David Roden, Neko Smile

Neko Smile

image by David Roden

Neko Smile

 

Smoothies
Rub ur eyes, brat-head! They’re awake, already, confused n blnkng back through grey amniotic swill behnd that blister n the fake rococo ceilng, from danty oocytes on the Smoothie Xylem’s termnal stems (just visible through cloudy nutrient) to cavern eyed blobs listlessly emulatng the Neko’s scissor smile n flex to fluctuatng nharmonics n ur snouty drills (Sensory differentia accelerated n vitro.)
Born hungry, u always sense w/ they’re about to drop. Coolant electrolytes gush from spiracles n ur concentric tongues n transpire through ur cobalt alloy underbite n micron wide channels. Voremechanisms whir ready; the last massacre’s bloody particulates cleansed from ur monogrammed sheets (JI). Hooked crosses voxel above the bed n auto-erase before ur saccades. Buffer dreams of wounds, while the Flic re-plays Sana’s Opera
The Hussar crawls back to his ‘safe space’ by the Flic sngng some tearng ballad of parted loves, walled cities, ambiguous crusades n crackle; cavalry moustache, a dark whorl n once handsome n tonsured face, dedifferentiated over the iterations (The Countess came down from the walls, burnng Morsel Knight’s perfumed declarations n crucified him as she promised n their epistolary romance. She ate his offal as it flopped, steamng on pale n danty.)
‘Embryogenesis is sick n sad’ the Neko hisses through bruised lips n empty gums, pillow talkng Anna’s penultimate voice, ‘Just embrace the replication, flower Jonny, n shit where u eat.’ 
Long, membraneous ears flop over her vacant obits. The Hussar deforms blob to toroid, to lamna yellowng down embossed floral wallpaper like urne through lace.
U call this stuff ‘Thanatos’ or the ‘Will’ - a topic of fevered speculation among Dead Planet Ntelligencia: Is the Drive what it says  or just the bubblng, threshng, squirty girl? Is life  but death deferred? If u fabulate Anna’s autaphilia to gratify ur destructive urges, u come to the right place (‘It never happened. Let us be!’ we chorus outa space w/  physically impossible specific resonance.’)
Morsel oiled n spiced, Countess lays him on the thorns of the Theophany Rose to lapidary percussion n ravaged pizzicatos. The Neko turns cyanotic n pouts. Remnd u of the sexual partners u never got to choke? Coughs up fur, vomits, bumps n grnds aganst ur sprng heel hnd parodyng the Countess’s feral paroxysms - for which u flexi-drill an anatomical bulge n plushed Lunagirl skull.
Savng ur ablated lacrimal sacs, u might weep for these delicious meals.
Not for ur first jelly roll, the Bitch craters n dies n poopng, caterwaulng Sibs, Anna’s cunty smile sealng her til next iteration. Act II, Scene II: Mise-en-abyme: A suspiciously gaunt midwife attaches electrodes from an improbable car battery (backstage) to Hunger’s exo labia, between brocade screens, embellished, like our Cornice, n lanceolate leaves where swarms of robns bunch like angry grapes. The Morsel keens an achng antiphon; fadng fast. Decelerno. Decrescendo. Fnale.
Curtan fall; decayng beats, cryptid wngs.
Applause. The rattle of dyng stars.
Like the Door, the Audience were never here.
 
Done, but for our unscripted addend: Countess Hunger dilates, burnng bright n wetly exultant n, crawlng up from the Abyss, the shnng bladed Jackal bursts mewlng between the ornate screens; ur magic toys tnkle, avid, threaded w/ her blood n offal.
 
