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M H John May 6
I’m writing to you from the heart of L.A.
Because my healing process
Just isn’t going the way
I imagined.
I’m having trouble, you see,
With shedding this body, of me,
Because I can still see the imprints of your kisses
And feel the soft dance of your fingertips
Across my skin.
I try to do anything random
To make me happy;
Driving through neighborhoods in Rosemead,
Having my chakras aligned at a random sound bath therapy,
Driving to Long Beach just to write by the sea,
Picking lemons and oranges from the citrus trees
Within my favorite park,
Because when I pour their juices over my broken heart,
The sting brings a feeling, or a memory,
That only you could ignite in me after dark.
Everything I do, I do with the thought of you
And that’s strange for me to admit because
Even after all the California earthquakes you shifted
My grounds to,
And all the pink noise I try to drown thoughts of you out to;
Like driving late at night down Sunset and Vine
While my brother talks to me
About his favorite rapper’s documentary
But I’m only half listening
Because I’m too distracted
About what I’ve just learned about Van Gogh,
He only ever sold one painting in his lifetime
So you can imagine how emotional I get each time
I question why, why I do this
Why I try,
When nobody reads these melancholic thoughts of mine.
However throughout all of this,
There’s one thought that won’t run away from me;
It only talks about how much
I love you

M.H. John
mhjohnpoetry.com
Anton Angelino Dec 2022
I caressed the surface of your car where you parked it.
I put on your green sweater from where you dropped it.
I wear the clothes you gave me and an honest smile.
I caress your strands of hair like lilies of the nile.

Said rose was your favorite flower and I’m all about hedonism
I don’t walk past a bush without linking them to you
I’ll pick every rose from every square mile
And every drop of blood will turn out worthwhile
Said rose was your favorite flower and I’m all about escapism
I don’t let go of fears without unveiling them to you

Cause I love you for a reason
and that is to not feel lonely on a Saturday night
out in West Hollywood
I understood despite
us being temporary
to nourish us for life.
Cause love is like a garden
the more roses you give, the harder it is to keep it alive
And I don’t wanna get high every time I’m with you.

I wanna touch you
To know I want this to stay alive.
I wanna caress you
on your shoulders like lilies of the nile.

Rosemead flower.
Laurel
Canyon. Hour
‘s late.
Don’t make me sour.
I endeavor
to hold you closest.
Even when summer
wilts ‘fore me forceless.
I wanna hold
and be held closer,
than you hold your roses
closer than closest.
2nd promotional poem off my 6th poetry collection "I Loved You Before I Knew It"
השואה גוססת...the Sho'ah is dying

©  STEPHAN PICKERING / חפץ ח"ם בן אברהם
30 Sivan 5778 / 13 June 2018
revised:
1 Tammuz 5758 / 14 June 2018
2 Tammuz 5778 / 15 June 2018
3 Tammuz 5778 / 16 June 2018

I.

and cantillated poetry -- memory being
automatic editing -- may not be enough.

what was not a reality
may never be a reality,
may never be a memory. soon,
survivors will be silent, and
the concierge of film and tape
and books will whisper
in library corridors.

the villanellesque windows of
constantly chanting 'disaster' and
'master' are shattering,
an amphigouri of shadows and
mirrors...

II.

I stand on the balconies of quantum
strings: Auschwitz made my
forebears more Yehu'dit than Moshe.

No one
bears witness for the
witness.
-- Paul Celan, 1971. Speech-grille
& selected poems [trans. Joachim
Neugrosche] (E.P. Dutton), 1-255 (241)

the horizon is grey, in
Poland 2018, the ash still creating
a haze, specks on the leaves,
the shoulders, the watch face on
my wrist having no hands...

III.

how is the memory of a paternal
relative kept 'alive'? she remains like
a flickering match growing fainter
in what will be a night of
receding possibilities,
shadows be-ing alongside
my own. I have one colour 1941
photograph of her.  like salt held
on the tongue
she is carried in my mind.

she would not, a decade later in
Rosemead, speak of the
Kingdom of Night.

one of the fading blue
numbers stamped (not tattoed)
on her left forearm in 1942 was
a four.

she would stare intently into
my eyes, turn her arm over,
the four becoming a chair...
it was Garcia Lorca in 1928 who said
'verde que te quiera verde'...

she loved green, even the green stained
gargoyles she was painting in Paris...
on a sidewalk caught up in a christianist
SS roundup 16 July 1942, the Rafle du
Velodrome d'Hiver, her painting
fingers crushed. soon she was on a
rattling box car in August 1942, sent
to the East...

she was gone in 2006...but her dreams
are still in me...

