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Aug 2023 · 101
Nemesis Bastards
Walter Alter Aug 2023
the heavens had fallen
woe coiled about the earth
while his muse plucked the singing arrows
sticking out of his chest like harp strings
a mythical epic tearing into the clouds
a force for liberation in touch with its inertias
jiggling the ultimatums like **** on a treadmill
her radiant ***** lit the sunset like a comet
which doesn't come up in my spell checker either
anyhow charmed into her black widow arms
in front of a massive god-hewn stone altar
the peasants were praying to their media gods
the sky was torn off its thundering hinges
and cast under the hooves of their black unicorns
hurling us listlessly into the era of detail
which merely requires confrontation every time
the nemesis ******* print their news
with rhinoceros horn hammers on your head
Beauty's ******* sister Justice screams
laughing at the improbabilities
of a longish gauntlet running puzzle
right when you think you have it
they got you by the lips the nemesis *******
a shelf full of pain killers for your every move
I guess it's because rain is simpler than love
guess again was her habitual greeting
so we pounded until the bed broke
from the seething energies of speculation
spitting boiler sparks nostrils filled with soot
I saw through it all every granule
life is discovery in every banal instant
which makes it not so banal
seen from under a rustling riverbank willow
the wheat stalks were golden with fruit
still mortal after all these tears
an occasional sitcom laugh track ******
arise ye wretched derelicts
from trailer park to metropolis
I promise you a Jacuzzi spa
filled with the juice of nectarines
from the semi-divine Army of Grace
on every unlit street corner
a beer soaked rebuttal follows
while we feast upon the carrion of
plagiarists and Kafka magistrates
dead as a toad under the traction wheel
the world needs a gigantic Spring Break
an earnest burlesque before God's breezy perch
my head is now a gravitational anomaly

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 59
Addding It All Up
Walter Alter Aug 2023
my agent grew nervous when he discovered
like the rising sun on a sea of shark fins
that one must gauge and become the gauge
what is it that heralds an improved model
claiming to have superior knowledge
my hospital masturbates immobilized patients
the cure rate is astounding
it’s all in how we conceive ourselves
the oil and tincture panaceas
were giving me intestinal upheaval
but my inner cephalopod still had
a couple of pots of ink in him
and swore by his mother's *******
when info comes a-knocking
best let it find a seat unaided
everyone rigs the game of perception
permanently defiled by propaganda
we all want to be authentic
so gimme the straight story for once
the world may not owe us a living
but it does owe us an explanation
I think it all has to do with
branching cascades and nested infinities
is it rain on the roof or radio static
reports are that it's a burlesque sitcom
there's a lady in the front row
bearing her profuse ******* at me
I am made dizzy and quickly hypnotized
turns out the dowser was right she’s KGB
and I'm hoping to be the lucky stud
that gets to climb her endorphin ladder
in an experimental courtship ritual
so we rubbed pudenda to dawn
and she let me hear her secret name
it's still secret
her guillotine blade warm and wet
cut through me like a 3 dollar car wash
must have been the stoning squad's day off
tarred and feathered instead
OK why 3 d's for you double meaning fetishists
I'll tell you but you must obey my commands
they are buried throughout this message
because 3 is the logo of the ta tas of Venus
and he'd rather be thundering back at Zeus
which got him everything he wanted
not so much money clothes concubines
since he didn't set out to establish

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
an empire of invisible *******
but he was a free man
free to disintegrate periodically
which is why my advice is to keep
something for yourself no matter what
Aug 2023 · 79
The Post in Postmodern
Walter Alter Aug 2023
he rubbed his eyes
and said you just think that way
so you always have an answer ready
which may well constitute
a state of pure distraction
in a dog lick dog kind of world
at Cathode Ray's tanning salon
scene of criminal degradations
with multiple jaw grinding *******
from a terrestrial point of view
I'm not sure high above the clouds
is the place to find anything
certainly not a mirror to be had
much less a cinema projector
with scenes of domestication
Reginald sneezed his false teeth
into his dinner plate as an augury
probed prodded palpated
looking for the intelligentsia
in the oracle's personnel roster
their attempts to overthrow evolution
led to a cornucopia of calamity
at the crossroads of conundrum
traded their opposable thumbs
for a certifiably reliable statistic
the atmospherics garbling
the ivory tower transmissions
and made anyone look like a prophet
and bearers of unintended consequences
left my friends hanging from lamp posts
adulterers heretics and infidels
cataleptics ablaze with legend
trained by undulating biblical harlots
tending their hornet infested gardens
avoiding the irredeemably antique
remaining inexact to a criminal degree
in the war between belief and certainty
my script supervisor just pulled the plug
he's not from Sesame Street
he's from Bastille Boulevard
the artist is bait and accident prone
opaque as an 8 ball at high velocity
caroming through every nave and vestibule
bladder control found again
in the midst of bourgeoisie panic
a meditation of involvement
I'm going where

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
the disorder of discovery is tolerated
Aug 2023 · 66
This Cruise is Over
Walter Alter Aug 2023
the only tree for a thousand miles
gave him welcome if temporary shade
a kaleidoscope of improvising mockingbirds
bowing its branches to the ground
it was no longer possible to be blind
but very possible to be jailed
for being unaware of our surroundings
being that we are panphibians capable of TV
wracking our brains for the worst solution
banding bending binding bonding bunding
a moth eaten panorama of agonies
everything still broken the breakers unpunished
our narrative not telling anyone anything new
that's my drooling occupational therapy grin
it's gotten me out of more than one derailment
when life becomes the guillotine basket
or worse a juggernaut of corporate ambition
with what do we gauge the unseen
or is it just a bigger cage
don't let the too friendly ignoramuses
sell you your own real estate
or the latest discoveries in hysteria research
from the Intergalactic Whats Next Council
acting in accord with the endorsed statistics
make their forgeries more aerodynamic
daily nightly I try to be less stupid
a simple formula designed for
the sweet gurgling idiot infant within
out cold but still in the game
now you got me laughing
momentarily dazed and surprised
a logic shovel upside the head
not exactly free from connotation
as most doors don't open themselves
meanwhile somewhere back in history
the Dog Clan had trouble finding women
with eight abundantly lactating teats
well that assuredly opened up the lid
to the near empty spare parts bin
apparently his bulging eyeballs
were on full creme d'menthe death ray
the universal sense of alarm just went off
wailing it's not all brain chemistry
he spoke many tongues in faucet mode
the ramifications came tumbling out
but often heading in opposite directions
while the oppressive crows circled
where the Wizard parks his wagon
and every home from Kansas to Atlantis
instituted upon their wiggling spawn
a reign of madness terror
and ballroom dancing

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 67
Dialog Coach
Walter Alter Aug 2023
I was having a dialog
with my inner shock collar
a present from my Fairy Godmother
who had trimmed the hedge
into leafy mammals with teeth
ready to protect the perimeter
and as sure as incisors segue to molars
they tore loose from their leashes
and got into a backwoods shootout
with my photosynthetic gene pool
naturally they haven't told me yet
if this is a suicide mission
or a symphony of implications
making up for the rib dog years
darkness fell like tank treads
Fairy Godmother had a gun to my head
the phone rang louder than usual
it was my mob connected uncle
Benny Tarfingers from Roofer's Local 911
we'll be happy to fix your little problem
for a small consideration went the voice
I gladly gave them both eyes
they now see what I see
so the joke was on them ha ha
Benny wanted me to tell all of you
hep cats and hepatic kittens
that the Devil made him do it
that's is precisely why he's the Devil
faith can blind God bless you
my shock collar jolted the **** out of me
for overlooking far too many clues
I caught on quick and started screaming
something between 110 and 220
since all is a multiply indexed display
and I had to stop censoring my perceptions
well that diagram got him mad
so I followed with a quick trim
our **** eaters were an ineluctable force
seemed to do the trick
playback being the payback
and burnt the collar to a crisp
requiring a rapid tactical egress
wrapped in the fabled Cloak of Naiveté
good work went FGM AKA Godzilla
you must have strayed far to find this
the solution is to try comparing notes
with people who compare notes
and a pleasant sentimental mood
settled over the land

