Roadside Savant

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roadside savant

David e. Haase


Copyright Š 2012 by David e. Haase All Rights Reserved ISBN: 978-1-937739-05-8 Published by Deadly Chaps New York, NY 2012 DCs3DH|5| Cover Photo by David e. Haase Inside Cover Design by Helen Vitoria External Cover & Book Design by Joseph A. W. Quintela http://www.deadlychaps.com


t

opographical depiction:

1: roadside sunrise 2: highway101 3: garish carousel 4: roadside souvenir stand 5: goth sailorwarriors port while the whueres whine about lack of charcoal 6: mĹąnchhausen by proxy 7: roadside savant 8: roadside hitch 9: bermuda triangle 10: early moon 11: cold case confession: first experience 12: hormonal stalemate 13: apply additional atmospheres to my phallic phlange 14: roadside troubadour 15: gene pool contribution endorphins 16: roadditch chaingang 17: roadside peddler 18: suicide (god is a duck) 19: skylark in a puddle 20: wildflower massacre 21: cemetary caretaker 22: roadside schoolbus stop 23: roadside interview 24: graveyard dead lobster family 25: schroedinger boolean 26: arpeggiated


27: purplemicrodot scenic overlook public cabin restroom Boulder, CO. 28: roadside travel plaza 29: roadside whirlygigs 30: roadside motor lodge 31: roadside NYC 32: stiletto silhouette & brick 33: sidewalks 34: roadside street clinic 35: her secret confection 36: roadside carnival 37: roadside 40: about the author 41: gratitude and acknowledgements


1

r

oadside sunrise

kneedeep in mud hollow boned I don t know that I m awake or dreaming like a mudslide bird with no place to perch

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2

h

ighway101

a lewd jaundice blows debleached waves rippled dune vaginas hair meat skin sluices glistening perfect rigid unfurly

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3

g

arish carousel

Equus overboard is no longer horse animated screampieces floundering propellormeat. papercut thin pedestrians luff stern against crimson salt misshapen curiosity

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4

r

oadside souvenir stand

Marv can t fish only knows how to fish it s ok Earth shows us how to adapt he rises at 3 AM fishes the beach sometimes kills a dying bird dawn cleans oily feathers Mrs Marv fluffs Marv cuts stuffs poses bodies for rigor mortis pinkens them with spray tomorrow Marv will sell lawn ornaments out back of his truck to media and HazMat crews Mrs Marv will hoard flamingo gumbo into the freezer

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5

g

oth sailorwarriors port while the whueres whine about

lack of charcoal I eye clee-o-lie-n with long I squiggly mr Piggly Wiggly property lien your mascara'd labia eye eyelash cyclopflutter as revelstare I death/birth duality in your whole

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6

m

Ĺąnchhausen by proxy

each orphan she sees reading in eye reflection her poems skin color of cement staggering jaundice

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7

r

oadside savant

she sits on spent tells cherryripe she road edges weaving baskets waeving distant pedestrians wordmongeress she pulleys weaving gratis husks is yet autumnal on wheaty sheaves

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8

r

oadside hitch

her stretchmarks never go away she denies forensic petting virginity of indecision white silent tonight her pony tail macrame windmill swings counter pointing breasts vision tranquil shawl latticed by crocheted twilight friction sharpness eyes fondle silken strength infinite still imbued with pastel silence tactile harmony her slipstream climbed in van

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9

b

ermuda triangle

your isosceles angles positively python aa gorean fibonacci flowers bloom fractal geometry tactile gentle sensory hairheart is fogghost lost

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10

e

arly moon

she appeared paled in the unripened moon light fondant syrup languid skin she smiled catatonic desire I gazed after smile moon it's frozen breath tiered black jade sky

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11

c

old case confession: first experience

I abandoned girl on a dune once grains of sand tiny razors against the tenderest of skin fortunately her pain prevented mounting any sort of bipedal chase she bled out as I escaped quick sand

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12

a

pply additional atmospheres to my phallic phlange

tonight humid hairsweat knits my thighs together like a velcro virgin in back of a chevy van sauna

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13

h

ormonal stalemate

you fucker you feel more than any man I ve known fuck me now let you see me momentarily why don’t you taste my tears I want to taste you jesus you suck at seduction I’ll get it right I promise I just need some licorice oxytocin

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14

r

oadside troubadour

every fifty same miles horsehair troubadour all feather & stick fiddle chin four strung & codpiece slung serenades wheels roiling & sculptor pounding clay

