Screen Dump 42

It’s in my hands . . . It's in my hands . . . Uh huh . . .
Fan-boy/-man n+1 gifted with mixtape . . .
word-of-mouth(ed) into a cauldron of Beanie Babies . . .
and goldfish in plastic baggies . . .
to vamp the definite article . . .
explore the body's color-coded architecture . . .
crotchless sighs decrescendoing . . .
then picking up a pizza . . .
and assuming the position . . . of hometown player . . .
picture perfect wife . . . and kiddos . . .
The coffee break(s) . . . an obliqueness enters the room . . .
You lie there . . . studying the revolutions . . .
of the ceiling fan . . .
I aced today's pop quiz! . . .
while they trustingly thrust away . . .
with the variable tempo . . . of such moments . . .
never to pick out china patterns . . .
never to time out with five minutes remaining . . . on the clock . . .
Neither this . . . nor that . . . sufficient . . .
to ring up a sale . . .
and tie a pretty bow around the latest installment . . .

Irina Dmitrovskaya

Screen Dump 41

Professors emeriti take incidentals to the landfill . . .
after an afternoon of splitting hairs . . .
or wood . . .
Crows in fanfare mode . . . bid adieu . . .
You as ventriloquist dummy . . . lip-syncing what he/she says . . .
Ice beginning to collect under the audience's fingertips . . .
In awe of the flotsam and jetsam . . .
Driving a steamroller through an early morning blizzard . . .
the granularity reminiscent of a mid-July beach . . .
The perimeter secured . . .
As ghosts from your old neighborhood dance around a bonfire . . .
before burning state's evidence . . .
And you thought yesterday had passed . . .

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

Screen Dump 40

You return through comatose streets . . .
to your former life . . .
delivering soliloquies to dust motes . . .
dissecting local littlenesses . . .
Are you there . . . in the folds of flesh? . . .
Your willingness to please . . . a conundrum . . .
winning gold stars . . .
featuring in little black books . . .
Why now the eagerness to turn the page . . .
to erase the whiteboard . . .
to leave nothing for them to mull over? . . .

Sandrine Pagnoux

Screen Dump 39

Is it the act or the agreement?
          - Anon

Living life as if in the third draft of a novella . . .
trying to be the person you appear to be . . .
as in I appear to be a grocery shopper . . .
Addressing the cast and crew . . .
Contemplating the final scene . . .
and credits . . .
Enough to graduate? . . .
Answering the door . . .
(Please repeat the question) . . .
Answering the door . . . with blueberry muffin on your face . . .
Seemingly insignificant, yes? . . .
Pockets bulging with bucket lists . . .
Convincing yourself happiness is (your answer here) . . .

Deborah Turbeville

Screen Dump 38

And now . . . the makeover . . . rescripted . . .
from the backs of cereal boxes . . . committed to memory . . .
the back seat loaded with energy drinks . . .
Logging early-morning miles . . .
New and improved hairstyle . . . eyeglasses . . . footwear . . .
The snowbanks . . . reminders of the constant gardener . . .
lost in the shuffle . . .
waving bye bye to the bigwigs . . .
Drawing a business card . . . from the middle of the deck . . .
There once was a crooked smile . . .

Jennifer B. Thoreson

Screen Dump 37

The fetishization of eccentrics . . . a favorite linguistic preoccupation . . .
Your lengthy footnotes . . . filled with distractions . . .
Your costumed oscillations . . . exciting . . . innovative . . .
Jot this down . . .
Intellectual subtlety not intellectual snobbery . . .
The portal through which you passed . . .
What better cinema than the conjugation of opposites? . . .
man vis-à-vis woman . . .
Energetically engaged . . . full of themselves
encased within the artifice of the image . . . the image itself . . .
Flashing art and life . . . irony and sincerity . . . coexisting? . . .
Care to believe it? . . .
It's not like it is; it is . . .