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 48
Pimp in a Fur Suit
Walter Alter Aug 2023
on behalf of the little guy
deep behind enemy territory
welcome to the nameless republic
all good capitalists want a monopoly
all good physicians need you sick
the National Antidote Party
broke down the door last night
I told them everything I know
so they let me off the meat hook
loosened my bindings and necktie
hammered nails in my head instead
powerful radio transmitter nails
don't get too close I'll bend your spoon
gimme a shot of Moonbeam barkeep
and a round for my ill-bandaged crew
we'll drink to the muse Pandemonia
don't get too close she’ll bend yer crank
with another specious spectacle
not necessarily Beauty's anointed
but a piston riding party girl nonetheless
I let you touch happy place
and now my theory on the blinding of Oedipus
which first off requires a family unit
for the inherent predispositions of childbirth
the gist being that blind families cause blind children
they made me walk upon magic carpet tacks
so me and my echo are here a little late
and a little paraplegic and screaming headaches
this is after all a holy epic of missionary zeal
from the sands of Delirium to the banks of Delusia
a simultaneous ambiance one for each eye
an ancient art form somewhat updated
coordinating the cascades of impulses
yet still black as the inside of a cow
I mean crow I mean cro magnon
stainless steel dentures askew again
this epic deals with a touchy subject
the smug snotty intercession of the gods
pull down your hat real tight mister
we're going for a little joy ride
where anything including countries
can be bought sold and stolen
by the mutilators of comparison
hardwired and proud of it the fools
built for Survival the TV show
but times change and nowadays
survival meant finding parking
and one can escalate from emaciation
to farting obesity overnight
we know only one thing for certain
that the Universe is knowable

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 77
Engine of Didactic Beauty
Walter Alter Aug 2023
college is a lot of fun dad
today we hanged the psychemetrics professor
and that's how break dancing began
in yesterday's semaphore seminar we learned
that excessive nuance can make you crazy
the human mind is but a word game
the right combination gets you in
otherwise a Hieronymus Bosch picnic
at the edge of the Lake of Fire
but sometimes I digress menacingly
into the blazoned uncharted subjective
the campus necromancers are not house trained
consequently they can read spoor like a road map
Professor Phoebe lifted her dress and squatted
took an interpretive dump in the snow
which rapidly melted into its own hole
in the shape of a lyric parallelogram
and I contemplated a change of career path
since majoring in cognition is a tricky business
one marginally deduced sink hole after another
wrack your nurture brains for the nature solution
working with the pharmacy to create a better world
don't you roll your eyes at me
or you'll get a lecture on the mood swing paradigm
when you outwit the voices you have won
quiz on the interior pantheon this Wodenstag
we'll prepare the way of pain
with a ray of sunlight and save the world
believe that and you'll believe nothing is derived
our academicians went into wedge formation
it was an uprising over a lack of continuity
between the wild eyed number crunchers
and the pale tubercular simulation priesthood
the picture took on a vivid rosy hue
because it bled from every pore
where relativists appeal to universals
and tyrants call truth a tyranny
forced my conclusion all traps are invisible
which is why they are called traps
both sides are in on it do the math
it's political suicide everywhere
wisdom is just another commodity
and all vision is parallel up to a point
hold your head still see with your eyes
that's the continuity I'm talking about
the first university of its kind
an effortless engine of didactic beauty
this is obviously the partial reality from which
we piece together the rest of reality
the internal world derives from
the external one every ******* time

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 44
Well Here We Are
Walter Alter Aug 2023
at last he knows what
has been kicking his *** all these years
living a slow trauma smelling of empire
guardians of civilization on strike or asleep
concluding that non-conformists are all alike
but wait I am harsh this is all from memory
must have been the Kristalnacht last night
the simple concept fire is hot
does not have a subjective alternative
I tell you this with both lips
eyes watering from the smoke and prayers
in an instructive grand demonstration
of just the right amount
at just the right time
fortunately the farm subsidies
kept his garden of delight
in full Amsterdam trim
until Dr. *******opened his skull
in a state sanctioned inquiry
involving all manner of pageantry
gave me a jolly good boot up the ***
I'll tell you that right here right there
tweetering bluebirds now circle my head
the hum of life in there somewhere
most thoughts are unoriginal anyhow
you don't need a text balloon to survive
but it's a lot more contemporary
makes the aerodynamics a little smoother
my geneticist says I must be careful
several members of my family
have perished from documented cases
of spontaneous human combustion
must have fallen off the chameleon ride
but no matter they love you one day
hate your ashes the next go figure
not all internal signal input is valid
for this reason scalpels have been handed out
a National Dissection Day special
Nurse Lefty in her lightning bug suit
was just trying to get the job done
after the renunciation of befuddlement
and the realization she had fingers
that were much different from her toes
oh boy we're on another subject already
rhyming crocodile and Nile somehow
fighting fire with smoke see above
partially eaten in spite of the effort
even the effort was eaten
cough cough

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 53
The Defiance of Eve
Walter Alter Aug 2023
and lastly I'd like to thank my agent
Shifty Placard unkempt as they come
nutty as squirrel cheeks at the Ritz
a little like Santa Claus and Nero
Shifty made me walk the line
between the rolling green hills of home
and a great vacuuming nothingness
made me grow extra fingers and toes
to feebly hang on with
Shifty wasn't all bad but
you couldn't love him like a bag of fries
he wanted the whole chinchilla
yes an eater of souls but hey
souls far too often beg for it
based on observation mind you
we all dance screaming and chanting
clutching our genitalia in holy ardor
a spectacle of the ****** if you ask me
they can buy you with smoke and mirrors
and I'll have no part of it
well maybe just a little reflection
that's the entirety of my wisdom
but then there may be
a more appropriate momentary abstraction
so I shifted to a new agent
The Great Mundayne
and have been enjoying an easy retirement
at the Home of the Holy Retread
in a race against senility and publication
and always remember kids to
um I forget
it's the law of the jungle out there
the jungle part is real
the other is a functional if occasional overlay
a sea of hard infrastructure assets which
Mundayne’s assistant Vaselina Nudelman
had in spades undertaker spades
she triggered street lamp photocells
and her lips sparkled when she spoke
too much horsepower for the pavement
I'm going to do you
like I did Mr. President she said
in a voice like honey with ants
needless to say I fell
her spasms were remarkable
she had a bee hive between her legs
and the lights went out all across town
the key is how you got here
your soul is your ability to look inside
it doesn't need will to act
it needs the expectation
of an improved model