IV.

teaches Reb Ya'akov Glatshteyn...

Like a tiny candle over each grave,
a cry will burn,
each one for itself.
'I am I' --
thousands of slaughtered I's
will cry in the night:
'I am dead, unrecognized'.
-- Ya'akov Glatshteyn / Yankev Glatshteyn
/ Jacob Glatstein, 1987. 'I have never
been here before', p. 111 in: Ya'akov
Glatshteyn, 1987. Selected poems
of Yankev Glatshteyn [ed./trans. R.J. Fein]
(Jewish Publication Society), 1-215
[Yiddish & English]

V.

let us compell trolls among us
to remember that, at its peak,
their grandparents' vaticanist
Auschwitz was burning 12,000
of us every 24 hours...

when it was happening
sound still reaches us in 2018.

and yet.

when it was happening,
few were listening, but now it is
bashert / inevitable my soul
hears nothing else.

the 'orderly' minds of the
trolls among us are well-tended
cemeteries without
gravestones.

the fire escapes are covered
with psilocybin spores.

long after midnight, when the
darkened carnival is awake,
there are survivors at the
seder table awaiting the
Missing One return with Her
Sefer haZohar, pick up the
empty cup.

the underside of every leaf
is fear, shadows gathering
at the foot of our beds,
transforming gristle into haze,
made real by Hebrew letters
and syllables.

TO BE CONTINUED

'When I am in the darkness,
why do you intrude?'
-- Shabtai Zisel / 'Bob Dylan', 1978

*****



STEPHAN PICKERING / חפץ ח"ם בן אברהם
Torah אלילה Yehu'di Apikores / Philologia Kabbalistica Speculativa Researcher
לחיות זמן רב ולשגשג...לעולם לא עוד
THE KABBALAH FRACTALS PROJECT

IN PROGRESS: Shabtai Zisel benAvraham v'Rachel Riva:
davening in the musematic dark
Anton Angelino Jun 2023
Take a swim in my stream of consciousness and realize how cold it is, only dead fishes of forgiveness and diamonds nobody could fit into their rings.
You always ask how I am, never what I cry about.
If you’re a man of transparency, take off your clothes and dive into my heart, jump into my heart, leap into my heart.
I come with no strings attached and go the way I came, if you want me to stay then build me a dam and follow me upriver to keep me from the oceans.
Power me with rains, listen to me in the driest times and understand me, level with me, get to know me.
Just don’t ask if I’m fine.
I cry every time I remember that everyone I know will once die, I cry for them when they’re alive.
I lose people and then I lose me, it drives my thoughts to the beach and not because I wanna sun on the sand but go for a real long swim.
I don’t wanna get married out of fear of outliving my husband.
I would die,
if invested in something so immense and convoluted to lose it,
not gonna lie.
Last time I had everything I wanted was in middle school.
Half of my ex classmates are either married or parents.
And I’m over here afraid to get attached.
I watch the mandala spin through a translucent lens, I bought a puppy just a week after I lost my dog of 11 years.
Last time I saw him he was by the metal gate up front, half alive, I tried to try to alleviate his pain, and then he was gone.
I only cried when I was alone, because I had to be strong, I tried to alleviate my pain by drowning it out in a hot bathtub, but time mended me, it has all along.
I remember my great grandmother, I used to come over every day after preschool for a cookie and then I took my final bite.
I don’t know how I felt, but it was the real life baptism I feel I never had until March.
And what can I do other than watch the mandala spin?
I look out the public transport window and watch the fronts of houses pass in front of me in blur and it’s making me dizzy.
And then I remember my new year’s resolution and it terrifies me that it’s May already.
Last time I saw my friend she wasn’t even pregnant and now she’s a mother and the other I watched get erased from my routine like gusts of autumnal wind blowing at a pile of dead and fallen leaves.
Why do I feel accomplished that she broke up with her boyfriend, I used to care but now I’m a stranger.
I miss all of them, the dead, the alive, in fact I am not the same person as in middle school, not him from the San Gabe Motel 6 poolside and now I’m giving love a go, wasn’t that long ago, I’m so much different now.
At this rate I’ll be dead before I know it, but I’m only 20 and I can still make something out of what I have left.
I don’t know how to stop running, but I must’ve been enchanted or cursed to run and run and run until I’m done.
Peggy was 24 when she climbed up the Hollywood Sign and jumped.
That’s a way to go, I thought in my darkest times.
I come with no strings attached and go the way I came.
I love myself but not like I loved the people I ran away from.
I’ll open up my heart for you, make it livable, beautiful, capable.
Swim naked in my consciousness, surface of an arid planet and watch life bloom out of me.
I’m so ******* happy some days, but sometimes I catch myself thinking of beach days during stormy weather.
I can cherish who I love, no one’s gone forever.
I’m not gone forever.
Don’t ask if I’m happy, but act as if I’m not.
Hold me close enough so that I can’t run.
Make me feel irreplaceable for the first time ever.
Dive into my heart with no clothes whatsoever.
I pray to God to wrap a divine blanket over my people, I love them wholeheartedly, cause I can’t love another way.
If there’s a link between us, a string I can’t see or I’m unaware of, preserve it.
I say I go in and out of people’s lives unattached, I hope I’m dead wrong.
I may seem like I don’t but I care.
Angel, Felix, Leah - keep your eyes up.
Val, Rosemead, Petra - I wish you the best.
Gabe, Aaron, Charlie - may you live happily.
Ajay, Eric, Max - thank you for those years.
Jay, Lizzy, Steph - I’m forever grateful.
Barb, Annie, Hannah - know I’m doing great.
Tom, Dylan, Mexico - I remember you too.
Colleen, the guys, Caroline - I still love you.
Nina, Maggie, Martin - hope you’re smiling now.
Modern god, Zack, Alex - best of things in life.
Margaret, Vic, Sher - be happy forever.
Glo, Coyote, Court - move toward the better.
Ash, Alex, Jack - all the sweetest things.
Ellen, Alice, the fires - don’t go anywhere.
My family, my friends, my lovers.
I have you in my corner.
Poem #10 off “Divine Providence”