Radoslaw Pujan

Screen Dump 36

You as transfixed interloper . . . retrofitted with Mary Janes . . . and muffler . . .
Unabashedly underwhelmed . . . as if in the first chapter of a rewrite . . .
Understandably (?) wary . . .
Thanks for coming in . . .
There are fortunes to be made . . . in espresso (or so I've heard) . . .
Can this bunch of words pass for a poem? . . .
Regardless, they want to sit together . . . and exchange email addresses . . .
I'm listening . . . are you? . . .
The somnambulist from your past . . . stalks you . . .
through the streets of your adopted city . . .
along the canals of your waking life . . .
Is it too late to draw straws? . . . too late to order takeout? . . .
But . . . is that what you really want? . . .
There's a pantoum in your neighborhood with your name on it . . .

Screen Dump 35

Calculating the geometry of emptiness . . .
as poster child . . . for necktied boardwalkers . . .
gridlock etching your profile . . .
your opening (lines) whetting the appetite . . .
of earmarked loners . . . eager to test their insanity . . .
against the diagnosis du jour . . .
A pantomime . . .
Another's tarnished voice . . .
A sepia dreamscape . . .
Your cork-lined shadow . . . the joker in a one-act . . .
ringing up the list prices . . . of the books . . .
in your understudies' oversized pockets . . .

Screen Dump 34

Bystanders offer discounts . . . vet your clairvoyance . . .
Strike chords . . . energizing ghosts of past intentions . . .
Prancing as if . . .
You've been told it's in the posthumous disclosures . . .
the half-full glasses . . . the buy-backs . . .
reeking with the formulaic dissonance . . . of dime-store alchemy . . .
Do not again retreat to your cubicle of indifference . . .
This year with its rotated crops . . .
its penny-wise detractors . . .
its non-hallucinogenic markers . . .
This year will be YouTube'd . . . aplenty . . .

Paulina Otylie Surys

Screen Dump 33

Trying to piece together A Day in the Life . . .
Impossible . . . without the missing pieces . . .
Next time I will use raised beds . . . and crystal tumblers . . .
Archiving words in formaldehyde . . .
with night caps for all! . . .
The only way . . . to experience the ups and downs . . .
the ups and downs . . . of an innocent . . .
sharing a jar with the winning pencil pushers . . .
dotting the dot-coms with a new sincerity [citation required] . . .
Voila, and the illusionist of your dreams penetrates your days . . .

Serkan Alpsar

Screen Dump 32

Costumed and ready . . . for your entrance . . .
past odysseys closeted . . .
you wander the produce section at the supermarket
gesticulating with the engaging intensity of a Steve Jobs . . .
iPhones tweeting your moves . . .
Is it really all in the (Tarot) cards
or in the vast emptiness of intimate conversations
where off-hours you sub as a seamstress
and single mom . . .
letters of the alphabet your back-up . . .
ignoring the line of chameleons at the back door? . . .
Desperately seeking Tolstoy . . .
in Heti's How Should a Person Be . . .
you recall doing Tarot cards at a poetry reading . . .
Words . . . upon words . . . upon words . . .
merging . . . colliding . . . falling to the floor . . .
swept up by Goethe's Apprentice . . . outsourced as a mouse . . .
A cloud rising above the single-digit listeners . . .
before exiting through the open mic . . .

Irma Haselberger

Screen Dump 31

Mild spoilers . . . and the immensity of the default . . .
Players entering on cue . . . off-cue . . .
The out-of-the-box forks in the road . . . several roads diverging . . .
into the improvisations of a roomful of extras . . .
rehearsing lines . . . with the seductiveness of a silent film star . . .
And I'm still behind in my payments . . .

