Month: March 2022

Control Channel

Jason Preu, , , 7 Comments

My phone has learned quite well how to turn me on.

When I wake up in the morning, it softly vibrates down my thigh

while playing Color Me Badd real quiet like.

My phone used to be a teacher of economics.

Before that, it worked as bartender in a hotel bar.

I met my phone at that hotel bar. 

It poured me whiskey sour after whiskey sour.

My phone cut me off at six.

Six? 

My phone used to look out for me.

My phone told me one night 

that it had worked some Black Ops

under President Reagan.

I asked if it was involved in the Iran Contra affair.

My phone just went straight to a locked screen 

until its battery ran out.

My phone can be a tight-lipped sunnuvabitch about some things, 

that’s a fact, 

but it sure has gotten good here lately at turning me on.

Control Channel

Panes

Jason Preu, , , 2 Comments

It’s the end of March

Cold bites my skin in the morning

Sun hides until the afternoon

I don’t care if it’s snowing

I don’t care if it’s raining in my city

The night is gone before I ever get to sleep

No one’s gonna tell me anything

I want to be closer to you

But I just stare through the window panes

Watch the rain, count flakes of snow

Sitting still in a big, blue world

Where I’m the first that’s last to know

Panes

24 in 24 – Hour 24

Jason Preu, , , 6 Comments

HOUR 24

…the poem’s end…

Oh, the poems must end.

How must it end? How can it end? How will it end?

I hear a thousand birds singing outside my window.

This is how the poems end?

Yes, this is the way the poems end.

Not with a bang
But like how a bright, new — 

I’m not really sure what all I’ve done here but … Thanks for reading along. Thanks for liking and commenting. I’m going to sleep now and then rise to fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.

If you’d like to see another WordPresser who also played this game, check out:

https://literaryfreaktion.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/24-hours-24-poems/
24 in 24 – Hour 24

24 in 24 – Hour 23

Jason Preu, , , , 3 Comments

SO LATE IT’S EARLY AND I’VE OUTLIVED GOOD SENSE

This need I feel for you
is like waiting for one last song
where you’re so desperate for music
that even the morning wind
starts to sounds like a symphony.

I –

I felt so much sorrow all the time.
Everything headed to heaven or hell.
I should have known better.
Should’ve remembered there were more 
than just the lonely records to play.

Time’s a right record, innit? 
Right round…right round.
Time’s a recording for all time.
I think we just might get to play it all back again.

So I wanna make it good and
make it the best it’s ever been
and I won’t save all this magic
for the turn at the poem’s end.

24 in 24 – Hour 23

24 in 24 – Hour 22

Jason Preu, , , , , 2 Comments 
THAT ONE ROCK OPERA WHERE BLACK HEARTS 
HAVE RAINBOW ORGASMS WHILE REALIZING THEMSELVES 
AS PART OF INDRA'S NET

Hypnotizing vertigo
I can't stand it anymore
It makes me want to cry
It makes you want to cry
It makes me want to cry

Where do souls run off to, honey?
Are the black hearts doomed too soon?
I’m not supposed to be here, honey.
But for this need I feel for you. (Goddamn)


{Interlude}


ENTER CAPTAIN BLACKHEART

CAPTAIN BLACKHEART:
This is your Captain Blackheart speaking
And I don't know who's to blame
I don’t know how it’s meant to be
And I can’t escape my pain


ANGELS & DEVILS SPIN INTO VIEW

ANGELS & DEVILS (SINGING):
There are black hearts
And blue hearts
And red hearts
And white hearts
And do you yet know
What sets these hearts far apart?

CAPTAIN BLACKHEART:
I’ve never known a blue heart
But I’ve watched a red one bleed
And white hearts give me diarrhea 
And a’knocking of mine knees.

So if you’re asking me about 
Any differences I see, 
Well a heart’s a fart that beats and blarts
No mind the color of its sheen

ANGELS & DEVILS (SINGING):
Oh, you Black Heart….
Dear, sweet, Black Heart…
How very smart art thart…
Though thou simply dost know nart…

That the truth of all these hearts

And all time 

And all space

And all things

Is that you 
are IT 
lovely Black Heart, 
empty Black Heart, 
dear, sweet, broken Black Heart

And what IT 
is is 
IT IS, IT IS, IT IS…


ANGELS & DEVILS SPIN OUT OF VIEW


BLACKHEART EXPLODES INTO AN ORGASMIC RAINBOW


{End Interlude}

It makes me want to cry (Goddamn)
It makes you want to cry (Goddamn)
It makes me want to cry (Goddamn)
I just can't stand it anymore (Goddamn)
This hypnotizing vertigo

Goddamn!

Where do these souls run off to, honey?
No hearts are false - no hearts are true.
I’m not supposed to be here with ya, honey.
But for this need I feel for you. (Goddamn)
This need I feel for you.
24 in 24 – Hour 22

24 in 24 – Hour 20

Jason Preu, , , , 3 Comments

LULLABY FOR EXISTENTIAL SWEATS IN THE PREDAWN

Bear down upon me
Circle me round
When the clock ticks
The heartbeats will pound
When the clock strikes
At four in the morn
Who’ll be there to catch you
And wrap you up warm?

Don’t fall asleep, baby
Don’t call it quits
Don’t close your eyes, baby
‘Cause that’s when time hits
Takes little bits of you
It won’t ever stop
Stay strong when you say it:
“I won’t fear the clock”

24 in 24 – Hour 20

24 in 24 – Hour 19

Jason Preu, , , , , 4 Comments

SONNET FOR STARING DOWN INFINITY IN THE QUIET OF THE EARLY MORNING

Oh painful time, you inspire me to write.
How I loathe the way you flow, run, escape,
Infecting my mind from sunrise to blank night
Always moving moving, with dark mouth agape.

Why should I despise your gaping maw,
When you must march from orders cryptic?
Grey heavens echo the great black crow’s caw,
That ushers us forward apocalyptic.

Why should I hate you, when you have no willful say?
Close your monarchic eyes and acquiescent hands.
Your glistening bright teeth write horrors my days.
Your omnipresent nature burns like sunned sands.

I know I cannot change you, despite desperate pleas,
Remember these bleak words whilst you bear down upon me.

24 in 24 – Hour 19