I’ve been doing a newish series of zines called infinitehaiku and this was a small cycle that didn’t fit but I enjoyed enough to share.
methodical call
dial tone bleating call sign
save this sinking ship
look over the waves
at sea, no shoreline in sight
at the tide’s mercy
preserver preserved
only room for one of us
you will see this through.
Up from the Sea
Lining my pockets with currency
freshly earned by Judas
Take a pound of the tender flesh
Scar tissue’s exchange rate is bad this week.
Flesh, well kept, never goes out of style
I’m a fish-faced enemy of the people
Lending power limited
Credit score infinite.
Up, sea
Let the current take me
See through the flotsam,
Age-old pollution.
The Fish with three eyes,
Glowing in the twilight and whispering sweet bubble nothings to the casual observer.
I take my financial advice from a Ouija board co-piloted by the atomic bomb and a piece of the real cross of Jesus Christ.
From Up
Come to me, sweet oblivion
Short my stock portfolio and eat the good leftovers.
Let my car run overnight but keep it safe from those who trespass against me.
All of the eggs in the fridge
Bloody with disappointment. The farmer’s crude lament.
Let each meal swell in the intestines of my friends and foes alike.
Sweet oblivion, decorate my yard with half eaten plastic wrappers and coffee grounds.
They will say, “that is a choice.” I will agree.
From the Sea Up
I am the Lord of Greater Inconvenience
You shall know my nominal wrath and be left shaking your head like all of the other suckers.
I’m not even going to be the better for it
It’s just a cup of coffee to me. Size medium, not even iced.
It’s all nice.
When the curtain closes
The applause concludes and the sound of shuffling feet
Dies off in the now-dusty quiet of the stage.
Lights off
and we return to the soil.
I opted to ignore the prompt about Sea Shanties. Here’s what I did instead.
I murdered the sea with my bare hands
And a rather debilitating investment in single-use plastics.
Call it what you will.
No one will be writing rhymes for all of those animals choking on Mountain Dew bottles or the jelly fish mixing with the water bottle I borrowed from that dude at the gym who drinks 8 gallons a day and just chucks them at the trash can (generally missing).
No, the sea took a number of things from us:
Maybe Amelia Earhart
ATLANTIS
Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of Titanic
Various Feminist Icons
My wife’s first dog
It had it coming.
I’m going to enjoy watching all of that salt and all of that water dry and mold over or whatever it’s going to do.
That will show them all.