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 103
Grand Mal Seizure
Walter Alter Aug 2023
big Yawn Productions presents
the daytime drama Living Therapeutically
as others live randomly or habitually
you'll need a supply of 3-D glasses
and I know just the guy
a trailer park Samuel Becket
cheeks rosy like Mr. Stalin
sweeping up inside the dustbin of history
a loafer researching activity
with plenty of typos under his airbrush
did we mention the amnesia
mind like a document shredder
but as the italicized print will indicate
Big Yawn will take you back to a time when
we used facts to be stupid with
trained and armed to the arm pits
for the great battle between
the grunting instincts of ownership
and the suicidal embrace of empaths
cadavers of man and animal everywhere
though the limbless victims of the empaths
were more carefully arranged in rows
we had to take sides to survive
galley slaves of the world unite
oh yeah you're already united
chained to your oars and all
well then don't let the trolley
to the asylum leave without you
the inmates are management again
I banged my cage door for an eternity
Tex Lester the cowboy yodeler
came to my rescue somewhat
Tex once played 8 ball with the Devil
had to let the Devil win of course
swear to God for what it's worth
municipal records will prove my case
they have been weaving the world
back together since the first pencil
over a thousand murky generations
starting from the premise
that life is an unbridled miracle
yes logic is ardently anti-coercive
or is it vice versa where are my bifocals
one tends to go in the direction he's looking
intention being a common denominator
of some concentrated influence
Samuel's DOA toe tag read
tried to die with a smile on his lips
left only a cartoon grimace
had it most of his life
so it was hard to tell
if he was actually dead

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Aug 2023 · 71
Roto Rooter
Walter Alter Aug 2023
waved away from certain topics
Yolanda and her Singing Saw blade
captured the intellectual integrity
of a generation in readjustment
freedom springs from freedom of mind kids
so lock your shields and set your pikes
and whatever else unmasks the poseurs
making mischief upon civilization
with maximum police *******
weighed and calibrated by the
by the US Bureau of Insanity
warned by the masked men at Masked Men U.
we'll find out if your daddy raised a fool
habitually putting on a carefree face
clinging to childhood like a lost puppy
once again it's political suicide everywhere
the archetypes are tramping
through my head like Hitlerjugen
convulsed in the Little Death championship
strutting and hooting for a mate
will today's monster be tomorrow's arbiter of grace
Godzilla was eventually tamed was he not
he now does handyman work
invite him to come around some time
and get that squeak out of your turnstile
that feudal ignorance and superstition
start with whatever impedes your genius
laughter will watch your back
cognition is a word game
rally and carry the colors with insolence
like a glowing catalytic converter
streaking across the endless night
up where the power meets the grid
news flash we are way past neolithic
if your point of observation is outlawed
only the involuntary spasms will remain
and a persistent mania for theology
to be dissected like laboratory toads
and poked with battery wires
where pickpockets with scissors
leave your pants a bit breezy
while clicking the mouse button of God
in a well orchestrated decoy fiasco
tonight we have a knockout lineup
with lots of orange explosions
mastodon hair from the freezer
slapped on the bald spots
by a rapidly wilting imagination
strumming its ukelele in a hammock
burnt to a crisp in a flaming car wash
his soul finally attained its freedom
such as it was soot and ashes by then

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 80
The Dog is Talking!
Walter Alter Jul 2023
the numbers were in and it didn't look pretty
you people surrender your minds so easily
they dumb you down and you know it
they dumb you down and you let them
but it wasn’t exactly coercion either
basically the truth is we have many souls
most of them severe critics to be evaded
where they came from nobody knows
at the dawn of time a single drop of blood
fell on Mother Nature's pouting lips
then and there she was hooked forever
on the prodigality of infinite missuse
a million wasted ***** is no way to live
each one a potential productive manikin
random selection had done its worse
evil had survived the millennia just fine
well what any breathing human knows
is they can always do better next time
the point here is to insure a next time
it appeared that the world had been flushed
down the great stinking ***** pipe again
the old school mutates into the new school
goodbye old school
you have tried to become a national holiday
that no one feels the necessity to celebrate
needless to say the faculty weren't listening
and caroused down the lane into the woods
but it was too late for regret anyhow
the old school had initiated him
into the Clan of the Goat Poet
he sees where his next thought comes from
everything filled with clues is a clue itself
blindness is the human condition
idiocy is the subhuman condition
infantilism is the transhuman condition
anthropomorphism is the...somebody stop him
needless to say he dabbled in the grotesque
on a need to know basis so it was OK
I agree a cheap eruption of demagoguery
but you can't be free by hiding in a mirror
also I've been getting complaints
about vestigial blandness lately
my lawyers ****** & Bludgeon
had counseled caution in all things
so I lapsed into a 5 year walking coma
nothing to do but leave on the right note
with a casual wave and a simple **** it
in case you were wondering
everything is the way it is
so it would be believable

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 63
The Dog is Talking!
Walter Alter Jul 2023
the numbers were in and it didn't look pretty
you people surrender your minds so easily
they dumb you down and you know it
they dumb you down and you let them
but it wasn’t exactly coercion either
basically the truth is we have many souls
most of them severe critics to be evaded
where they came from nobody knows
at the dawn of time a single drop of blood
fell on Mother Nature's pouting lips
then and there she was hooked forever
on the prodigality of infinite missuse
a million wasted ***** is no way to live
each one a potential productive manikin
random selection had done its worse
evil had survived the millennia just fine
well what any breathing human knows
is they can always do better next time
the point here is to insure a next time
it appeared that the world had been flushed
down the great stinking ***** pipe again
the old school mutates into the new school
goodbye old school
you have tried to become a national holiday
that no one feels the necessity to celebrate
needless to say the faculty weren't listening
and caroused down the lane into the woods
but it was too late for regret anyhow
the old school had initiated him
into the Clan of the Goat Poet
he sees where his next thought comes from
everything filled with clues is a clue itself
blindness is the human condition
idiocy is the subhuman condition
infantilism is the transhuman condition
anthropomorphism is the...somebody stop him
needless to say he dabbled in the grotesque
on a need to know basis so it was OK
I agree a cheap eruption of demagoguery
but you can't be free by hiding in a mirror
also I've been getting complaints
about vestigial blandness lately
my lawyers ****** & Bludgeon
had counseled caution in all things
so I lapsed into a 5 year walking coma
nothing to do but leave on the right note
with a casual wave and a simple **** it
in case you were wondering
everything is the way it is
so it would be believable

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Walter Alter Jul 2023
from all identical to nothing identical
many exceptions to no exceptions
eventually deduced from the above
all deductions being eventual
that to have a spirit there must be suffering
now for the latest in strong arm technology
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates
that 13,013 food industry workers lost limbs
or other body parts in 2002 or was that 1001 ha ha
could make the butcher into a holy man
a 19th century ideology will do that to you
what this nation needs for **** certain
is a political high colonic with legs akimbo
he was from a long line of puzzle junkies
the trailer trash intelligentsia
bleeders dwarfs and lap dance assassins
in from the cold but still shivering
his autonomous mind shallow in a good way
no you’re right that is not possible
his recliner chair was his best friend
growing old and senile and blind
sitting for hours in the back yard
thistle weeds growing up around his car seat
the sun finally warmed his wondering body
and chrome towing ball head
run off the road from self examination
wailing an alert outward in all directions
setting fire to news vans ******* on reporters
for keeping us blind and stupid
the only thing not hypothetical is right now
where they ****** their own truth seekers
because the truth belongs to no one
yah they killed a lot of angels to get here
sure as the jitney starts and stops
but since the struggle is no longer for survival
that should tell you something
existence is apparently making a point
it's a tin can with a wire handle
God has mocked you a thousand times
well ding **** mock him back
and attain your victory through semiotics
you know the imperial rhetorical
more missing teeth every time
seeing two objects because you got two eyes
will work the hourglass to a standstill
his bruised face was a horrifying presence
basically I did it to make myself laugh
utilizing the latest Child of Defiance plug in

