Screen Dump 176

You ride out superfluous comments . . .
passing a room of garrulous mannequins . . .
whose painted-on eyes . . .
prevent you from doing the right/wrong (circle one) thing . . .
The times change . . . elsewhere . . .
You worry the consternation of some . . .
after consulting a dictionary . . .
feeling energized by alphabets . . . near and far . . .
especially those for multiple platforms . . .
It's time for the future . . .
You are thankful you have done your homework . . .
and smitten with the thought of more . . .
But then you learn there is something deeper . . .
something hiding in the shallows . . . a deeper consideration . . .
appropriating words . . . willy-nilly . . .
from award-winning crossword puzzles . . .
This is only the beginning . . .

Adamo de Pax

Screen Dump 175

With you . . . glittery gowned . . . examining the aftermath . . .
afraid that too much happened . . . too soon . . .
A plate of spaghetti forgotten . . .
Your lush life reflected . . . in too many mirrors . . .
Before you know it . . . you are recast as an opportunist . . .
or an optimist . . . which is it? . . .
who will do anything to curry favor . . .
for a dime bag . . . of antioxidants . . .
You sleep in the spare room . . . within its spareness . . .
within its untrammeled willingness to accommodate . . .
within its DSM-5 single axis assessments . . .
to say nothing of its outlandish vistas . . .
There are voices in the walls of the spare room . . .
narrating the pixels of your unexamined life . . .
dealing anecdotes on the sullen streets of your city . . .
You feature countless times . . .
and appear . . . a moment too soon . . .
on several occasions . . .
Little of import happens . . .
until the players . . . with their parts . . .
enter the spare room . . .
relinquishing their passed-over lives . . .
all spiffed-up, of course . . .
just like in the good old days . . .
when spare rooms made for exaggerated expressions . . .
by players escorted therein . . .
following the dotted line of the body's shadowy escarpments . . .
and where by chance . . . and only then . . .
would the truth of the matter rear its head . . .
Three sheets to the wind . . . again . . . and again . . .

Wendy Bevan

Screen Dump 174

You have sped through intersections . . .
and gotten away with murder . . .
in a surprising conjunction of opposites . . .
When was the last time you checked your email . . .
for walk-ins . . . interlopers . . .
and other borderline personalities? . . .
In absentia . . . can be fun . . .
and you will have enough time . . . this time . . .
to complete the assignment . . .
should you choose to do so . . .
and . . . it would behoove you to do so . . .
The intimacy of the bubbles . . .
slipping out of Jobs's dent in the universe . . .
is good . . . and wishful . . .
We should be happy . . . and we are . . .
despite the bloodshot eyes of time . . .
which never close . . .
Your therapist has been briefed . . .
to see or not to see . . . which meds . . .
do the trick . . .
the trick . . . not unlike priming yourself . . .
by scanning lines . . .
from a few of your favorite reads . . .
I myself will go with the aftershock . . .
of discovering misspellings in ATMs . . .

Akif Hakan

Screen Dump 173

Riding the buses was like being trapped in a Samuel Beckett play.
          - Lance Austin Olsen

As if these award-winning vignettes . . . informed your life . . .
The steps to . . . and from . . .
Your life as hypertext markup . . . with sidebars . . .
for family . . . and friends . . .
La familia de Cecilia . . . remember that . . . from freshman lab? . . .
Recording five piano suites . . .
commemorating imaginary events . . . in your life . . .
Isn't this what matters? . . .
Little consensus here . . . As expected? . . .
A knock on the door . . . the scene begins . . .
with widescreen guitar rock . . .
Field recordings . . . and why not? . . .
Improvising on the script . . . always a trip . . . and he/she knows it . . .

Wendy Bevan

Screen Dump 172

Never use the definite article . . . with me . . . she said . . .
I realized then I was wearing a tie . . .
and fiddling with it . . . fiddling with it . . . fiddling . . . with it . . .

Emmanuelle Seigner

Screen Dump 171

The gaming tables open with rhetorical questions . . .
and you . . . dressed for the roll . . .
insist on the provocativeness of Polaroids . . .

There is always something else . . .
always something cutting into the rapprochement . . .
always something that needs to be done . . . or should be . . .

