I'm a student
I do homework
I’m a student
I read books
I read books
I’m a student
I’m getting graded
I’m a student
I’m a student
I read short stories
I I I read poems
I read histories
I read formulas
I read policies
I’m a student
I’m my work
I got expelled
I got suspended
I got caught up
I got a process
I got a plan
I’m a student
I do work
I’m in a class
I am a class
I do work
I’m a student
I do work
I’m studying to be
I’m studying work
I’m a student
I’m paying attention
I’m reading things
I’m being examined
I’m keeping up
I’m falling behind
I’m falling out
I’m falling off
I’m falling down
I’m a learner
I’m a student
I do homework
I’m breaking hearts
I’m figuring it out
I’m becoming
I’m presenting
I’m reporting
I’m dissertating
I’m a student
I’m matriculating
I’m in a room
I’m reading books
I do work
I’m really getting this
I’ve got questions
I’m a wonderer
I’m a wanderer
I’m asking questions
I can’t let it go
Month: January 2022
One Night A Father Is Out
One night
a father
is out
buying pawns
at the pawn shop,
daughter by his side.
“This place
is just a short trip
from home,” he says.
“It’s the only place to go
that isn’t home,”
she replies.
When he returns home,
he writes about
his daughter’s experience .
He writes that she
tries to run away
because she’s been told
for so long
that there is no escape.
He writes that she cries
when he asks her,
“How did you get here?”
He writes that
she comes from
the north of England,
that she leaves
her passport
in a corner
of her room.
He writes that he asks,
“Where is your mother?”
and she says she had
to leave her behind.
She says
her mother
had started
losing her red hair
in a graceful way.
She says
her mother,
“is a very capable person.”
He writes
the word “capable”
in capital letters
and underlines it twice.
The Hunt
Let me know
what you think
about my new
video game idea:
It’s a 4-D action/adventure, socio-politico, platformer
set in a randomly-iterated universe using a believable physics engine.
You play
as a butterfly
who wants to retire
to its plush room
every night, and spend
those nights
in deep thought
about how
to make its room
more cozy.
The room has a library
and dungeons and
a swimming pool
filled with bumblebees.
Every morning
the player decides
what the butterfly needs
to say
to face
the day.
After the player chooses
the morning affirmation,
the player
molds the world
into magical items
to sell
at the witch market.
I call the game The Hunt because
as play progresses
the player
comes to realize
that the grim reaper
is chasing a bounty
on the butterfly’s
tiny, antennaed head.
The player
will never
discover
who placed
the bounty.
The Hunt has one mode:
Player vs. Death.
The butterfly
has many powers
that impact
the game universe
so
the player
must hold
out hope
for excitement
and adventure
and mystery
and surprise
and terror,
always terror.
Oh God We’re All So Pretty Now
For the love of novelty
we’re all so pretty now
and I swear I'm gonna spend my life in vain,
suspended in the middle of a million pairs of unblinking eyes,
feeling as if something's awry,
like the glass is broken, the table is turned,
like the debtor’s wail has something like a song within it.
I see through your eyes.
The world isn’t broken, it’s trying to explain
words and morphemes, yes,
syntax is a holy game.
You see through my eyes.
The world was never broken, only built to maintain
grammatical relations between devils casting blame.
Spending time with all you beauties in your paper cups…
Seeing pretty things through pretty eyes…
Through such pretty eyes,
it’s just dreams, dreams, dreams.
The Person Who Might Go Somewhere
- That day when my father saw me levitate, he was furious.
- He said: “Sir, how is this?”
- And I said, “Sir, I do not know, I do not know, I do not know.”
- I looked in those eyes glaring up at me in shame and sheer terror.
- “I have seen this before!” he cried.
- My mother. My mother the levitator. What a beautiful life…
- I looked for the words to comfort him, some words he might understand.
- I spoke my mother’s name.
- My father shook.
- She was a women of thirty-three when she floated up.