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 57
Cosmetic Brain Surgery
Walter Alter Jul 2023
his last gasp was quite lengthy
trying to go out with a bang as usual
a rationalist manifesto covering his face
accompanied by a cotton field work song
his grip went slack under the torrent of images
fortunes have been lost in that snapshot parlor
shook the money from the pockets
of many a surviving Siamese twin
blessed with a rugged set of mouse buttons
he pitched head first into the theocratic miasma
since a rescue by wisdom eluded his pilgrimage
and its inner parade of flailing penitents
he died to a real slow slide whistle tango
from a regrettable strangulation of debate
and terminally transparent eyelids
at least the ******* left me to my fate he mused
just as a legion of parachutists
crashed and tumbled through the roof
it was an Exist-o-Gram from my dear mother
but first a word from our sponsor
Hi there Mel Linger owner of Mel's Futon Corral
so jump in the calaboose and come on down
for a steal of a deal and a big gold tooth smile
clear and sunny in the lowland swamps
now for some traffic from overhead
fully awake after the reservoirs of hell broke loose
his mathematician’s mind calculated
how long until earthly paradise
it was a delusion but a lot of them work
time to risk the entire skin layer he fielded
searching for the trail to civilization
he shinnied up his collective unconscious
an optico semiotician on a paranormal safari
and began to read mom's holy missive
son your persistent mania for self dialog
requiring a frequent bath in statistics and terror
has left you under the juggernaut's wheels
for some fashionable occult mystery
humor him it's a mud fest in there
moms lips floated above and spoke
the Cherubs chirped and twittered
as he rowed over the spillway of oblivion
and stood before the ancient ones
boy were they ancient decrepit even
connected to great green bubbling flasks
by their bloated *** organs
apparently this made them really smart
the one labeled mom bubbled and spoke
the you you think is you is somebody else
later that day a marsh fire swept through Utopia
and a humming bird took nectar from his ear

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Walter Alter Jul 2023
we knew capitalism had turned ugly
after the first lemonade stand drive by
children denounced their parents
when their eyes were opened
to supply side economics
and demand side criminal enterprise
plunging on in a premeditated stupor
they floated between the tables
a jackpot here a jackhammer there
a cartesian Bingo bonanza elsewhere
going on but the scantiest of gossip
it's a fill in the blank world
where a suitcase full of dead mockingbirds
found on the late bus idling at the terminal
against the smell of ***** nightmares
constituted a reunion of the ever faithful
filling the night with interrogation
we had some exceptional men in our unit
dropped into trouble spots too hot to touch
setting up sensors and detectors and bait
scholars statesmen jurists bishops
and a bent maggoty reeking poet
a sleight of hand magnum opus abuser
surrounded by the burning bodies
of everyone he ever knew
yet all is not a ham bone up the ***
I had just cleaned up my syntax and grammar
with maple syrup and golden dairy butter
so I'll put off proofing this mess for another day
too old to dig up reliable proof anyhow
my brain's already in a specimen jar
it lived a mythical fairy tale life
worth a transfer to the end of the line
to the ancient carnival of phantoms
so I sent in my manicurist security guard
from the tropical hammock islands
their scissors going snip snip snip
rattling the bones of the dead
if this is just a make believe universe
I'd hate to see the real one
but I'm pretty sure space is continuous
and spewing rhyme out of the hearts of stars
but what the hell do I know
it all sounds so fresh and dewy
assuring me that people of greater densities
the beautific the anointed the the sanctified
**** up real stupid just like we do
forgive me but my thoughts have all been stolen
the end point is eluding me as a point
as an area we'll eventually get there

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 73
The Headless Man
Walter Alter Jul 2023
mom was a radically insolvent
courtesan of the underpass camps
exploited by a grim and grimy past
reckless as the day is long
hosting a tourism so shameless
her own union set her on fire
to prevent further such mortifications
I advised her to talk to her real self
and got 5 blank staring minutes
basically because she didn't have one
only an extremely accurate echo
but she was a rebel and I loved her
kept her head lice population down
just so she could tell me the occasional
bedtime story on an empty stomach
hear now the legend of the Headless Man
once and a long ago
lived a lonely man with no head
one of the many stigmatized gentry
in the long forgotten social media uprising
somehow he could see hear and gesture
even though the neck was a pink nub
but he was hung like a meatloaf
making maidens titter at the village well
sighing rolling their eyes gasping flushed
um wait where was I
ah yes ... he fell in love
with the Bodiless Woman of course
knowing she could be of some use
it's a story of egregious assumptions
a belching sewer of lust and depravity
a juggernaut of rash sensual ambition
um wait where was I
ah right ... in the village below
the holy men were belled into a caucus
around Rowena’s oracle head
they came as the ancient test required
to run barefoot across the fire pit
at Detroit Jimmy's Bad to the Bone BBQ
the winner was a few inches shorter
from the igneous victory tap dance
a ritual purification of the sense of motion
accompanied by stigmatas and signs of wonder
Detroit Jimmy married Nub and Rowena
in a cabbage patch ceremony under the stars
wicked little boy went Row
on their wedding night mud bath
work me like your first bag of fries
invited Nub in a spasm of disorder
and they rode upstate in his Rocket 88
the road spreading gently
like a great pastry

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 80
Grandma Rides her Broom
Walter Alter Jul 2023
Granny hit you with it you fly across the room
she was a 5th generation blue note hep cat
a finger popping bebop sister with double elbows
you can have your two bit Buddha garden
and your hope token miracle Jesus candles
Granny created man in a long jungle ****
an incomprehensible symphony of base instincts
yet a mind of superb palpable functionality
that could light up an airport bomb squad
when her mud ***** twerked the National Anthem
and her army of vinyl inflatable **** dolls
offer you their luge team thrill ride
in Grannyland your organs of perception
will spank down your organs of deception
then she can show you the birth of her world
never mind the Frankenstein lurching
occasionally possessed by paroxysms of logic
she told me that self-creation has its dangers
that discovering by mocking yourself
you are better able to live with yourself
there's a big hammer out there sweetheart
and it takes many guises she tutored
there is no authority other than
the congenital boot print on your face
that there can be said with authority
you square your corners or it's pinball 24/7
Granny's wunderkinder actually go to church
on the altar they burn condoms and debit cards
she reads from the ancient Aegean Thesaurus
fishing in the innards of conformity for signs
beyond confection to the great innocent core
where the chrome 49-51 split ***** in planets
some things are indivisible to yes or no
for reasons neither I nor my investors can fathom
and 10 minutes ago is already the quaint past
where literally everything goes unobserved
except for the changing room theft cameras
a useless expensive data handling system
visions of granny's ******* kept me going
kissed brave by her pouting fuchsia lips
tossing fetish gold down the well for luck
then the usual Hell's road show erupts
welcome home you are a freak like us she purrs
and the clock towers tumble to earth
cuz nothing lasts forever
Granny's last words were I'll teach you to hex
and wield the appalling incantation of Ur Ziggurat
******* love me as I am

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 59
Diagram Semiotics
Walter Alter Jul 2023
The serene people whose ease of manner
once made him yearn and confabulate
are laughable cartoonish and piteous now
could have been much worse he said
as his last breath left his scarred throat
feral hand closing his own eyes
St. Pudenda greeted him at the tall gates
under the lights at Checkpoint Charlie
Mariachi trumpets rolled out the mauve carpet
and a dog barked from behind the garbage bins
from all infinity we end up with this
a realm of syntax governed by ambiguity
she read from a large ledger atop a marble pedestal
why a ledger rather than a laptop is anyone's guess
apparently the vanguard party had been evicted
by Frankie Boxcars and the Hollywood mafia
many clouded eons ago in the great schism
over the digitization of paradise
no jury of his peers he noted with unease
nothing of telling import she imparted casually
eyes darting up and down the pages
as if something previously detected
had been airbrushed from history
arrested for self amplification she went on
and sorcery and coughing in quiet places
getting enough sleep she asked with a beaming smile
I don't know I was asleep he intoned
I suppose we can reveal the joke she mused
but I WAS dreaming he countered
backed into a tight corner by snarling lap dogs
tossed into a kidnap taxi with a sack over my head
marched with a gun in my back
through a forest of clichés
fed lines from a hideous new sitcom
about *** among the homeless
a weekly broadcast on the Piñata Vision Network
but what choice did I have knowing what I know
poor dear thing she continued
there is a better version of everything
a law of nature completely natural
and yes it is densely beautiful and
smoldering with awe like a corpse in the bathtub
try to avoid the truly grotesque
in favor of the marginally grotesque
we love having you in our science department
with the state secrets and ****** **** videos
masquerading as the way things actually are
where the misty cows moo in contentment
and the Vaseline runs hot behind sanctuary doors
horrors altering the course of suns
between the here and the there
every bit of it needless she giggled

