Some choice cuts from
The Ghosts of Our Words Will be Heroes in Hell,
the latest book project by
THE NU PROFIT$ OF P/O/E/T/I/C DI$CHORD
Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner! / Jason Ryberg
The wind is whipping up
little cyclones of dust and leaves
in the ditch by the side of Old 40 HWY,
and there’s a star-shine gleam
to the chrome ball-hitch
of the pick-up truck in front of me,
and there’s road-side fences to the future,
telephone poles to the past,
and the sun, like a cyclop’s murder-red eye
is climbing up from behind the horizon
and right into my driver’s-side
rear-view mirror,
and Walk, Don’t Run by the Ventures
is playing now on the radio
and there, above it all,
a lone falcon or hawk sits, calmly,
surveying its little fiefdom from the top
of a billboard sign that reads,
Beef, it’s what’s for dinner!
You got that right, pal.
When You’re Poor / Damian Rucci
when you’re poor
you’re always fucking
or fighting
always fucking because there
is never anything to do
but thrust & moan
when that’s done
then you’re fighting
fighting to keep the lights on
fighting to keep the bills paid
fighting to find change to do the laundry
& fighting with the landlord
about that fifty bucks
he’s still missing
but it could be worse
you could always be waiting again
waiting for the electricity company
to finally kill the lights
waiting for that check to hit
the mail box
waiting for the winds to blow
luck your way for once
The Finger Has Got to Come Off / John Dorsey
crazy mark crushes his finger
in the back of a dump truck
instead of going to the hospital
he examines the bone
each angle
like the rings on a tree
each crack
a ridge of undiscovered country
clues to a past
that even he can’t quite recall
weeks go by
and the skin
just won’t heal
he says he’ll have to
cut the meat off himself
before it starts to stink
like a dying animal
left to rot
in the woods.
Lost Man’s Candle / Victor Clevenger
standing at the end of a cold day
we think about how it is always here
in some form good for a glow
hanging from a rope
tied to a breeze
it’s a lost man’s candle
the moon
creating the dull between the trees
branch’s shadows like arms reaching out
for a waist to grasp in dance
& we’re near
but there is no melody left in our breath
tonight & there is no whistle
from the lips of the wind either
just the random cries of wild animals
that we’ve all heard
a thousand times before
as we stood there like fools
too fucking stubborn
to just find
a good path back home
The Ghosts of Our Words Will Be Heroes in Hell is available from OAC Books, and can be ordered via spartanpresskc@gmail.com or by contacting any of the poets on Facebook.
About the Authors:
Jason Ryberg is the author of thirteen books of poetry, six screenplays, a few short stories, a box full of folders, notebooks and scraps of paper that could one day be (loosely) construed as a novel, and, a couple of angry letters to various magazine and newspaper editors. He is currently an artist-in-residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books. His latest collection of poems is Standing at the Intersection of Critical Mass and Event Horizon (Luchador Press, 2019). He lives part-time in Salina, KS with a rooster named Little Red and a billygoat named Giuseppe and part-time somewhere in the Ozarks, near the Gasconade River, where there are also many strange and wonderful woodland critters.
Damian Rucci is a writer and author of five poetry books including his latest Don’t Call it a Relapse (Punk Provincial Press 2019), founder of the Poetry in the Port reading series, and was a Poet in Residence at the Osage Arts Community in Belle, Missouri. He can be contacted at @damianrucci on Twitter and damian.rucci@gmail.com
John Dorsey lived for several years in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Teaching the Dead to Sing: The Outlaw’s Prayer (Rose of Sharon Press, 2006), Sodomy is a City in New Jersey (American Mettle Books, 2010), Tombstone Factory, (Epic Rites Press, 2013), Appalachian Frankenstein (GTK Press, 2015) Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016) and Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Press, 2017) and Your Daughter’s Country (Blue Horse Press, 2019). His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize.He was the winner of the 2019 Terri Award given out at the Poetry Rendezvous. He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.
Victor Clevenger spends his days in a Madhouse and his nights writing poetry. Selected pieces of his work have appeared in print magazines and journals around the world. He is the author of several collections of poetry including Sandpaper Lovin’ (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017), A Finger in the Hornets’ Nest (Red Flag Poetry, 2018), and Corned Beef Hash By Candlelight (Luchador Press, 2019). Together with American poet John Dorsey, they run River Dog.
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