Probably my most personal poem. I won’t say much about it other than it was therapeutic to write it.
Anton Angelino Oct 2023
Just why?
Tell us why did you do what you did?
Are you on the run or losing it?
Why did you ruin everything we’ve worked to keep?
You always ruin everything!

Alright, here it is.

Just why, why’d you cut us off after everything that we’ve been to?
Just think, if I made the decision to cut y’all off I had reasons to.
And what was that you posted when you have all that anxiety?
Well, to update y’all, it was just me tryna please everybody.
I ain’t got beef with anybody and I ain’t a vegetarian.
I don’t spill blood battling with my haters, instead I bury ‘em.
I don’t let intrusive thoughts affect my decision making.
I do turn on a whim, but I ain’t lost, I got priorities.
I could’ve been a savior, hell, I could’ve been a hero.
I could’ve been a full-time villain but got better ideas.
At first I gave y’all complications only so I could spite ya.
Now they’re making compilations that I ain’t even a part of.
Never skype ya.
Never talk to ya.
I ain’t buying what you selling.
Before y’all criticize that too, listen to what y’all  been saying.

So I won.
So I won.
Anton?
Why that name?
What you on?
I thought
it could be
a fresh start.
So I won.
Yeah I won.
Uh-huh.

I changed my name, like I reinvent myself yearly.
I check marked LA, shut your mouth, it is way too early.
To complain like that, wish I ain’t made it work, really?
I got my haters’ backs so I could stab them hoes there, easy.
What you talkin’ ‘bout? What the ******* mean by hoax?
Darkness in your basement, catch a light no wonder it looks sus.
I am on a level you ain’t dreamed of seeing, let alone reaching.
Your brains’ ain’t been lucid thinking, shoulda stuck to preaching.
Suits you.
Suits you, make you look more silly than you are.
If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em, but I think I’d rather die.
I didn’t pave this road for ‘em to muddy it back up.
I’m a blueprint to myself, hate I take as a compliment.
Fruity and rocking Gucci, I’m an edible arrangement.

So I won.
So I won.
Anton?
Where the hell
‘d you get it from?
We thought
you were running
but you aren’t.
Yeah I won.
The marathon.
But I ain’t running.