Building an argument for change, for example . . .
Your pins reflecting wanderlust . . .
as if you have been waiting all your life for the barbarians . . .

You tally moments . . . archiving appropriations . . .
with an eye toward sitcoms . . .
Off camera, you worry perspective . . . and momentum . . .

This is not the first time . . . or the last . . .
Taking what's happening now . . .
and imagining what would happen if it kept happening . . .

Wendy Bevan

Screen Dump 170

You like to start the day . . . with your own coffee . . .
in your own cup . . .
despite the distress of your heels . . .
on the sidewalk . . . at four AM . . .

You never stay the night . . .
What would you talk about in the morning? . . .
You're speaking in a rumor of pentameter . . .
as Dante's Francesca . . .

You have stepped outside for a smoke . . .
taking notes . . . codifying liaisons . . .
(You're tempted to tweet but there's no cell service down here) . . .
The thought of beauty provokes rhetorical escalation . . .

but the winds in the Second Circle . . .
make it impossible to interview Phlegyas . . .
who has taken on the role of tour guide . . .
as if on a London double-decker . . .

What's with the coins in the passengers' mouths? . . .
Doesn't this boat have autopilot? . . .
And why is it so damn hot? . . . I could use a drink! . . .
Where's the waiter? . . . The service here sucks! . . .

Your husband's brother, yes? . . .
Ten years, yes? . . .
And now? . . . the game over . . . the word out . . .
banished . . . forever . . . to this maelstrom . . .

How often did you sillify encounters . . .
dismantling the false sincerity with jelly dripping from your lips? . . .
How often . . . in your excitement . . .
did you drop the hardcover into the bathwater? . . .

Screen Dump 169

You fill your notebook . . . with admonitions . . .
Not bothering to correct misspellings . . .

Screen Dump 168

You take a number and stare at the meats in the deli case . . .
You have survived another trip to Neverland . . .
where incomplete sentences are diagrammed in full view . . .
and pieces of jigsaw cavort to exhaustion . . .
Oblivion changes color . . . again . . .
You are tempted to phone a friend . . .
The deficits of seduction stare you down . . .
Not since . . . you can't remember . . .
An RV goes by . . .
brimming . . . with circus performers . . .
from your old neighborhood . . .
friends who spent far too many nights . . .
brushing with whiteners . . . while asking ATMs . . .
over and over . . . How do I look? . . .
Could it have been any other way? . . .
Review . . . again . . . your options on the drop-down menu . . .
the ones not grayed-out . . .
The caged bird sings off-key . . .
dreams of coloring outside the line . . .
lip-syncs Pulitzer'd composer John Luther Adams's . . .
In the White Silence . . .
You begin to fog from Abilify . . .
when images of your analyst texting . . .
while you spill your guts . . . slap you back . . .
A session In the Night Kitchen would upend his redacted ass . . .

Screen Dump 167

The unmooring . . . abandoning the original phrasing . . .
losing the delightful peculiarities . . .
of playing rubato . . .
as if the subtext from Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage . . .
had made its dispassionate way . . .
through cyberspace . . . into your inbox . . .
You are between scenes . . . between roles . . .
between lovers . . . between . . .
an exemplar of élan . . .
of sweetening the stakes . . .
which more often than not plays out in your favor . . .
as the lights of time quench the sky . . .
with the warm repetition of place . . .
The motion to open has been ignored . . .
or misplaced . . . whichever . . . the redundancy resurfacing . . .
reassuringly . . .
as votaries engage an infinite loop . . .

Marie Fleur Charlesworth

Screen Dump 166

Reading between the lines to new ways of listening . . .
Curatorial duties aside . . .
Who knows? . . . You could be next . . .
With those ramifications . . .
Snowshoeing? . . . On a shoestring? . . .
Into Great Silence? . . . To hear what you see . . .
Pirating conversations with yourself . . .
with others . . .
then doing a one-eighty and returning to your yurt . . .
far from the insistent irrelevancies . . .
of ubiquitous machines . . .
Say again? . . .
Several are impressed by the way you handle intrusions . . .
Wild nights - wild nights! . . . Were I with thee . . .
Not that you couldn't shine . . . if pressed . . .
Have you read the latest doggerel . . . per whomever? . . .

