Another Helping Buck Downs
Publishing Genius Chapbook Series No. 23
Publishing Genius makes books. www.PublishingGenius.com With Keyhole Press, Publishing Genius also operates isReads, The Outdoor Journal, at www.isReads.com and Everyday Genius at Everyday-Genius.com. Another Helping is the 23rd edition of Chapbook Genius. Visit www.PublishingGenius.com for the archives. Publishing Genius 1818 E Lafayette Ave Baltimore, MD 21213 PG Chapbook Genius 023 Copyright Š 2010 Buck Downs
Contents twist riffs and stiff hits easy way out busca tu propria caja root jerk cookie little sucker one hit proximo exito last house on the block the work on the way to work we must be in the wrong business after the hand writing came to rock massive passages dead girl on the landing read it like a phone number I was walking tall but I fell take each other to work it grind it til you find it get up & wait the real live ghost world hold what you got repairs on a running engine my secret job room for one more
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twist riffs and stiff hits
blood creep alarming partially swallowed scratchitto of the meridians and kids are climbing out of the wood work clandestine rut-in-the-hut odd and offcast solids of the stars, wow. the fat man lost his jollies. sun-and-fun burnt on the hardest arms a backed-up renunciation getting it unburdened up front in fantasy documents the tricky coverage love it like a good time let it back to work
5
easy way out
dark fair matter every manner of the morning-ride to twilight, asymmetrical path out and back -a slick patch of the rite animals have no time for ritual like this one pick a fight and the barb of love digs in conflict engagement pink in the night light in my lap
6
busca tu propr ia caja
rolling hard with that
lack of the luxury
multiplication train
go pick your own brains
get behind me and burn one
my flesh it did tremble but my mind was all right with delight that mechanical vibe she handcranked it right up in time
steady-tatter glaciality
had a temblor shed glitter an agitation shared in half
7
root jerk cookie
roil the fold ma cinquefoil licor-a-root stump tongue apple bound all apologize for timing
maybe butterfly chew colonĂŠ
tactical shift diddle call me-up must be what she meant when she said tasty girls
8
l i t t l e s u c ke r o n e h i t
living in an area where the reality sets in I got in her cowboy pajamas back to memphis like the prophet of jamming gears & harmony venus’s x-rayed the hippie hippie hitlist third time thru and running without her shoes on the ghost rocks the haunting chair this is how it felt when the misery loved me.
9
proximo exito
el pequeño lechón golpeó el vivir adonde la realidad se fija colocado conseguí en ella pijama vaquereño de nuevo a memphis como el profeta de los engranajes atorantes y armonía o diane ligero tiempo listos de exitos quemadura y sacudida tercera vez a través y funcionando sin ella los zapatos encendido la fantasma oscila la silla que frecuenta éste es cómo se sentía cuando la miseria me amó.
10
last house on the block
rat’s leaf-skeletons in the scuttle just like life runs to the lee of the wind some strange person calling me their home ooh baby it’s that million dollar alphabet rooting you up like a folk life
cursive’s kitty passives’-pussy dipso-DIDSO
ooh baby you took a heart beating. you should lose count more often 11
the work on the way to work
cave-in chest lost to thought killing time then what kind of continuing enterprise terra squatch
you shave it, I’ll suck it
my heart longs to beat you up
waiting for the depression to give up and go home
12
it did before, it does it will
we must be in the wrong business
the nation is joking inevitable doom sudden euphoria side by side like the two souls that reside in every body
beg you sweet missqueezing
plastic bag & paper bottle
and a piece of the old beam
only localization of the special thing
the stars are interchangeable
13
after the hand writing
setting off quartersticks to drown the sound coming out of her mouth in little forgotten lit a woody with help from the dead an elephant sitting on every chest would open the habit. the game called not this time
14
came to roc k
bone dry and stone high the cash accrual early morning ugly ugly buzz off by miles it could be the devil, cold-calling an incautious soul cut me off at half a question like any half measure it depends on if you’re the one who’s pouring, or drinking this leverage is slippy can’t you make it happen quick
15
massive passages
all dissolved her spots and furze we got here curious, & tired newblown radical river through everybody pissed off king’s english isle of texas in-a-teacup it was informative later hiding on your way out the door the uncertainty was a helpmate and it left her pleasure is all mine my god is a steady supply --
16
dead girl on the landing
the words went up the stair and they hung themselves just for spite. the second time they hang you it’s only for kicks after all another of the many instances of everyday objects with multiple or more than intended actual use. as if it could have no ending and no beginning
bodily custody extension cord
storms are formed behind the storm we feel. with a patience for the strange sensation it takes more than the doctor’s opinion
17
r e a d i t l i ke a p h o n e n u m b e r
wipeout of all checked items battery driven performance experience value reflection and pushback predicted an endearment equally unlike mine an early extra add on locked in to the higher price an early start on the last minute and getting the very thing I was trying to avoid plus a cut thumb
18
I was walking tall but I fell
sure as redneck knows no color it hit me just because you’re coming doesn’t mean you’re happy
she said, you wake me whenever, you know --
with my heart in my head site of my social lack as they say
couldn’t stop talking to myself in her mouth
19
t a ke e a c h o t h e r t o w o r k i t
raw stuff concatenated blow me a kiss goodbye she gave me the key
20
gr ind it til you find it
altogether gone healing power for the night in a firewalling brownstone of dallas to richmond polaroid jim the fashion don’t hit him and a home made diamond band wrapped around her axle
slipping upstream like that back door cutter
that kept looking fatter til it dropped off the table
21
get up & wait
how speaking in tongues works a protein string dissolves on the tongue empty nutrition but it didn’t turn out to be a paper world, it turned out, harder - scrape a lead, down below her scar line
all this useless rigor
straighten & stumble all the whole night long
do what you want you are what you want
22
the real live ghost world
her lungs sound like machinery. a wet machinery filtering the stack. no-narcotic nicotine unexploded typeset nine-to-midnight, dynamite in the mind’s eye the deep fuse and the short boom. I am mining country. fucking dirty sentences on someone else’s paper
23
hold what you got
a basic necessity changer wants to burn down with something harmful awful
non-piece of the pareil
partive down
reduced to plenty.
multiple pinch of that stuff switch to sweat no-cash account ocean’s contour chain one link long why take a trip across the ocean when you can already see the sea
24
repairs on a running engine
bump it up the backness jack down sum of the lowest common denominators cost in a simple destruction kit flaming star over my shoulder don’t you fight the urge to shut down on it hard
25
my secret job
I’d rather start a fuck than a fight, but it is not always given to me to do so - eccentric magnolia sole proprietor wonder why everybody went nuts for that damn ophelia - too busy trying to live with the change boy who couldn’t stand straight
whoso has it and honey don’t
26
her hand fell into my hands.
room for one more
as soon as everybody is all hooked up there’s always room for one more within and without the people want some more. maybe bring it on home later, tonight I have been learning to trust my capture system all over again bootstrap for friends & close relations to shine on. may no action always be this reversible, we flip the switch from off to on.
27
Acknowledgements: In addition to appearing in a series of postcards and other author-published ephemera, some of these poems also appear in Cannibal, Columbia Poetry Review, and They Are Flying Planes.