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15

g

ene pool contribution endorphins

he walked backwards admiring her baby carriage expertise wet leaking nipple tank top engorged shoulderchest and birth pelvic hip swinging smile has it been six weeks or is it just the feeling of more family between his legs memory fades comfortable indifference watching him watch her baby begins erupt spitsup moment gone matters not to her she is indifferent his pain

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16

r

oadditch chaingang

she drowns paper writes him each day hands create hands all thumbshackled burlap cutouts

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17

r

oadside peddler

his oversized teeth sweat & glass eye wanders & he recalls those movie moments gulp carbonated polymers sluices nicotine stained moustache catalog bride's dresses machine guns & prostheses he thrives how to slick outside my event horizon

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18

s

uicide (god is a duck) broken concrete slabs re bar impalers and abandoned trawling equipment

perfectly still no ripples just floating on a glass swamp man made lake many have died

god is a duck perfectly still no ripples simply floating on

head first in three foot of oily water

three hundred and fifty four shards all at once your Lladro face

despite signs warning

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19

s

kylark in a puddle

birds have ankles & sore feet three toes this bird doesn t move roads wind reckless under beak sounds of metal collision the exact moment of breath wild phlegmatic water turkey 101 fractal weaves frostbite purple scorch the stunned bereaved unrippled puddles reflect lucid dementia

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20

w

ildflower massacre

out of an aspen grove beneath blue and silver I stagger a field of Columbine fluttering leaves orchestrate a rising flock of doves embroidered twelve plus 1 & twenty three onto my granny s bonnet

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21

c

emetery caretaker

surgical grade fingernails scars crisscross tiny caesarian tombstones aborted fatty necrosis graves cauliflower keloid lilac blooms

21


22 roadside schoolbus stop post pubescent pre adolescent post humanoids

exploded when she was bloodied by a missile candy jawbreaker

named her Frank for short the grotesque mutant

&I skinning puppies when she screamed & busdriver ignited a bunny when she bled & untoothed into sweaty palms

Frankenstein the Gargoyle Girl whose ashen deathpale magnified ripe juiciness of her deeply pimpled face

they rose to warm their hands over freshly faced wounds I distractedly calculate the cold objective terms of exile

a teenage ganglion raw mass of pulsating hormonal fireworks

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23

r

oadside interview

honestly I don't know anything about oxymagnesium but listen growing pimples is god's way of discouraging sex amongst individuals before the species requires their services

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24

g

raveyard dead lobster family

I had a really pithy statement about death & seafood a new metaphor or simian la(cta)tion or monekysuch about plants turning roots from stems oneclawed crabs regeneration an observation to jerk off the world one orgasm chasing another fleeting

24


25

s

chroedinger boolean

cat is not boolean event result prediction is

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26

a

rpeggiated

colorado aspenleaves icicle sunlight southern through trees barking pumpkin moon rearranging timespace she scrambled my eggs

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27

p

urplemicrodot scenic overlook public plastic cabin

restroom Boulder CO unsequence conjugated bilirubin verbs crusted piss brown mustard fingernail scrimshaw ceramic smell lacquerless flesh blind smile on tile floor carving symbols into bowl licking shavings off eyebrows marillion veins in palsied yolk sclera chunks watch her climb inverted knees needle quilled drippings head jacked back listening yellow of relief

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28

r

oadside travel plaza

fresh teeth crack on stick lipped fork mascara troughs untouchable black slushgutter timespace occluding sphincter enteric para(non)sympathetic muscle corrugates her slipstream she spoke asparagus chili stomach cramps such was infatuation and pukespread yellow delta across the laminated table (owners anticipated me) she bedtucked me into I fucked them both without me last time we spoke I laughed about it

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29

r

oadside whirlygigs

all spins on road blinding vertigo cornrows of song clicking wind perfect anomalies sourtilt centrifugal sunrises into pirouette palsy ballet

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30

r

oadside motor lodge

give me back my wasa that lady red dress with the hamburger the shipment of pizzas

strewn about in the hall hey cleaning lady can you take a minute

who did this to my plant from your mundane chore come into my room and scrub my floor

oh she s still in town let me put some new dirt in it so the leaves don t stick to my forehead but it s too late i ve killed the cleaning ladies are cleaning out the two rooms next door the occupants are still there their possessions 30