- We watched her change from local beauty to strange, small shape to speck of cloud.
- The entire family was surprised.
- I mean, she was only thirty-three.
- I remember her dark hair blowing in the cold, blue sky.
- My father trembled. I rose higher still.
- She had skin like chrysanthemum petals.
- My father screamed, “There’s nothing to breathe where you’re headed!”
- She wore a forest-green dress with white bandages all over it.
- I didn’t care much about the lack of oxygen.
- There was some euphoria there instead.
Game Over, Man. Game Over.
I was standing
on a sidewalk
with my friend.
Five aliens
towered above us.
The skies portended
inclement weather.
I asked one alien,
hairless and grey,
if it was indeed an alien
or a government hoax.
It looked at me and said,
“Yes, I am an alien.”
I looked at the alien next to it, and asked,
“For real?”
It said, “You distrust our words
because of our appearance,”
and started laughing.
Alien laughter
sounds like broken glass
and two kittens
in a garbage disposal.
I smiled
and asked
if we could play a game.
It smiled back
and replied
that it was already playing a game.
I took this to heart.
A hush fell over the sidewalk.
To exit the awkward silence,
I walked to a nearby parking lot.
Only dark clouds followed me.
There I waited
for the rain to fall.
Under a Magic Sky
I'm running to the edge of the world. Me and the flat-earthers.
We’re wandering through hazy, summertime showers. We’re looking for conspirator’s gold at the end of the rainbow.
I need a magic sky. Me and the flat-earthers.
I need a firmament of painted glass and persecution. I need a magic sky where I can really see the light.
We are waiting for you at the edge of the world. Me and the flat-earthers.
We are waiting for your breaking point. You’ll just have to trust us.
It’ll happen to you. And then you’ll learn the meaning of goodbye.
Apparent Magnitude
The night you finally left
The stars blinked off and on
Then all the windows closed at once
In our house upon the hill
.*.. *** …* . ……. *.** *** ..*
Now, when I think
I hear you knocking
I know it’s just the heat
of my blue blood pounding pounding
pounding in my head
.*.. *** …* . ……. *.** *** ..*
Now, when I think
I feel you here it scares me
And the stars,
They’re back to haunt me
Vicious light I can’t escape
I see them when I close my eyes
.*.. *** …* . ……. *.** *** ..*
And the windows
God, the windows
The windows won’t betray me
They won’t open
They won’t budge
They won’t let any fresh air in
But the light, oh the starlight
The light they cannot hide
In all disorder, a secret order
- All my life I’ve dreamed of this
- All my life I’ve dreamed of this
- I’m a tree
- I’m a river
- I’m a mountain
- I’m a cloud
- I’ve been lying here too long
- I should grow up, someday
- I should get to growing up
- Now the same old world
- Comes down from the stars
- Ants shuffle up and down a tree
- People scramble to get the ants off the tree
- People cry in the shade
- Ants in their eyes
- Everybody feeling sadder
- Longer this goes on
- I’m a river coming alive
- I’m a mountain thinking
- I’m a mountain, I’m a river
- I’m a mountain, I’m a cloud
- I’m a twisted river rolling through a bare, black sky
- Rolling through a bare, black sky
Something Happened In Between
I’ll walk a thousand miles,
even if I’ll never reach your door.
I’ll walk a thousand miles
‘Cause what else are miles for?
((((((((((((((((((((
I know you know
it's wrong to laugh
at the secrets that I keep.
But it’s our way of dirty talking
when we make love
on hallowed grounds.
I never lied
because I never spoke.
Life for us was made
of sanguine, silent truth.
You remember my friend,
the tax-dodger's son?
He'll never have a wife
that he can call his own.
He talks too much;
sleeps with one eye open;
uses all the hot water.
))))))))))))))))))))
Honey, if I had the dimes
you’d get a dime-in ring.
And if I was a country boy
girl, how you’d hear me sing…
Jason Preu 
You must be logged in to post a comment.