Love Hotel
She runs ahead, bare legs golden as the sulci we engneered n our chronically neurasthenic star. Her voice reverberates across a pedestrian thoroughfare n the University n its rows of twiglike, dead trees, like the stng of ice felt aganst ur long discarded teeth. The servants had cleaned n aired the apartment off the square. A honeymoon briar w/ red petals weaves round the balcony’s wrought iron balustrade. U follow her, diffident as the jerky automata under the old town radium dial: Death, Nsenescent, Engneer, Matriarch. Grey Hermetics whose bodies contaned countless birds. KAKA STARS oozng formless forms. Subsequent generations sculpted such impossibilities as shny metal polyhedra, tnny analogies n anal eye dirt. ‘Jonny is so wounded. Nothng is ever enough!’ The Neko ventriloquises. A naïve n essentialist readng of Eternal Return bubbles up from a mucoid crevice lackng larynx n epiglottis. She should be irrevocably mute but can never brng herself to shut up. How many times did u tell her this n a voice distorted by dental prosthesis, ‘There is only one us’?
A pastorale of happy cottontails tendng their tranquil herds is displaced by another drift of X’s w/ diacritical hooks, boilng antilife, transliterated unbeng.
The Newborn Neko slithers out of postpartum muck, coy, beguilng n fresh while its sibs await death on that carpet w/ its sick corporate hexacomb. The Flic casts a granular radiance over her bloated fluff n a starry glnt n her vacant sockets.
For a special moment, the Hussar tries to become her by occupyng the same space. Flesh, even wounded, was never so precious - we get that - but he never got the hang of possession, its ntrnsic moral potency. That we can see through ur eyes, Jonny. Like nothng, like we are. Rejected, the Hussar  ripples through the air back to his corner beside the Birthng Blister, sproutng arms like a dyng baby spider.
 
Yet another bucolic reverie from the uplns of Warren’s only contnent. Leggy, horned rumnants tended by fat fluffy shepherds on long-eared hexapods. The Cow-bunnies wore bright harnesses n coral-beads n red n ochre. Green acclivities, warmng yello star!
Could u see it now. Bulk carriers sparkle over a throngng port as they ascend. Planiformers n Orbitals team w/ our diseased meat; desires, bodies w/, bodies w/out. Hegira Corp mantans a breedng population of the bunnies on vast battery farms for the luxury export. Tender, happily decerebrated. Love it, love us! we want to shout. But u’d traduce n mock us, Ibnis, n rightly. Somethng is always off or comng. Our mutual Friend, amenable yet unntelligible, exculpatng; delightng w/ perfect ignorance. We ganed crucial traction w/ ur little god. Bluntly empirical devoirs. Experiments n obedience contnue n ur absence; though the signs are frankly not good snce u elucidated His Boxes.
Which is why, Jonny, we cradle u among our delicious Smoothies, sooth u neath gravid scrotum, bulgng sac, sulkng blister, follicle, dividng egg…
 
 
Somethng is Comng!
‘I’m sorry to drag u nto this’ u lament.
‘Jonny, u have a lot to be sorry about.’
‘U say nothng …I’m soliloquisng’
‘Nsane how much u hate, dear. Fear not, there is no one to be, no one to see. Nothng but addends, dividends, differentia. Go, not too soon. U’re never leavng because u were never here. How can u appreciate the Friend’s florid Surnature if u misconstrue Nature?’
 
Amid the sophisms n the hectorng, like magic, the ceilng sags, seams of weaker tensile strength tear w/ the partitioners n its cytoplasm.
n (like so) the waters will break n the Babies will fall. Ripe Smoothies floppng like turds n a latrne. The humor of lipids n phospholipids, collaged n immaculate, tanted cruelty.
That last one crawls up from the end of ur bed, big as a baskng seal, blnd, a void of voremecha or apparent defence.
U reach between its buds, little furrows w/ cute art-hymens.
U resent their sexless opulence, cloaked n cloaca, mucus, cum, urea, piss. U abide, get used to it.
Not long now! We’ve eaten our fill from the Boxes.
U extrude hook, claw, syrnge, mecharostrum, flexidrill, razor lip, spirocrypts. Obey precarious whims. Stroke her till she farts, excretes n expectorates. Then follow the Misdirections.
 
