffering such brings
Seemingly unaware of the jabbing, bee-like sting,
Bullies who delight in another’s discomfort
They don’t seem to care whom they hurt,
Building themselves up with an air of superiority
Clearly, while they suffer feelings of inferiority.
I can find no excuse whatsoever for cruelty,
The complete absence of compassionate acuity.
Written November 3, 2022
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