"headshots" poems
Oh, how I always wanted to live in an 8-bit world
Side-scrolling action
Duck hunts galore
As much currency as a first-world country
It’s hard not to love it
From Pokémon to Kid Icarus
The nostalgia nearly takes my breath away
I won’t let problems stack up like Tetris
I’m not being chased by ghosts crying,
“Wacka, wacka, wacka, wacka, wacka”
This isn’t a video game, it’s real life
When you die you don’t respawn like nothing ever happened
No, this is it. One life.
I’m placing blocks in Minecraft
Pwning n00bz in Call of Duty
Gaining headshots on Grunts like Master Chief
Gathering rings in Sonic the Hedgehog
Sneaking around like Ezio Auditore da Firenze
And delivering newspapers like Paperboy
While escaping the mysterious Slenderman
I’m living in this virtual world without danger
I don’t want to make it on these streets like Frogger
I don’t have big shoes to fill like the plumber or the blue blur
This ain’t no sandbox or first-person shooter, it’s reality
So, live it to the fullest, don’t rage quit
Nov 30, 2012
Nov 30, 2012 at 8:05 PM UTC
sweaty forehead, a gory past
wildly glowing eyes of oblivion
shivering hands, sirens, bars
freedom, imprisonment, razor blades
peru, coca farmers, chemicals
smuggler channels, route 36
franklin's face on crumpled-up paper
rattling coins, benjamins, stacks
gotta make it or take it
gotta sell or abuse it
flashing louis, abundant future
sweaty forehead, ****** present
biker chapters, brothers, funerals
tommy hauled jim's coffin
rick carried tommy to his grave
cut-offs, gats, one call: ******
despair, hatred, vengeance, omerta
mortals remain silent, angels don't
rain of blood, a puddle of codes
turf, plots, streets, blocks, gangs
cults **** cultures, weapons replace
shelter in a group home; the stabbing
"shaun got heart, he a furious one --
can use dat dude, pay him up"
black, white, african-american, chechens
territories of unspoken laws
intimidated witnesses, gay mobsters
lured teenagers, deadly magic of power
the old ones impress the new ones
newbies will turn into soldiers
**** or get killed; headshots of fear
numbers on the forehead, blueish
unwritten are the rules of some
bribed politicians, skippers, knockos
the one who wets, will be wetted
others prefer the clarity of faith
organized crime, rats and kingpins
multilevel marketing, elevators
glass towers, late and secret meetings
route 36, the white magic of death
it's all in the game
"The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life.
Your memories, your attachments, they burn 'em all away. But they're not punishing you, they say. They freeing yourself.
Relax."
(Quote from the film "Jacob's Ladder")
Dec 26, 2020
Dec 26, 2020 at 4:06 AM UTC
I am tired of series of unfinished poems that scream for my return.
I am tired of internal, trenching,
desperate calls
for pen and paper.
I am tired of empty pages,
and pens being put down.
I am tired of the fragmentary
bullshit-business I have with my declaration of expression.
I want to write about rough ****** efforts
and soft
aching feelings.
I want to write about Coca Cola freezies
(because they don’t even exist, why?).
I am tired of looking at everyone else’s work,
admiring it, criticising it, admiring it, criticising it, admiring it, crying, loving it.
I want to be 60 and look at what I wrote When I was 19,
And sob.
Aug 19, 2014
Aug 19, 2014 at 1:41 PM UTC
Been there
done that
check out the scars
Obliterated ear
Bullet wound swiss cheese
old heads die hard
Been there
done that
Fiberoptic cameras
phone taps
and surefire headshots
ensure the survival of the family
Gustavo would give you his coat
if his brains weren't covering it
Heisenbergs head
better be on a swivel
Mike will be back
and he'll be looking for work
Need money
to buy ice cream for his granddaughter
old heads die hard
Blue ice calls you back
green cotton is addictive
Been there
done that
Coming back
to get his.