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 266
Tin Can With a Wire Handle
Walter Alter Jul 2023
from all identical to nothing identical
many exceptions to no exceptions
eventually deduced from the above
all deductions being eventual
that to have a spirit there must be suffering
now for the latest in strong arm technology
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates
that 13,013 food industry workers lost limbs
or other body parts in 2002 or was that 1001 ha ha
could make the butcher into a holy man
a 19th century ideology will do that to you
what this nation needs for **** certain
is a political high colonic with legs akimbo
he was from a long line of puzzle junkies
the trailer trash intelligentsia
bleeders dwarfs and lap dance assassins
in from the cold but still shivering
his autonomous mind shallow in a good way
no you’re right that is not possible
his recliner chair was his best friend
growing old and senile and blind
sitting for hours in the back yard
thistle weeds growing up around his car seat
the sun finally warmed his wondering body
and chrome towing ball head
run off the road from self examination
wailing an alert outward in all directions
setting fire to news vans ******* on reporters
for keeping us blind and stupid
the only thing not hypothetical is right now
where they ****** their own truth seekers
because the truth belongs to no one
yah they killed a lot of angels to get here
sure as the jitney starts and stops
but since the struggle is no longer for survival
that should tell you something
existence is apparently making a point
it's a tin can with a wire handle
God has mocked you a thousand times
well ding **** mock him back
and attain your victory through semiotics
you know the imperial rhetorical
more missing teeth every time
seeing two objects because you got two eyes
will work the hourglass to a standstill
his bruised face was a horrifying presence
basically I did it to make myself laugh
utilizing the latest Child of Defiance plug in

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 361
The Dog is Talking!
Walter Alter Jul 2023
the numbers were in and it didn't look pretty
you people surrender your minds so easily
they dumb you down and you know it
they dumb you down and you let them
but it wasn’t exactly coercion either
basically the truth is we have many souls
most of them severe critics to be evaded
where they came from nobody knows
at the dawn of time a single drop of blood
fell on Mother Nature's pouting lips
then and there she was hooked forever
on the prodigality of infinite misuse
a million wasted ***** is no way to live
each one a potential productive manikin
random selection had done its worse
evil had survived the millennia just fine
well what any breathing human knows
is they can always do better next time
the point here is to insure a next time
it appeared that the world had been flushed
down the great stinking ***** pipe again
the old school mutates into the new school
goodbye old school
you have tried to become a national holiday
that no one feels the necessity to celebrate
needless to say the faculty weren't listening
and caroused down the lane into the woods
but it was too late for regret anyhow
the old school had initiated him
into the Clan of the Goat Poet
he sees where his next thought comes from
everything filled with clues is a clue itself
blindness is the human condition
idiocy is the subhuman condition
infantilism is the transhuman condition
anthropomorphism is the...somebody stop him
needless to say he dabbled in the grotesque
on a need to know basis so it was OK
I agree a cheap eruption of demagoguery
but you can't be free by hiding in a mirror
also I've been getting complaints
about vestigial blandness lately
my lawyers ****** & Bludgeon
had counseled caution in all things
so I lapsed into a 5 year walking coma
nothing to do but leave on the right note
with a casual wave and a simple **** it
in case you were wondering
everything is the way it is
so it would be believable

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 192
Tin Can With a Wire Handle
Walter Alter Jul 2023
from all identical to nothing identical
many exceptions to no exceptions
eventually deduced from the above
all deductions being eventual
that to have a spirit there must be suffering
now for the latest in strong arm technology
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates
that 13,013 food industry workers lost limbs
or other body parts in 2002 or was that 1001 ha ha
could make the butcher into a holy man
a 19th century ideology will do that to you
what this nation needs for **** certain
is a political high colonic with legs akimbo
he was from a long line of puzzle junkies
the trailer trash intelligentsia
bleeders dwarfs and lap dance assassins
in from the cold but still shivering
his autonomous mind shallow in a good way
no you’re right that is not possible
his recliner chair was his best friend
growing old and senile and blind
sitting for hours in the back yard
thistle weeds growing up around his car seat
the sun finally warmed his wondering body
and chrome towing ball head
run off the road from self examination
wailing an alert outward in all directions
setting fire to news vans ******* on reporters
for keeping us blind and stupid
the only thing not hypothetical is right now
where they ****** their own truth seekers
because the truth belongs to no one
yah they killed a lot of angels to get here
sure as the jitney starts and stops
but since the struggle is no longer for survival
that should tell you something
existence is apparently making a point
it's a tin can with a wire handle
God has mocked you a thousand times
well ding **** mock him back
and attain your victory through semiotics
you know the imperial rhetorical
more missing teeth every time
seeing two objects because you got two eyes
will work the hourglass to a standstill
his bruised face was a horrifying presence
basically I did it to make myself laugh
utilizing the latest Child of Defiance plug in

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 219
Cosmetic Brain Surgery
Walter Alter Jul 2023
his last gasp was quite lengthy
trying to go out with a bang as usual
a rationalist manifesto covering his face
accompanied by a cotton field work song
his grip went slack under the torrent of images
fortunes have been lost in that snapshot parlor
shook the money from the pockets
of many a surviving Siamese twin
blessed with a rugged set of mouse buttons
he pitched head first into the theocratic miasma
since a rescue by wisdom eluded his pilgrimage
and its inner parade of flailing penitents
he died to a real slow slide whistle tango
from a regrettable strangulation of debate
and terminally transparent eyelids
at least the ******* left me to my fate he mused
just as a legion of parachutists
crashed and tumbled through the roof
it was an Exist-o-Gram from my dear mother
but first a word from our sponsor
Hi there Mel Linger owner of Mel's Futon Corral
so jump in the calaboose and come on down
for a steal of a deal and a big gold tooth smile
clear and sunny in the lowland swamps
now for some traffic from overhead
fully awake after the reservoirs of hell broke loose
his mathematician’s mind calculated
how long until earthly paradise
it was a delusion but a lot of them work
time to risk the entire skin layer he fielded
searching for the trail to civilization
he shinnied up his collective unconscious
an optico semiotician on a paranormal safari
and began to read mom's holy missive
son your persistent mania for self dialog
requiring a frequent bath in statistics and terror
has left you under the juggernaut's wheels
for some fashionable occult mystery
humor him it's a mud fest in there
moms lips floated above and spoke
the Cherubs chirped and twittered
as he rowed over the spillway of oblivion
and stood before the ancient ones
boy were they ancient decrepit even
connected to great green bubbling flasks
by their bloated *** organs
apparently this made them really smart
the one labeled mom bubbled and spoke
the you you think is you is somebody else
later that day a marsh fire swept through Utopia
and a humming bird took nectar from his ear