Screen Dump 165

It matters if you want it to matter.
          - Maxine Kumin

But what about contextual heft? . . .
Words corralled from undergraduate syllabi? . . .
Cashing in before stepping out . . .
or stepping on . . .
or stepping over . . .
Always the problem of irrevocability . . .
Of crossing the bridge . . .

For work? . . . Pegged pants and cable knit sweaters . . .

Act 2 Scene 1 . . . In the red Cobra . . .

My height intimidates players . . .
They love it! . . .
Especially after googling wine lists . . . as if . . .
Always the same sluggish words . . .
Where are you from? . . . What do you do? . . . blah blah blah . . .
I traffic in consumables . . .
Packaged as in . . . As You Like It . . .
I hold the aces . . .
Control the scene . . .
Flip the roles . . .
But always . . . Far from the Madding Crowd . . .
I never anticipate counting ceiling tiles . . .
Make the most of a (sometimes) pathetic situation . . .
Ready or not, here I come . . . Oh yeah! . . .

The food networks . . . among others . . . want in . . .
As was Sappho's choice on Lesbos . . .
And now? . . . All accounting? . . . Retrospective . . .
Appropriated and - ideally seamlessly - embellished . . .

Take me in . . .
Feed me . . .
What big lips you have . . .
All the better . . .

David Benoliel

Screen Dump 164

A thin arm makes a face sadder.
          - Anne Carson, Short Talks

All subsequent failures will be given the benefit of the doubt . . .
All subsequent features will be given the benefit of the doubt . . .
Re-examined for negligence . . . sort of . . .
Encouraged to resubmit . . .
It's the paperwork that's work . . .
Pressed into service . . . by whom? . . .
Did you really think you could/would get away with it? . . .
Many of the dead walking behind us . . . are victims of love . . .
Too many are chomping (champing?) at the bit . . .
Worrying aloneness . . . as a talisman . . .
In abeyance . . .
Of course? . . . he/she said . . . eventually . . .
Relishing the idea of thick skin . . .
Of thin skin . . .
Of second skin . . .
Of skin . . .
And this too with little regard for the moment . . .
Doesn't it seem advantageous to be left high and dry? . . .
To be left . . . on your own . . .
I mean the matter at hand, yes? . . .
To be fascinated by frontispieces . . . as it were . . .
and makeshift shelters which . . . who knows . . . could hold the key . . .
He/she has put out feelers . . .
working on his/her profile late into the night . . .
with several chiming in . . .
after the (Greek) chorus . . . had eaten their fill . . .
and packed it in . . .
The importance of someone to yearn for . . . to pine after . . .
To lean on . . .
Lean on me when you're not strong . . .
And I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on . . .
The first geisha were men, yes? . . .
jesters, entertainers . . . talk show hosts . . . life coaches . . .
My head spins . . . with images of gambits . . .
A red Cobra . . . with you . . .
In transit . . .
In hot pink costume . . . zippered no less! . . .
In control . . .
In charge . . .
In and out . . .
In touch . . . (as in I'll be) . . .
In the moment . . .
In as far as I can go . . .
In too deep . . .
In . . . terruptus . . .
The finds at archaeological digs have led many astray . . .
And continue to do so each and every day . . .

Sarah Moon

Screen Dump 163

I understood that I was wasting time that would never return,
that I was losing hours that could have been beautiful.
          - Alexandra David-Neel

You reinsert pronouns . . . into your stories within stories . . .
because they welcome a seductive angularity . . .
the intricacies of intimacy . . . of running into him/her . . .
in a parking lot . . . in the next town over . . .
You're happy that he/she is happy . . .
(and you're pretty sure you're being honest with yourself) . . .
Memories flood the five minutes . . .
both of you blue-penciling the script . . .
both sides of the menu vying for your attention . . .
Not interested in the specials? . . .
Ghosts of living friends as character witnesses . . .
In another place . . . another time . . . there would be . . .
There would be what? . . . Unanswerables? . . .
Unfair! . . . and unnecessary! . . .
You have wasted enough time . . . polishing the stones . . .
of the New Year . . .
Move on to the next item on your to-do list . . .
Perhaps you should retrieve dry eyes . . . from the dumpster . . .
examine them for their provenance . . .
their classic lines . . . their beautiful unexpectedness? . . .

Wendy Bevan