the screen
the keyboard
the small room
the closed door
locked door
closed window
blinders keeping
the sun away
a chair
an empty stomach
protesting against
tequila
more tequila
ready
you can write now
writing setup
Some people eat dreams
Some people eat dreams
for
breakfast
and
lunch
and
dinner
and it's not even because
they can't afford food
Girls with glasses are cute
Girls with glasses are cute
but that's only what I think
and she doesn't agree
so she's wearing contact lens
and she's losing them more
often than not
and the house becomes
a minefield
and we have to thread
lightly
it's just a small apartment
it shouldn't be that hard
to find them or the
one that got lost
when only one got lost
she would use the other
and cover her other
eye and look around
and point things and tell
me to turn them over so
she could take a better look
and I would sometimes
say "I told you"
but I no longer do it
I look under the cover
and the pillows
and the sheets
and the carpet
in shoes, under them
pockets, corners, folds
sink, toilet, tub
one day
she covers her free eye
and uses the other one
to look at her phone
"Really now?" I say
on my knees, searching
in shoes
she shows me her phone
and what I see is a bottle of
perfume
"Been wanting to get this
for a while now," she says.
"After this I'm seriously gonna."
I take a better look at the thing
and by gods
no
it's not a perfume bottle
not in that sense anyway
its description says
that you spray the things
you lose often with it
and your pet dog, being addicted
to the smell, will find them
for you
I drop the shoe down at my feet
and sit back and laugh
for about a full minute
When I'm done she's out
of the room
And I shout after her
"I don't believe in buying dogs,
I told you."
I don't believe in buying dogs
You either adopt them
or don't have them
but please, whatever you do,
don't ever spray stuff on the
stuff that comes in contact with
your eyes
okay?
the lengths some people will go to kill butterflies
I visited my girlfriend in the hospital
after her appendicitis operation.
she looked good
and her smile made me smile
"I made a friend," she told me.
There had been another girl in the room with her
and this girl,
she was in the hospital because she sprayed a whole
can of bug repellent into a cup and drank it
"Why?" I asked.
"Oh, well," said my girlfriend. "You wouldn't understand.
Let's just say she wanted to kill the butterflies
in her stomach."
"Okay."
adopt a demon tonight
adopt a demon tonight
and if you're a writer
she'll help you become a
great one even
It is worth exposing yourself
to her
You won't call her a demon,
of course. That term is offensive
You'll refer to her as The Muse,
your muse
and she will visit you when the
time is right
and the time will be right
when you start doing your thing
You'll see.
What’s a man when all the wars are over?
he watches the rain like
it's alive
but he feels less alive himself
behind him
the house turns dark
its last light going off
don't turn back
don't look back
keep going ahead
and maybe another house
and another wife
will open up before you
or maybe there'll be another
war coming
and the nation will need
your service
again
this time the fear shall be
less intense
The first time
someone points
a gun at you
you're terrified
the second time's the same
third
forth
and so on
but eventually there comes
a time when you
run out of people
to point guns at you
fifth
twelfth
forty-third
and none of them make you
feel like her eyes
watching from the window
behind the curtains
and no pulling of the trigger
and no bang
is like her voice screaming
at the kid to go away, to not look
"A stranger! That's what the
man outside is. And I'm calling
the police if he keeps staring like that.
DON'T!
you dare look at him. Go to
your room. Now."
What's a man when all
the wars are over?
A squirt gun against the sun.
His good hand, the one with
whole and working fingers
reached into an inner pocket
of his uniform, found
nothing.
He walked on
And it rained on
And there were no more wars
as long as you have me
"You might lose
your way one
day
but you'll never
lose me
I'm your desire
to get better
As long as you
have me
you'll keep
going."
that's what he wrote on the
back of his daughter's photo
Today makes a full year since her death
he put the photo under the front cover
of his first published book
and went back to writing what would
soon be the second
them too
It's that simple
Just sit down with it and don't
do anything else
It works
It's the way to write
and you'll do it
once you understand
that it's
distractions
and not the so called
writer's block that's holding you back
you can't get
rid of writer's block by
force
but you can get rid of distractions
by force
Just do it.
Kill them.
Kill them all so
you can be happy.
And then get rid
of distractions too.
this time monster
It robs us of a lot of things,
this time monster
Robs us of youth
of life
of pleasure
of sleep
of high
of being drunk
or being sober
having a full stomach
freedom
love
patience
health
peace
and we're ok with it
ok with it all
except for one thing
we can never forgive this time monster
for robbing us of our dreams
it is the one unforgivable offense
but it does so to take revenge,
this time monster
he kills our dreams only when we kill it
and this battle happens so much that
we came up with a word for it
I think it's procrastination
as if to speak aloud is to draw the anger of the gods upon you
evolution is when you no longer
write about money and sex
and booze and violence and
change the subject to
cats and leaves and the passage of time
and the waiting, the great waiting
for death
evolution is when you
no longer talk about it to others
except yourself
you do it and you shut your mouth
about it
if there's something you have to say
you say it through the writing, not through
the spoken word
you must cast the spoken word out
of your system
as if to speak aloud is to
draw the anger of the gods upon you
that's commitment
and you need commitment if
you are to evolve
Daydreaming as a profession 