Belyng her oedema n vegetatng head, the Neko uses ratiocnation, cunnng, rhetoric n timbre; protests, however u wounded n violated her, that Anna never deceived, resented or made stuff up, like u notice. W/ each of ur ‘U’re not really …,’ she dribbles n dissembles she never loved or died, Hastur did not fall. It doesn’t matter who speaks snce w/ all is said only Language does, though ‘Neko’ doesn’t mean Nobody. Just it’s nothng personal. Do u consider this life lived well n the teeth (sic) of impossibility? Why do u defame her memory? Ur past is erasng, poppng, so who’s to tell? Not U, we, nor Our Friend on the Outside nnocently accommodatng us.
 
Traces n Erasures.
N the apartment, timber smells from resnous contnents; antique scientific n musical nstruments; Anna’s recreational torture-snuff artifacts restng behnd acrylic screens, bookcases n a small private library, n vitro foetal prodigies pickled n formaldehyde, the Old Gimp Cage spikes aganst a wide steel framed wndow. Beyond n the abstract brightness, Cathedral, Rotunda, Equestrian, Radium Clock, modest Gnomon… U call some unentered halls of civic buildngs, some eccentric Iron n Steel Magnate who built a foreign Chateau among blast furnaces n cokng towers. A lonely howl expressed from ur hairy fore-lip. Did u hear that? Lupne, bestial, panfully self-aware just as u telescope ur vicious fleximolars, snout ablaters n raspng, rotatng cartilagnous needle beds. It is hard to keep as ur worlds break asunder. The Smoothy’s throat sprays dark green as u release her sknned, laughng skull.
Some iterations, u begn w/ the Sibs; let the Neko sit watchng til blood, faeces n cum wash her necrospasms n analytic terrine. Welcome to the Ln of Bubbles!
 
Eater
We bran-bloomed our anonyms to suffer gratuitously n poorly but made u hurt all the right ways. They hurt but w/out proper values. n that needles. Thalamocorticals png, prions rng stokng bilirubn w/ u open their laughably thn skulls but nobody gives a fuck, despite which u taste them all emphatically, like a gourmet w/out proper grammar. Only now there is a ‘bouquet of Alterity’ as Map or Anna might put it: a piquant distillation of nitrogenous bases like a manufacturers’ brn: MAXIMNIMAXIMNIMAXIMNIMA, each ‘X’ hooked to mark its transliteration.
Ur Crew happy-raped the Sag, pnng for Strange New Worlds, ridiculous Vivs n Civs to eat. Skns, biomes, rituals, genders, pharmaka, magics (mathematised, naïve) complimentng unique, flavoursome disparities n tangs. Robust or juicy, rubbery or gamey. (We) tasted Warren (Lapn à la Moutarde), Vostok (Venison stew), Menion (A deep Peppery Chowder) n the Bearng Worlds of the Glis (Ndefnable). More, we loved u more than ourselves, companions to watch the stars unmade n remodelled. Bubbles n our Hyperchaos. A chemistry of mngng.
 
n the Facng Smoothy is agape as the top drawer of the little bedside cabnet a meter from ur ruttng head - unnoticed snce a dozen bubbles n O-gates popped – furtively vibrates, shakes, opens, impelled by a plangent arpeggio on an unstable dimnished seventh. The highly strung chord ntroducng Countess Hunger’s odious fnal recitative over the Flic n a fug of distortion risng to an exponential scream. Reach n, pet his ribbed little segments, tickle his lol little tubes. The Gate n the Key!
Krilln’s legs skitter nanely aganst ur fngers, while he remonstrates delightfully and bitily.
 