Jun 21, 2012
Jun 21, 2012 at 1:29 PM UTC
there were dandelions on the grass
dear girl, the smell of an Alcatraz flower is fresh on my linen
but sometimes I look back
and wonder if this city wears a too thick a coat
while it struts pantless over the sidewalks of
Macarther Park
there is liturgy mumbled, a woman waving her hands in the air–
Sunday school prayers being learned in Spanish
tri-folded pamphlets on the floor
and gum over the pavement blackened by the cooperative march
of immigrant workers speaking in all tongues and carrying
on their backs, the tower of babel while halted at a red light
heavy cargo trucks speeding down Alameda Street
wearing down the road and the patience of drivers
tents multiplied, and R.V's lining the streets
the old buildings being torn down and neighboring apartments getting face-lifts
"beautification"
costs
more than headshots–
more than a rhinoplasty–
more than the real estate of DTLA–
when you see two kids come out of a tent with their school backpacks on
–you begin to grasp the price
Is this what Keats meant: "A thing of beauty is a joy forever "
even while destitute
the neon pink on their bags seemed like another gift of spring
and their perseverance the paragon of a psalm of life
Mar 10, 2020
Mar 10, 2020 at 11:07 PM UTC
Hopelessly blinded by the flash of his camera,
I could pay no attention to your watercolors,
engravings, charcoal sketches, oil pastel portraits.
The stark white background of headshots
was all I could see; no room for florals and foliage.
Preserved by his image, I thought I was permanent.
You let me see that I am pastel and charcoal -
smudged, with colors distorted, but never quite destroyed,
always with original traces in the deepest layers.
He was watercolor - he could be washed away,
with only watery blotches as remnants.
But you are an engraving, on the strongest, most brilliant metal,
with your lustrous being etched into every atom of it.
You leave your mark on my skin, beneath the bruises and scrapes,
beneath the rusted appearance and tarnished memories,
down to the fragile ribs, through the recovering heart,
immortalized for centuries of admiration.
Oct 21, 2015
Oct 21, 2015 at 8:18 PM UTC
You can learn a lot
from a Facebook page
just from the pictures shown
what things a person collects
what kinds of things they own
their likes and dislikes
vacations that they've taken
how many kids
how many pets
even what time they awaken
but mostly I like to notice
how many "selfies" there are
sometimes it's quite amazing
you'd think they were
some kind of star
headshots would be another
good name
for those poses oh so hammy
smiling, grinning, grimacing
goofy, questioning, campy
those infamous pictures
on Facebook
shots showing a craving
that everyone look!
Apr 11, 2018
Apr 11, 2018 at 11:48 AM UTC
I have come back again
hating myself for it and self loathing
******** Clad Maidens Sans the clothing
Perplexed by the wall of faces in front of me
Smiling at me but never speaking to me
Chatting sometimes casually
Showing their poses but never really doing
Headshots, Pets, babies and cooing
Poking me and Calling my name
Childishly Inviting me to a silly game
generalized statements and proverbs
inspirations tags and action verbs
Still no talking
I peruse photo stalking
A wall of faces less familiar
Silent a complacent peculiar
living yearbook obscure
I've become a strange ******
longing for what these Faces share
A parody
A memory
A joke
A quote
A note
A like
A laugh
Un like
A fuss
Distrust.
Your smiling face is one of us…
Dec 2, 2014
Dec 2, 2014 at 11:31 PM UTC
Inadequacies
The self inflicted gunshot wounds
From holstered weapons going off
When you least expect it
Sometimes in the foot
Usually in the heart
Incurring maximum damage
Precisely at the most inopportune
Moments, made possible by
Years of unconscious conditioning
Loading the chamber with
Hollow points of self worth
From the hip rapid fire assumptions
Sudden onset Alzheimer's headshots
And ****** marvelous notions
That actually is the worst
In the History of Bad Ideas
Some of you conceal and carry
Pistols, others tote around
Semi automatic rifles
And then there are those of us with
Gatlin Guns
Still turning the crank
As we blast our Happiness into
Smithereens straight to Hell
Jul 24, 2017
Jul 24, 2017 at 12:36 AM UTC