Assembled from works by Ryan P. Kinney
By Elandra Fritzsche with original content

There is a game I play
It is one I play all by myself
With a million other players
It is called Adulting
The game is simple
All you need to do is follow the rules
All you need to do is listen
All you need to do is
Grow up

Grow up
It is something people tell you to do all your life
Grow up and act your age
Even when you are supposed to still be a child
Grow up

At 14 I started playing the game
Partially convinced that growing up meant
Getting the hell away from my parents
And being absolutely certain that if I did not
One of us would be dead

For years I played the game
Earned my keep
Took a wife
Bought a house
A mortgage
An expanding weight line

I followed the rules
I played the game
I fixed my house
I worked hard
I did the things that married men should routinely do with their wives
I had grown up

But I wanted to be lost
The game was not as fun as I thought it would be
I wanted to remember what it was like to be found
But found within myself

They say that all rules are meant to be broken
And so breaking them is just what I did
Slowly
Quietly
Secretly
On weekends I smashed TV's
Torched Barbie dolls
I kept my toys in my closet
My comic books in heaps
I swept the remains of broken rules away
As to keep them hidden
For awhile

Then suddenly
I was gone
To find myself
Among the ashes
Of the rules I had broken
And burned to keep hidden
To find that the world covered in ashes
Was the world full of color that I knew before the game was played

I looked for a way out of the game
And so back to school I went
The toys came out of the closet
My comic books worn like bandanas
Hanging from my back pocket

But once again after the time had passed
They wanted me to play the game
To grow up
I had tried
It didn't work out very well

Give me my childhood
The freedom I had had before the game was played
Give me all the things that come with it
But please don't make me play

I do not follow the rules
I do not like them much
This is not a game I want to play
I lost the first round already
Do I have to play again?

by Kevin F. Smith, Casey Kizior, JM Romig, Danielle Romig, Rick O’Donnell

How did we let this happen?
A new era begins
For the worse
I will not be silent

We thought for sure the end was near-
I held you close, our hearts racing in sync
the alarms screamed in our ears
that we were on extinction’s brink
and then our phones all bleeped and screeched

All of a sudden, the ground is on fire
It started so harmless, so small, so contained
Now flames eat everything, from the center out
The fire crumples leaves into smoke, cracks twigs, dissolves whole trees into ash
Spreading, expanding, destroying
When will it stop?
When it is all consumed.
Is this a dream?
Please let it be a dream.

The deck falls out from under my feet at an angle of 15 degrees by the bow
My shipmate asleep in berthing remain undisturbed
The light from the stairway casts my shadow
My stomach knows the hydraulics to the planes of the submarine have failed.
The planesman has 3 seconds to switch to manual
Before the sub will slip to the bottom
My heart counts the second for me
The deck rises to a zero bubble
An even plane
I climb the stairs
It’s my watch to drive the boat

False Alarm- we unclench our teeth
And took a breath – and weep
For we knew not what else to do

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Assembled by Casey Kizior
From works by Cee Williams, Lennart Lundh, Chuck Joy

I never really cared
for surprises

I would not have chosen need
or desire, or slamming doors
or clamoring up when all the world is silent

in the morning I spit blood
into the sink and rinse
and walk the dog and try to forget
about the things dreams bring

What the hell color were your eyes?

they love what is there
because it is there
to love

among the strengths
less well-developed strengths
among the consequences
more unfortunate consequences

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Assembled by JM Romig
From works by unknown, Ryan P. Kinney, Vicki Acquah

transparent creatures
“God ******* ******.”
I need to know
I want to read your soul
in and out

your forgotten memories
sun-warmed nostalgia
Wasteland and doomsday

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Assembled by Casey Kizior
From works by Ryan P. Kinney, Heather Munn, Gabriella Ercolani, unknown

I am passion, energy, and volatility
Mangling nuance out-of-order.
The will is infinite and the desire, boundless
Live every moment like you mean it,
Or you might as well be dead.

I will violently and passionately take exactly what I want
I imagine the melding
Of your face and mine.
Beautiful Blasphemy
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine
And I would accept no less

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Assembled by Casey Kizior
From works by Ryan P. Kinney, Aaron Kasunic, Terry Provost

Are you really going to let him win that easily?
Yeah, he’ll catch you eventually
When the deadline looms…
Delve into your fantasies and escape
Color, light, warmth. And fear itself.
In the end,
The world will never be the same again.
But you’ll give him the run of your life



Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Assembled by Danielle Romig
From works by Vicki Acquah, Mark Antony Rossi, Ryan P. Kinney, Dr. Benjamin D. Anthony, Gabriella Ercolani, Sheena Zilla, JM Romig

Splash, Splash I was taking a bath during global warming;
How many times has rain ruined my day
There enough pain to make the whole world shed tears.
I’m still plodding on
One foot in front of the other
Cracks are wide open; slipping through them is easy
Hear the sound of fighting to the south and the west
We all stuck here waiting to be casualties

As you wipe the days work from your forehead.
In the empty spaces
everything fades to black.
If time is fluid, like the oceans
Then maybe I’m glancing over as a wave breaks
I know that you may not see it now, but time really will heal these wounds.

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019