31

r

oadside NYC

I want to atrophy in the dives of Dylan Denver, Furay Collins Stills and Baez played I want to lick the holographs of Kerouac & Ginsberg Brautigan Mckuen St. Vincent Villay to ridicule WarhoI at the Guggenheim Museum & to sleep under alley dumpsters where Jimi pissed out chords of synaesthesia I want to look at Woman reading Sylvia Plath with one hand on the mace trigger ride underground worms slither through NYC s layers of history read graffiti hieroglyphics watch LonelyMan gesture to himself and wonder what his speech to the UN is about walk sidewalks stare at the trash & imagine Person that threw it away look into the glass eyes of buildings 13 floors up & listen to SingleRentControlledMother read to her child I want to sit on the step with HomelessPerson verbally quilt his thoughts with mine

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32

s

tiletto silhouette & brick

film noir shadows stretch peeling brick calf length black skirt slit grapples heavy light exposes alleys of perfect crime stained finger faces smell my brick brown teeth schau schau the discordant cocktail animation fishskin condom dirty mortar loaf shadows used cucumber rags & amish fudge

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33

s

idewalks

his diluvial face antiquarian desert swollen tongue would flick around mucous beard drawing cartoons sidewalk canvas deftly indifferent pedestrians abstract colors tickling his deliquium he smiled a moonless eclipse

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34

r

oadside street clinic

urbane proprietor gratefully dispenses hooded vulva swabs equitable exchange for crustaceous debridement pyramidal breasted receptionist swipes government reimbursement into the ATM next to workers leaned at the slit of night the proprietor sip flagitious absinthe out dainty glass his overstuffed parlor purgatory rules the steam slick street

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35

h

er secret confection

silent streetlamps edit celluloid night marquis candy wrapper flickers along the knowing sidewalk peanut butter cups tucked into silk under button down blouse

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36

r

roadside carnival

& we meet most by foot some by van we pause against each other at sepia split to different rides fourth notes between each word echo unbirthed future

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37

r

oadside

Stiff FatherFace walks away from the dumpster pad Some thought it a garage sale 8YearOldDaughter reaches for his hand tries to keep pace looking behind DodgeRamMan puts her lightbulb oven in his truck Crushfendered whiteminivan pulls up ChristianNeighbor buys an electric Swiffer stiff MotherFace pushes a bill into her front pocket with a shrug children play amongst live rubbish RING AROUND THE ROSY.... MinivanMom walks to apartment next to displaced Neighbor Her life has always been about vacuum Vacuum is uncomfortable breathless She reminds herself this is not my vacuum stretching her StressFriend a silly putty slinky playing onehand cat s cradle between bony fingers 37


38

From advantage across the street I watch unfolded I want to go look through their stuff Decipher their lives I want to absorb stories by forensic narrative symbiosis sympathetic yet sarcastically indifferent Crowd gathers DodgeRamMan pulls out in a sagging truck 8YearOldGirl cries out the apartment window for brand new mattress and box Children dance as community jestretard lightsavernumchuk expert (equaled only by a bruceleebarishnikov) pirouettes A POCKET FULL OF POSIES... LookyLooMoms armcrossed over long forgotten foodspring sources tender as DisenfranchisedFamily sputters away in their Datsun 510 Two hours postdrama afterschool lanky teenage Boy dressed all black on the tarmac keeps dropping his backpack after talking at each passersby pacing as if he had somewhere to stay Thus is his

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39 current infinite loop Random packs of children jump pullup on his back Boy tolerates them for a moment shoos them away Picks up his pack continues back round

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40

a

bout the author

the ballad of David e. Haase begins by tragic accident of birth. he was born sans eyelids. due to the diligence of Dr. Obstetrician, an emergency circumcision was performed. the amputated foreskin was the grafted to his eyes. now he's cockeyed. fast forward: adulthood. David became a world famous trout farmer in Colorado until the Dept. of Agriculture stopped subsidizing him when they discovered fish aren't a crop. his poetry and flash fiction have appeared in Metazen, Gutter Eloquence, Short, Fast, and Deadly, and In Between Altered States, among others.

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41

g

ratitude and Acknowledgements

dedicated to my Mom who never saw this book. many thanks to: Helen Vitoria, Joseph A. W. Quintela, Kerryn Treddea. roadside savants first appeared as a 22 poem electronic chapbook at Red Ceiling Press (2011). roadside souvenir stand first appeared in Short, Fast, and Deadly issue 31. a version roadside originally appeared as parking lot in Metazen.

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