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Walter Alter Jul 2023
we knew capitalism had turned ugly
after the first lemonade stand drive by
children denounced their parents
when their eyes were opened
to supply side economics
and demand side criminal enterprise
plunging on in a premeditated stupor
they floated between the tables
a jackpot here a jackhammer there
a cartesian Bingo bonanza elsewhere
going on but the scantiest of gossip
it's a fill in the blank world
where a suitcase full of dead mockingbirds
found on the late bus idling at the terminal
against the smell of ***** nightmares
constituted a reunion of the ever faithful
filling the night with interrogation
we had some exceptional men in our unit
dropped into trouble spots too hot to touch
setting up sensors and detectors and bait
scholars statesmen jurists bishops
and a bent maggoty reeking poet
a sleight of hand magnum opus abuser
surrounded by the burning bodies
of everyone he ever knew
yet all is not a ham bone up the ***
I had just cleaned up my syntax and grammar
with maple syrup and golden dairy butter
so I'll put off proofing this mess for another day
too old to dig up reliable proof anyhow
my brain's already in a specimen jar
it lived a mythical fairy tale life
worth a transfer to the end of the line
to the ancient carnival of phantoms
so I sent in my manicurist security guard
from the tropical hammock islands
their scissors going snip snip snip
rattling the bones of the dead
if this is just a make believe universe
I'd hate to see the real one
but I'm pretty sure space is continuous
and spewing rhyme out of the hearts of stars
but what the hell do I know
it all sounds so fresh and dewy
assuring me that people of greater densities
the beautific the anointed the the sanctified
**** up real stupid just like we do
forgive me but my thoughts have all been stolen
the end point is eluding me as a point
as an area we'll eventually get there

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 162
The Headless Man
Walter Alter Jul 2023
mom was a radically insolvent
courtesan of the underpass camps
exploited by a grim and grimy past
reckless as the day is long
hosting a tourism so shameless
her own union set her on fire
to prevent further such mortifications
I advised her to talk to her real self
and got 5 blank staring minutes
basically because she didn't have one
only an extremely accurate echo
but she was a rebel and I loved her
kept her head lice population down
just so she could tell me the occasional
bedtime story on an empty stomach
hear now the legend of the Headless Man
once and a long ago
lived a lonely man with no head
one of the many stigmatized gentry
in the long forgotten social media uprising
somehow he could see hear and gesture
even though the neck was a pink nub
but he was hung like a meatloaf
making maidens titter at the village well
sighing rolling their eyes gasping flushed
um wait where was I
ah yes ... he fell in love
with the Bodiless Woman of course
knowing she could be of some use
it's a story of egregious assumptions
a belching sewer of lust and depravity
a juggernaut of rash sensual ambition
um wait where was I
ah right ... in the village below
the holy men were belled into a caucus
around Rowena’s oracle head
they came as the ancient test required
to run barefoot across the fire pit
at Detroit Jimmy's Bad to the Bone BBQ
the winner was a few inches shorter
from the igneous victory tap dance
a ritual purification of the sense of motion
accompanied by stigmatas and signs of wonder
Detroit Jimmy married Nub and Rowena
in a cabbage patch ceremony under the stars
wicked little boy went Row
on their wedding night mud bath
work me like your first bag of fries
invited Nub in a spasm of disorder
and they rode upstate in his Rocket 88
the road spreading gently
like a great pastry

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 71
Grandma Rides her Broom
Walter Alter Jul 2023
Granny hit you with it you fly across the room
she was a 5th generation blue note hep cat
a finger popping bebop sister with double elbows
you can have your two bit Buddha garden
and your hope token miracle Jesus candles
Granny created man in a long jungle ****
an incomprehensible symphony of base instincts
yet a mind of superb palpable functionality
that could light up an airport bomb squad
when her mud ***** twerked the National Anthem
and her army of vinyl inflatable **** dolls
offer you their luge team thrill ride
in Grannyland your organs of perception
will spank down your organs of deception
then she can show you the birth of her world
never mind the Frankenstein lurching
occasionally possessed by paroxysms of logic
she told me that self-creation has its dangers
that discovering by mocking yourself
you are better able to live with yourself
there's a big hammer out there sweetheart
and it takes many guises she tutored
there is no authority other than
the congenital boot print on your face
that there can be said with authority
you square your corners or it's pinball 24/7
Granny's wunderkinder actually go to church
on the altar they burn condoms and debit cards
she reads from the ancient Aegean Thesaurus
fishing in the innards of conformity for signs
beyond confection to the great innocent core
where the chrome 49-51 split ***** in planets
some things are indivisible to yes or no
for reasons neither I nor my investors can fathom
and 10 minutes ago is already the quaint past
where literally everything goes unobserved
except for the changing room theft cameras
a useless expensive data handling system
visions of granny's ******* kept me going
kissed brave by her pouting fuchsia lips
tossing fetish gold down the well for luck
then the usual Hell's road show erupts
welcome home you are a freak like us she purrs
and the clock towers tumble to earth
cuz nothing lasts forever
Granny's last words were I'll teach you to hex
and wield the appalling incantation of Ur Ziggurat
******* love me as I am

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 78
Diagram Semiotics
Walter Alter Jul 2023
The serene people whose ease of manner
once made him yearn and confabulate
are laughable cartoonish and piteous now
could have been much worse he said
as his last breath left his scarred throat
feral hand closing his own eyes
St. Pudenda greeted him at the tall gates
under the lights at Checkpoint Charlie
Mariachi trumpets rolled out the mauve carpet
and a dog barked from behind the garbage bins
from all infinity we end up with this
a realm of syntax governed by ambiguity
she read from a large ledger atop a marble pedestal
why a ledger rather than a laptop is anyone's guess
apparently the vanguard party had been evicted
by Frankie Boxcars and the Hollywood mafia
many clouded eons ago in the great schism
over the digitization of paradise
no jury of his peers he noted with unease
nothing of telling import she imparted casually
eyes darting up and down the pages
as if something previously detected
had been airbrushed from history
arrested for self amplification she went on
and sorcery and coughing in quiet places
getting enough sleep she asked with a beaming smile
I don't know I was asleep he intoned
I suppose we can reveal the joke she mused
but I WAS dreaming he countered
backed into a tight corner by snarling lap dogs
tossed into a kidnap taxi with a sack over my head
marched with a gun in my back
through a forest of clichés
fed lines from a hideous new sitcom
about *** among the homeless
a weekly broadcast on the Piñata Vision Network
but what choice did I have knowing what I know
poor dear thing she continued
there is a better version of everything
a law of nature completely natural
and yes it is densely beautiful and
smoldering with awe like a corpse in the bathtub
try to avoid the truly grotesque
in favor of the marginally grotesque
we love having you in our science department
with the state secrets and ****** **** videos
masquerading as the way things actually are
where the misty cows moo in contentment
and the Vaseline runs hot behind sanctuary doors
horrors altering the course of suns
between the here and the there
every bit of it needless she giggled

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Walter Alter Jul 2023
I hope you don't mind
if I wander in through your front door
and reset your clocks to headlight savings
life requires humor he said to the lens grinders
who were eradicating global stupidity
with mass readings of children's fairy tales
same **** greater magnification was basically it
applying one clever artifice after another
one's conscience does want to hasten
the modern world along clippity clop
impediments to traffic flow were to be shot
what happened next is not in the dictionary
which is fine don't get me wrong
beats the nuts off a hunger for facts
but the world is not nice anymore
isolated pockets of apostasy perhaps
out in the bleak lizard sands hanging from a tree
but the rest stuffed with foam peanuts
that could turn you to ballroom dancing
your narrator being the test case
for daisy picking the numbers
the samples the statistics
the entire ABC unit was called in
from the chalk mines
and the XYZ crew was mobilized
from the slate quarry
his mind had turned upon itself
out of shame and envy
he had an entire city in his head
that wasn’t in Architectural Digest
honkings sirens gunfire breaking glass
compulgings and obsessities and hallucinotions
mysterias and distortoons and damplifications
may I add unregulated bowel flux
we haven't even begun to look at his libido
which had shrunk precipitously from
a roaring blacksmith's forge of intensity
to the vague expectation of an afternoon nap
better than living the prelude to a beheading
you decide if hiding in the bushes permanently
like a grinning jack in the box with a message
is the same as dancing through the forest
draped about in leaves and emeralds
pantomime after all is deception
random at first then shapes intervene
there is no random he said over and over
repetition is proof after all
they say the devil spoke Hebrew
and Popeye smoked his spinach
a contemporary exercise in
signal location