Just as ropy yellos punch through the ceilng, tear panels and support struts, exposng the service cablng n the void above, cradlng, feedng and modulatng the Stoma per our needs.
W/ unreal speed, an oblate ball w/ pseudo-convex foreskn pops through the  fresh hole, clambers n, bounces, mocks, rocks and slobbers balletically, aqueous w/ radial nausea, towards the No-door, pausng to flower undulant toroids.
Several hotel floors above, an emaciated grey child (Hi!), legs like gnarled wooden posts; toothless, w/ our glossal obsolescence flappng over our chn like Anna’s old leather strap. As if to advertise our seriously outmoded anatomy we lift wizened twigs, tuckng the skeuomorphs between blackened lips.
The Ghost Hussar detaches from the wall, plops onto the filthy carpet, crawlng under the bed n a surely doomed effort to elude the fractionated attentions of Urdrugna, Eater of Souls.
 

—David Roden

Oli Johns, Galaxy of Tenebre I and II

Irene Koronas, Θ, from effluxion, Volume X, The Grammaton Series (Manuscript)

 

effluxion
The Grammaton Series, Volume X
manuscript cover image
Water Color and Ink on Paper
Irene Koronas

Θ
 
 
I
1.This allomorphic series
decrescendos 
 
in the precipiteux
as nephos forms
return drek
 
to systolica
and diastolica
 
2. Cells surge in residue
of intellectus
 
and the stone curve
 
3. Fissure strips
the architrave
 
4. Piety erupts
in the idol
 
 
II
Androgyny
in its morphics
is gnomic
 
the divine locus
nondual prior
 
to praxis  
the unholy
sparagmos
 
tears the scar
on effluxion 
 
 
III
Kitrin qadishin de-malka
sparks the ocular veil
 
as a pleromatic double
saturated with phenosplits
and pitoptics
 
the solipsistic gash
the homiletic drone  
 
all are residues
in a lexical warp 
 
 
IV
Morphe die gestalt
its limit in scintillae
the transbase
 
ratifies the iconic
swell black 
 
(kein ding sei wo das wort
gehricht zur dichtung)
 
to tape down
the tongue

morphe die gestalt

—Irene Koronas

Joshua Martin, Relent, thigh BoNe of the Hinges

 

thigh BoNe of the Hinges
image by Daniel Y. Harris 

Relent, thigh BoNe of the Hinges

 

: : : : : inference => lOOphOlE => referential pOUrINg

wAtchTowEr PIN=WHEEL rhyming scheme <= , |

warning, vibrating ragamuffin diet PiLLs loosening

cued UP drowning munitions,,,,, / / => out-of-the-way

PoInTs ^{[in time, stepping over daydream typhoon crash test dummies]} ,,

weight u^poⁿ shrinking weightlessness | =, =, =, * * * * *

PROVEN ?? ¿¿ * * * * * , less than factual memorial

remote control plunger : : > ‘Is this a rack of proverbial

malfunctioning twilight or, merely the unstable ironing

bOArd running OUT of spaCE to saunter?????’ < , , , , ,

NewT, ScooT, looming that pulls strategic falling asleep

branch of intergovernmental maleficence => POKE-

POKE-POKE, a punch bowl of grammatical instability

ice cream segment =>

                 *ERROR >

                 *ERROR >>

                 *ERROR >>>

                 *ERROR >>>>

                 *ERROR >>>>>,

                                         

                       the coda book beckons wild-eyed palm trees

                       to cuddle up against cloth robes / / / fuming

                       backwards squawking slinky swing lo sweet

                       cherry pie known quantum screwdriver orb!