Theda Bara in Cleopatra (1917)

Screen Dump 30

Beneath the bespectacled and beruffled schoolmarmishness . . .
a mermaid . . . wearing a tuxedo as a condiment . . .
gives head to the next runner-up . . .
Rainy day people touting extra virgin oil . . .
caught unawares . . . then slow dancing . . . slow dancing . . .
A rhythm . . . notwithstanding lyrics . . .
Floating heads talking . . . talking . . . wondering . . . if you're hot . . .
Is it the insecurity of changing could to can . . .
while bequeathing instructions to the polloi? . . .
But I want lyrics! . . .
And you shall have them . . . in due course . . .
Their folly . . . your volley . . .
How else to explain the transformation . . . into a best-seller? . . .
Speeding along . . . synchronistically . . .
Bravo! . . . A notch on the bedpost . . . for comic relief . . .
How do you spell relief? . . .

Bruno Walpoth

Screen Dump 29

The archetypal penitent arrives . . . in his/her buttondowness . . .
Running numbers . . . and memorabilia . . .
First and ten . . . and we're back in the back seat again . . .
The higgledy-piggledy-ness of it all. . . .
brimmed with eye-squints . . . and back-arches . . .
and a hidden cache of squandered moments . . .
Find meaning in the process, yes? . . .
Cut the deck and deal . . . and charge a pretty penny . . . before you awaken . . .
You are selling you . . . for a trip to wherever . . .

Deborah Turbeville

Screen Dump 28

But what if it doesn't resonate with you? . . .
Shredding documents at a record pace? . . .
The Art of Throwing in the Towel . . .
Too soon? . . .
Being shortlisted . . . in bed-hopping . . .
and other merit badge arraignments . . .
And what of the times you were understudied . . .
or overstudied . . .
or ignored as a hidden passage? . . .
You were ID'd in the slide show . . . and at the cinema . . .
despite the mapping of your face . . .
and a lapse of ethos . . .
A herculean accomplishment is a hair's breadth away . . .
Out of the blocks . . . was always your forte . . .
But can you outrun . . . your past? . . .

Hannes Caspar

Screen Dump 27

One of Proust's most exciting qualities is the way he demonstrates
how circumstances of one's life which seem casual and ephemeral
can solidify for the rest of one's life.
          - John Ashbery

Like squeezing tubes of paint onto a palette . . .
The brush loaded with the hidden rooms you slept in . . .
when you thought no one was watching . . .
Looping Last Call . . . with Rod Serling's Twilight Zone . . .
An experiment in retrospective nightmares . . .
Falling short in word count . . .
Your long legs . . . inked with regret . . .

Screen Dump 26

Parading around your interiority . . . as a luxe mannequin . . .
Costumed for auditions . . .
Improvising lines . . . upending the unsuspecting . . .
Your alphabet . . . a perfect storm . . .
Can you imagine the interminable wait? . . .
Counting the top-heavies, of course . . .
(Wouldn't want to leave them out, now would we?) . . .
Journaling their embellishments . . .
Under the customized dialogue of your irreverence . . .
Pity the sitter is busy . . .
You'll be pinned into the Hall of Fame . . . and returned . . . unopened . . .

Screen Dump 25

The intentionality of the dropped hint . . .
The open-ended proposition . . .
Note-taking with the idea of pasting paragraphs . . .
As windows . . . to the unconscious? . . .
The inked benefactors lining up . . .
You will be among them, yes? . . .
Their voices . . . as loud as the automatic writers . . .
Whose manipulated images . . . captured your fancy . . .
and changed . . . the rules . . .

Paulina Otylie Surys

Woman XLIII

Her strappy heels
leave messages
on my answering machine.

Screen Dump 24

Living on the edge in a snow castle . . . fiercely . . .
As if intuiting the sun . . .
Why didn't I think of that before? . . .
Multiple geographies can distract, yes? . . .
By the time you have to be here . . . costumed . . . and inclined . . .
A glimpse . . . just beyond the threshold . . .
You have followed the southernmost tip of masquerades . . .
In thigh-high boots . . .

Martina Hoogland Ivanow