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 63
Etruscan Smile
Walter Alter Jul 2023
my soul is the shape of a bloodstain
in Nadine Maraschino feng shui garden
my right eye sits in the ruby voodoo goblet
that she keeps balanced upon her head
Nadine was a 3-toed egg laying harpy
architect of the Cauldron of Shame
but she used her brain cleverly
one hemisphere candor the other ardor
it was the mystic East ******* the mystic West
so said the gaming industry statistics
don’t believe me talk to my lawyers then
Circumstance & Circumstance
writs tarts and exonerations
they’ll tell you of the settlement
coded instruction to the next generation
Nadine's heart was big as a Halloween pumpkin
her white garments billowed all satiny
like clouds passing before the moon
we met in an emergency room
after I pulled my best pickup line
hi I'm a friend to the entire human race
and she countered with
want auntie Nadine to show you
how to be mama's big boy
a buzzard shadow passed over her face
she pulled me close and hissed
if no one wants to look foolish
why so many truth murdering fools
I weakly countered with
if thoughts are differentiated
one from the other then so are you
Nadine’s lizard tongue gave him
the secret of Perpetual ******
descending down his throat
like a black lung miner
how can you tell if it's morning noon or night
hint you'll need a sense of sequence
hers was a dangerous mission
for both covert and overt ends
the life's a ***** and then you die cynics
took us for a pack of numbskulls
well we were arrayed in a tatty splendor
consisting of zero camouflage
but there was no substitute for living large
even within the gates of Happy Valley
the slightly assisted living community
well hell we're all assisted
aren't we supposed to get smarter
as time scurries us along
and last I'd like to thank
my non-existent financial backers
for timely script development

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Jul 2023 · 94
Midnight Leg Cramp
Walter Alter Jul 2023
he parlayed a ****** full of nouns
in bold thrusts of the quill
for the para structuralist facilitators
many of them freeway orphans
who won't even read a stoplight
but on the other hand
there's a lot of other hand
upon hearing the chimes of midnight
I opened the door in wide anticipation
it was another surprise party
that I knew about all along
arranged by my body builder therapist
who was a notorious sadist
requiring humiliation ab astra
went in after my scenario gland
in an act of divine pity
sewed me back up real fast
couldn't handle the pixel rate
the audience shrieked and laughed
it was the great awakening
after the Treaty of Lucky Seven
in which all nations pledged
to honor their accidents and idiocies
as though they were instruments of divination
uh oh here comes my chiropractor
a known if homeless mob boss
never found the need to knock
cracked his knuckles at the door
and politely asked may I enter  
he spoke 7 languages
and several materialist dialects
and could talk without moving his lips
many were blamed for things they never said
nothing that is known is uncontained
archaeologists in the city dumps
using a subway map with all the stops
snorted and toiled through Winter
at their historico-revisionist comedy
artifacts pieced convex to concave
concluding once and for all eternity
that any idea past its prime is stupid
this is the unfortunate fate of all humanity
nobody really likes change
unless of course it’s more money
oh I know I’ll never work in this town again
but with a bankroll beyond infinitessimal
the size of a chewed pencil actually
you get the picture
now buckle up kids
mommy's going to drive a little faster
there's a cop on my ***
and I think I can lose him