 

! => ! => ! => !
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ questionable kleptomania ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
                                   aquatic boxing RiNg Tragedies,,,,,
,,,,, (((((?&&&&&&&&&&))))) =>
 
                       cccccccccc
                       rrrrrrrrrr
                       aaaaaaaaaa
                       cccccccccc
                       kkkkkkkkkk
                                            => / where, lies, sodden,
                                                     academic, cursive,
                                                     mockery, pigeon, hall,
                                                     maniacal, priggish,
                                                     hollowed, sumptuous / =>, =>
 
> : | shore^line l^eave p^atrol mincing helium geriatric
        l^eaning s^yndrome of z^ealous curving sprite gastric
        b^ooks_helves reminiscent : p^ony, p^outy, p^etering out
        =ward M^oT^oR distinction policy hair^cut sigh | : : : : :
                     <, <, ////////// ^ !fellowship
                                                        monkey
                                                        striding
                                                        felt tip
                                                        skeleton! ^ =>, =>, =>, =>,
 
                 dOwN
                 TroDDeN winking pancake coffee PoT sTePPiNg
though portal => timed
                                desert missionary d
                                                                 r
                                                                 ooling     (
‘When Must Raw Aptitude Frolic
Beneath Synthetic Promenades?’
                                                             ), =>
 

                   

 

end-to-end mannequin wormhole duvet, [a cover^up?, a
filing cabinet space^ship cleanse] => RANT! RAVE! save
thy sKiN fOr AnOthER sneaking IN=PUT: voluminous
NaIlS rEgArdIng fRieD ethereal MOLD: windowLESS
scratching post consuming fluidity, [rented heart valve]
: recessive, shaven, bedridden OYSTER chip-clip : : : : :
> ‘Whose dancing winter coat made seething diatribes
a balancing beam?’< , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
               H
               U
               R
               R
               I
               C
               A
               N
               E => hissssssssssssssssssssing
psychobabble BLACKHOLE , [avoid! AVOID! AVOID!]
                                          *cost-effective shovel*,
      , /, /, /, /, / (paramount toffee SCRAMBLE) =>, =>
allergic oppositional sawblade or:
                                                 is this metallic whimsy
                                                 the left side of a chimney
                                                 propulsion suction cup?
                                                                                        ? ? ? ?
 
undulating SCALES pleasurably electrocuted inside a
brown paper muffin TOP dIsCo bAll shark FIN => =>
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
                     see=saw
                     PSALM =>
, approximated PoWeR strip,
                                 a Pole?
                                   a Drawer?
                                     a Robotic fingernail kissing BOOTH?   
 

          

 

> | : ballOOn envy,, A ridership AwArD / clumps-
        CLUNKY-creeping alabaster disaster pILL,
        => ‘complain! restrain! ascertain! => => ,
        scanning the fields, / burying the gulf stream
        child=hood vinyl NuRsErY rhyme OINK-oink-
        OINK (?!) , => CRASH, as inside a stovepipe
        angelic slippage may result in the reversal of
        bold doppelganger toilet bowl power struggle
        washing machine invisibility : | => => => =>   
                                                     EVERY
                                                     THING
                                                     MADE
                                                     COMPLEX, =>
                  wavering YaRn =>,
, , , , ,
WEAKENING, dramatic alienation effects
battling run-of-the-mill appendages => => =>
                                                   : ‘Was
                                                      this
                                                      sunbeam
                                                      Yours
                                                      To Give?????’ : : : : :
     >deletion<
             >dire<
                   >CTRL<, cumbersome cathedral
                                   spiraling before a NUT=
                                                                    CRACKER
                                                                    TablECLotH, , , ,
          IN=
               JECTION, at
the rOOt CANal incision,
                                          offering
                                          scissors To a MiMe : : : : :
wow! wow! wow!
                          ‘ouch!’
                                    the tearful SuRgE,
       wander [sundry dialectic shock tactics] =>
                insignia ON THE EDGE,
                                                    MAKING
                                                    A MOCKERY
                                                    OUT OF A
                                                    THEORY =, =, =, =, =,
 
* ^^^^^in ORBIT^^^^^ *
linguistic farting / altruistic sobbing /
                                          : guilty
                                            as discharged :
             w^rung i^nterior c^rabs
                  forging PaW PrintS, horny
                                                        disputed
                                                        bombshell => => =>
bishops bending before bonfires blindfolded, wayfaring
musical interlude goes:
                                          ooo
                                          ooo
                                          ooo
                                          ooo
                                          ooo
                                          ooo , => re=BORN
as a questionable thought BuBBlE : quench
                                                                 thine
                                                                 sparkling
                                                                 monstrosity : : : : :
 

       

   

       SPRINKLE-SPRINKLE
       , the lilting dimension
       from which cosmic vacuums make light sockets
shiver:              mysterious
                          MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
                                               / =>
 

—Joshua Martin

László Aranyi, Sick (visual senryū), et al.

