Friday, December 28, 2012

Sincerely Yours

Excuse me. Excuse me. The meter's running.
Can we get going?

With what? Setting, plot, character?

No! No! No!

Oh, you mean point of view and voice?

No! No! Just jump in.

Just jump in?

Yeah, just jump in. Begin anywhere. Write anything.
Impatience is key.

Are you one of those single-entendre types?

What? Could you please speak intelligibly?

I'll have you know just the other day I had a meter maid
check my intelligibility.

A meter maid? Really? Stick that in.

What? Stick in a meter maid?

Yes, stick in a meter maid. Just keep writing,
and keep your hands on the keyboard.

OK. OK.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Play >> Pause >> Stop >>

Play >>

You keep fiddling with the equation.

Fine. Fine. No hay problema.

You're better off with non-sequiturs (and you know it).

Sympatico, yes?

Tell me again about resonance,

and how it makes for a better life.

With someone?

Pause >> Play >>

The moment stalled

and you tried to retrace your steps

and those of your other.

The forecast is snow; I want to make the most of it.

Meaning?

Life in the margin holds promise.

Pause >> Play >>

Keep rearranging the furniture,

it helps clear out the cobwebs

and, who knows, maybe Kierkegaard will come in handy?

Late Night with Ledbetter.

Who?

Either/Or.

You're pontificating again. I thought you were over that.

Digital aphorisms help with the rough spots.

The ups and downs of trigger-happy Luddites?

Another Late Night with Ledbetter.

Enough, already!

Pause >> Play >>

Not enough time to play with it.

To get what we all hope for.

Pop goes the easel.

Reading that line felt strange.

Do it again. You'll get used to it.

Stop >>

Tao Lin

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Wrongful Appropriation

Your hesitation speaks volumes which few if any will read.
It smacks of plagiarism, but don't we all?
I could thumb through a few pages, if you like.
A votive candle, perhaps.
Sparks have been known to fly.
A past life here, a passed life there.
You yourself told many it was a superlative time:
a time of innocence, a time of confidences.
Turn that thing down, will you please?
It's interfering with my tram of thought.
And you thought what?
That we would forego the preface?
Jump up behind me.
I've decided to pay up front, and make-do with whatever.
Tell the others to meet us at the restaurant-in-the-round.
. . . they're all that's left you.

Roberto Kusterle

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Repeat After Me

He has left nothing to say about nothing or any thing.
          - John Keats

You are a different person in a different world in a different time.

Your Secret Santa has been exposed to the elements.

He has forgotten his password, abandoned his sleigh and reindeer,
and left the museum with a redheaded docent.

Images of your former self fill the air with commiserations.

Made-for-TV Movies spiral into collages of departure.

It's as if you told me about the last time.

It's as if you told me this will be the last time.

It's as if you told me this is the last time.

Imagine the confusion?

The code bombs. Startups fail.

You have tried to set the record straight.

There will be no setting the record straight.

The record is gone.

You have tried to pick up where we left off.

Just where did we leave off?

Too much information, yes?

You have submitted the paperwork, and rejoined your age-mates
who pump iron with good form, and will continue into silence.

It's as if we were glued to YouTube.

It's as if we knew all along.

It's as if we were recognized for who we are.

Roberto Kusterle


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Woman XXXIII

Seeing her in a trailer
for the prequel to
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I capture a still
and save it . . . somewhere?


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Paying It Forward

It's OK to fabricate memorials to footwear
that engage you in wee-hour albeit interesting conversations.
You never know, she said.
Waahl, if I were Ezra, but I'm not so I guess I'll continue
ambling along under cover and without a mean streak.
Again, the exhibits.
I haven't a clue as to the wherewithal necessary
to make a good impression, but so what?
There are far more important items under glass.
You do know that, yes?
Let's move on then.
I'm trying to adjust the curvature to make the transition
as painless as possible given that the Grammar Cops
have arrested Loman again for one of her I feel badly(s).

Nils Strindberg

Monday, December 10, 2012

Playing the Critic

Looping back, we realized it was there all along,
hidden under a mediocre sheet of parchment.

The directions were fairly easy to follow -
no need to googlemap it.

Evidently, someone expected more.
You could feel it in the breeze which had begun to pick up.

Instead of retracing the notes on the staff,
we made our way to a museum

to see what the buzz was all about.
The bronzes held us as did the splatters on aluminum plates.

We did the tour without audiofiles
critiquing the exhibits as media moguls

who had underwritten such things.
It was a close encounter. One for the archives.

Nils Strindberg

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Ampersands

Something about a porcelain figurine
followed by an intimate encounter

time shape-shifting, catching you mid-stride,
losses lost in the day-to-day.

Don't waste your time trying to make sense of it,
the step-by-steps were tossed out with the trash

along with the Revell Zeppelin
from the cracks of your childhood.

Your membership has been cancelled.
(The updates were worthless anyway.)

Go ahead. Enjoy Miles's linking of the then
to the sanctity of the conundrum

far from the madding boring shit
as he called it.

The year will soon flip.
Leftovers announced.

Time to break out the resolve
to sort things out and take on Sheila Heti's

How Should A Person Be?
despite the comfort of entanglements new and old.

Engage the throttle.
Not sure to where, but that's part of it - the good part.

By morning, old everything.
Your head channel-surfing for ornaments.

'Tis the season, yes?
Cassandra Wilson whispering Time After Time.