From "Engine of Didactic Beauty" available on Amazon
Walter Alter Jun 2023
hi I'm Baxter Belknap Cleftdimple IV
the Ninth Earl of Burneydick
I'll be heading your inner assault team
would you like the wine list
we have a nice Retaliation 666
somewhere over the rainbow
where every two-bit overheard whisper is an omen
and other vile statistical deceptions
where the big wheel spins like a drawbridge ratchet
but it never stops too many numbers
and the future continues to remain hypothetical
in degrees depending on the reading
an experiment in capitulation and submission
it was the War of the Parasites
but when has it been otherwise
this is a mathematical demonstration
bold as a distillery padlock
that insanity is the flip side
of merely more insanity
that would be Mandible IV driving
his dream hearse down memory lane
smoke from burning bodies
badly needing a wick adjustment
apparently fogged his lens
the horrors of the world are entertainment
weather permitting we'll visit the ruins
and insist upon representation
in the government Pilgrim Travel Advisory
you see the difficulty
serenity having been proven
a monstrous violation of reality
pause
every idea is a unit of measure
another pause
the pixels swirled and another
unholy vision drifted past in the tide
riveted to my screen
and it's trauma etched engrams
picked up on my ******* antenna
in the last act you find out why
good bad and maybe mostly maybe
just trying to be more numerological
be certain of your conclusions
or call them something else
sure people's faces can be read
most are possessed by a mad hunger
or acts of cosmetic genius
proving it's more than brain chemistry
they told me that self-creation has its dangers
lots of mockery out there in hammer land
but there's no mocking your best efforts
kept them off my back for a while
set free for the propaganda value
Jun 2023 · 74
I Meme Therefore I Am
Walter Alter Jun 2023
forgot what I had set out to remember
when my deconstructed self
discovered there was no authentic anything
saw through it all every granule
how we became the unwitting tools
of the smarty pants intelligentsia
who really weren't smart enough
concluding if this is life
you can imagine what death is like
I can tell you this much
we are alone in this galactic theme park
alone as a lizard on a sunny rock
what do you see with nothing absent
this question failed to sweep through
the *** fight arenas and betting parlors
where they need permission to think
no escaping that free means battle
which ******* means not free
shouting to anyone my agent will sue
as the bread lines grew longer
and the loaves grew shorter
the sly ones were trampled by their own venality
order was quickly restored destroyed restored etc.
the pace was feverish so were the faces
on State TV at 6 and 11
self denialists saw their heads roll down the lane
towards the ten pins at Bowl N' Boogie
in an educated kind of idiocy
for which there is no help
a scandal of poor illumination
discovering heaven is not overhead
OK I’d better let up on the enthusiasm
too many grimacing faces in the popcorn
too many bushwhacking gargoyles
plump like 3-D bratwurst
in this Biblical sauerkraut mamodrama
making the world lounge safe
for my blindfolded baptism
for both the seen and the unseen
beneath the **** covered water
on a need to know basis
I now reveal a deadly secret
there is direction there is magnitude
densities and rarities
we mime we imitate we steal what we are
and are beaten with sticks
for having a mind and knowing it
I meme therefore I am
Defection Control had him by the throat
blow a kiss to the camera
it's all just a really big index
Jun 2023 · 70
Einstein Rolls the Dice
Walter Alter Jun 2023
the paparazzi swarmed all over Einstein
after he said make sure where the rope is tied
before you kick over the chair
he wrote his own scripts now
Further Adventures in Archaeo-Astronomy
tonight the constellation Vertigo
a place of no equilibrium
a hell of uterine contractions
even though his head was elfin
a little bone crushing ceremony
and bingo you are out on bail
I didn't mean to hurt anyone went the 911 call
they finally brought him down with magnets
the dilemma meters were going purple
only minutes away from a fatal lap dance
that could blacken the portals of infinity
hauled before the cosmic court of opinion
sentenced to prompt and urgent expungement
they failed to contend with the absurdity
of Al's relativistic social barometer
smuggled in by a derelict ex-stockbroker
his obsidian blade plunged like a fang
into the bailiff's waiting eyes
and the jury of inflatable *** dolls
made obnoxious leaking air sounds
until all that was left was a talking skull
divulging Al's General Theory of Anathema
flip the law of averages on its back
and your troops are in the citadel
paradise being a system of payoffs
on the origin side of the lens
yes the light is tricky in there
images fall feebly on the big screen
Al's life was now a gravitational anomaly
no plot no narrative no story
he was ready to sack a city
his Igor hissed let's asteroid the planet
but the mouse pad Ouija opened a channel
to the vortex of utter charm
and he stamped and splashed singing
through the seven sewers of humiliation
wearing his we're going to hell pants
with only a mother's love for protection
and managed to lose all his pencils
somewhere between hand and ledger
being that his hands were missing fingers
almost all of them actually
lost in a departmental budget cut
allegorically left him all thumbs
unleashing a pandemonium of vague redemption
it was a close shave but Earth was saved
Jun 2023 · 49
Nursery Rhyme for Blinky
Walter Alter Jun 2023
I was clicking through the Sonogram Network
checking the rear-view to see what's next
it may be reality but is it a necessary reality
where anything out of the ordinary is signal
oh boy another uninvited anomaly
feeding time for my forehead demon
meant I had to go on vowel patrol
because the network was ancient with consonants
and invented malicious contours of meaning
that could be written but not pronounced
knowing that thoughts control other thoughts
if that were a key what lock would it fit
his crime was an addiction to accuracy
saved by measurement time and again
then another accursed round of inner blackmail
and extortion from the catacomb moralists
civilization had gone tiger ******* mad
riding the carousel beast to their doom
leaving the steps of their TV studio ziggurats
slippery with fresh blood and beating hearts
for the contemporary retro-futurists
storming the fortifications of ignorance
with the Sunday horoscope as a map
he threw up his shrugging hands
in collective handcuffed exasperation
sleep with a pistol next to your yarbles
if you want to make a difference
in the modern world paranormal or not
now that daring had devolved to hypochondria
storming the fortifications of ignorance
with the Sunday horoscope as a road map
the ******* had so many hidden agendas
underlying rather than lying per se
making me listen alert to my muse
because her beauty sees through me also
only in a manner I can tolerate
guardian angels scream in my face
all is derived from something else
oh well enough flickers and you have light
the air becomes pearly and serene
an explanation or two never hurts
**** the covert menace go play
rattle cages make the parrots squawk
how many ideologies preach fun
the last thing he said was
no time like the present
as moonlight bore into the earth
and sanity had become a necessity
even if there is no reason
there soon will be
Walter Alter Jun 2023
The rich are committing suicide
and taking us along with them
the prosthetic limbed *******
Fort Darwin tottering on fewer stilts
once the Masters of the Universe
presently picking through garbage
looking for an Icarus to pilot
some way back among the clouds
their telepathic goon squads
armed with the ******* of God
squat in the darkness of doorways
lightning strikes all around them
even their telephone poles were clairvoyant
several thousand watts went up my leg
shorting out the only attention span I own
left me perforated but far from lacy
wearing all my masks all the time
fragments of self are selves
in a bulemic deconstruction
where form and content
mud wrestle incessantly for attention
on the crazy train to 3 color 3 finger hell
apparently the ancient gods still rule
in their madhouse heaven
ambivalent petulant flatulent gods
brandishing sword point conversions
wielding gun point perversions
the protagonists the antagonists
fornicators masturbators liquidators
pariahs and unlicensed poets
preaching hellstone and brimfire
now their carcasses are steppingstones
it's psywar out there kids
better find where they hid your dossier
mesmerized of the world unite
you have nothing to lose
but your failed methods of addressing reality
said his slowly twisting tongue
struggling for ratings like any media
the soul cannot erase it can only go sightless
a phantom trapped in melancholy
when we were built to dance
with the twinkling summer stars
he finally learned to undestroy memory
being an ascended master of non sequitur
carried aloft by the wings of Mother Goose
his metabolic hurricane of why
an inferno of intrigue and  superstition
our embryo-headed UFO ruling class
have me inside their fence of skulls
an investment in diagram futures
the idiots
Apr 2020 · 318
No Edge
Walter Alter Apr 2020
one day there won't be an edge kids
just a hole in the ground for the suicidal
do a bacteria count of your spring water
while tossing down a few useless conventions
why do anachronisms live so long die so hard
and cause no embarrassment he mused
musing had become his compulsion since
the holy ghost serpent handling incident
their medicine man pronounced him dead 7 times
his own ancestors sent crows to peck out his eyes
the fortune cookie antidote worked off and on
then hell ascended under his smoking feet
their vanguard toes now on fire
one thing is sure in the lust for truth
contemplation will not buy you serenity
but yes your life can be lived
without a prison cell oath of allegiance
if the universe demonstrates intention we’re it
the battle between sequence and simultaneity
may be good for another 10 squared generations
in this hypnotist hunch monger demolition derby
where a legendary and enormous ignorance
complicates matters for no apparent reason
well maybe for the following reason
all explanations have been oversimplified
in a panorama of benign efficiency
arise you yuppies and management level trainees
you have all the tools of cognition
you will ever need right in your head
every act begins with an estimate
let's put Humpty back together again
feel relevant that's all there is to it
since a monopoly on endless pleasure
is yet to be fully achieved and moreover
the Great War in Heaven is officially boring
and furthermore the iris is a sphincter
just thought you'd like to know
sorry a lung obstruction makes my voice whistle
one ******* homophone after another
making the undead radar in on me
my wings have been clipped so many times
they fall off at the sound of grinding teeth
thanks to the dogs of innuendo and pantomime
we anthropomorphize absolutely everything
no beanstalks on the horizon he noted
just a marsupial orphan with an Aladdin's lamp
charmed into the gesticulating arms of Venus
by the secret patty cake handshake
then a magic thing happened
there is no magic
only unknowing
Walter Alter Apr 2020
you're a genius she moaned
there can only be so much money in circulation
he replied halfheartedly ******* her abacus
the moon arose sharp as a razor
and they set about creating a dynasty
a master race of thumb ******* idiots
that arose from the dead at midnight
with pretensions of divine right
she was a plump desert highway waitress
with a mile of sunny cleavage
a beckoning oasis of hope
to every **** sore trucker
he was a cadre from the Cro Magnon bloc
raised by the Sisters of Inchoate Ire
in a constant din of prayer
a model of pedagogical endurance
a time of war ravaged the land
the grip of the Dept. of Antiquities was strong
wizards made the oceans boil
mystics buskered the street corners
will work for the contemplation of food
a few actually knew something
but in practice were a bit too bent
by the wind blinded by repetition
to be true in the rigorous mortis sense
nothing to be done except perhaps
another detached from reality ******
now that the past was in hot pursuit
but the leibensborn are clever
and they were smuggled to safety
in boxes of radio parts
he picked up the Bardic Hour
on the Welsh Luftwaffe Network
she was wired to the 220 dryer circuit
and clicked through the channels
Gamble for Your Soul followed by
Ladies of Leisure followed by
Nearly Inaudible the game show
which asked the same question
if the picture is perfect is it changeable
this is how they ineluctably became
the enemy of both sides
the rim shots were deafening
but histrionics had worked in the past
you'd think we were defending against death
rather than a better data set
so it is with surface addiction
a searching modern art piece

— The End —