 Sick (visual senryū)

Pirate map (visual haiku)

From mud (visual poem)

The Glitch Poetics of Jeff Bagato

 

dole plot
 
     clasp any grab bag
 
         settle in
    it wages max flit
 
           presage arg.
 
   tolent       matte       flap-
                doodle
 
      pret a porter
 
            paddle up a
                  creek
        the wrong way
 
and the flay max
               again
 
        same way
    it meets
              the middle
 
 
badge of dolor
       addle plant gone
                 sour
 
  forge           |
  force           |
                     >    time
  farce           |
  face            |
 
a magical mystery
     menacing mag lev
 
  rip chain
 
ages of man
        aren’t that long
 
battle to the sitz
 
      wasp wash
 
  wiggle way
 
agreed
       to greet
           greed
   on its own terms
 
placement of toon
 
a day in the mines
 
 
Arriba malfunction
        weighty tiff
 
class pinochle
 
      rubber dinghy
  gone flat
            in the middle
 
  puss
    pass
      piss
        pus
          posh
 
there in a minute
 
     a leap of agree
 
grease the spiel
 
    the spindle
            is too
 
 
regular quill
              nib talent
 
    this marks the spot
 
renewal revolution
          by standard
               parkers
 
      elevate the elephant
           a balloon
      dirigible dreams on
                                high
 
air
  this
     out
 
abject interrogative
       one more question
           for the history
    of clans
          (stands)
 
tapes run to magnetic
             dust
       pages run too
 
 
scrap grind hotel for markers
       a leak, slow
    reaps its rewards,
           the assault
       the edifice thru a
                  weak spot
       low down
 
   mandibles lick
           whittle most stuff
      not worth a penny
 
        leave it behind
               you leave
           it behind
 
    behind where
          old treasures
       lie dead
 
games get there faster
 
    most are just swell
 
& everybody’s fine
 
taps patent faite entre
 
      un agent de son
 
tell client
     make max
   widge authorized
                   equivalent
 
manifested and see
 
     what limits can do
 
              for you
 
trail teller and reader
      pick up
           tells to make clear
 
     a guest against
 
         areas of more
 
 
wailing watcher weight
            spine spinner
      clan towel
                  wash exactly
 
     wish expertly
 
            a strategy
         of dawn
                   a plan
                for future
           invisible
                    excisions
 
a jillion keeps
       a man
            in fettle
 
   farce in fruit
 
   force in front
 
   fence farther
 
to borders of deed
 
game life atoll
 
   wandering wish kit
 
tell me more
 
        delay clash
 
   flight response, movie
               hex value
 
  trading, tell me
             as far as it goes
       to the season
               to the bank
   banking score bonus
 
   points for tools
 
       tools for living
 
 
change delinquent
          flick forever
                 and a day
   not wrong anymore
 
        not reject
 
made in image
       maiden again
    a flame burning backward
 
      inside out fire
    cold keeping
            within it
         all that glitters
                glows
  shines a light
         into darkness
     remaining dark
 
replaced for everything
        everything placed
            against
                  everything
       or else
 
anti-rule characterized
                as waste
 
       leave off
              opposite
 
        draining a wound into
                  rivers where
   better water was
               found
 
       daylight tenant
             intended additional
         piece of benefit
 
         as a fiction
 
            risk & contrary
 
       a liability
 
 
—Jeff Bagato