I used to fear dentists, planes and social interactions.
Now I floss, I’m sky high and receive standing ovations.
These hoes oily, extra ******, when I eat I do it raw, stare.
These walking failures getting oral checked but at a dentist chair.
I sleep under palm trees *******, summer body done.
I can see y’all hoes are *******, acting downside up.
Before I let y’all disappear, you’ll see what you passed up on.
Give me a heads up, cover my ears before y’all wax on.
Wax on.
Wax on but as in y’all ******* babbling.
Still like bayou water but my jacuzzi bubbling.
I’ll send y’all postcards from vacays in countries round the equator.
Make y’all **** hurt, get y’all a good buttache alleviator.
If that doesn’t help, why don’t y’all get off my D?
If you so against me, why you fools stay fooling with me?
I keep it straight with me and I didn’t always do.
If it benefits me then that’s what I’m gonna do.
I thought they would like me if I changed a thing or two.
But that wasn’t me and I ain’t liked who I turned into.
I would leave them hanging if I felt so inclined.
For when I wanted realness but y’all ******* declined.
I’mma release poems on all my exs’ birthdays too.
Give me a fortnight,
I’mma make it too.
Starting now I should know that red and green differ.
Be this hot and I never signed a deal with Lucifer.
And next time y’all wanna kiss my ***, just say you need a ride.
I’mma pass, here’s a disclaimer, it’s me now I prioritize.

So I won.
So I won.
Anton?
Why that name?
What you on?
My prime ****
to be exact
and ain’t no act.
So I won.
So I won.
Wax on, wax on.

Get me on that walkie talkie and for ******* what?
Sick of your fucky wucky so shut the **** up.
On a brighter note, I’mma dearly thank all of my homies.
Twenty years you’ve given me support through all of my wilding.
I’ll make sure to leave y’all my address in Rosemead when I finally go.
I’mma wrap this up now, catch you on the flipside, this is Bella Goth.
Poem #19 off “Bella Goth” and the first promotional poem off the collection.
Anton Angelino Apr 2023
LA
… is who I turn to when the Toyotas and Mercedeses of the city hum too loudly for me to mute by pillow
The clock says 3 a.m.
I left my window open
But this isn’t Primrose Hill and the last man I met didn’t disappoint me.

I’m riding down the highway
Like I did with you my love
Hands together on the freeway
To Los Feliz Boulevard
To Mount Lee Drive and beyond
Night is lit with fireworks
Sun’s sinking behind the coast
I chose you cause I love you the most

I never had
expensive dinners in tuxedos and lavender scented candles
that’s one thing I’ll never have.
I never had
movie theater nights when they play stupid romantics
another thing I’ll never have.

Instead I watched cars riding down overpasses in La La Land’s hills
Bunch of Floridas and one Oklahoma
Two New Mexicos and up to Iowa
And I never realized how big of a dream it was for me to drive
for the rawness on my hips
and your hands up on the wheel.
But I watched cars hustling down the highways in the land of dreams
I saw one from Indiana
Wisconsin and Minnesota
And I thought I won’t die happy ‘till you drive me to those states
for the grin wide on your face
and the heat of your embrace

Highway 110 in Westmond
The palms were beautiful
Finale of aviation
Your eyes were beautiful

LA is where I fly to in my sleep if the tides and moon are benevolent to me
But when I wake up I don’t feel sad
I don’t think how I’m a continent over
I’ll think of how I landed there, it’s your hand I was holding
and tears of joy that were rolling down my face
cause happiness was frothing over me from both ends.

We were driving down to Solvang
Was so hot I cracked a beer
By an open pool in Rosemead
Tryna savor breathing here
And the Hollywood Sign glistened
In the flaring sun’s rays falling
Out of every guy that’s held me
You’re the one I loved the most

Cause down on Vine I watched the stars
None of them as bright as you
Constellations in your green eyes
Make me gravitate to you
We ate at Mel’s where all the stars had
None of them compare to you
And when I ride, I do unfastened
Instead I wrap my arms ‘round you

And so I spent July tearing around LA County’s weaving streets
Out of Yucca Corridor to Alhambra
Rodeo Drive to North Gardena
And I thought that cityscape was where I’ve flown every night
and there I was dreaming my life.
I’ve ridden down the streets that lay beneath Mount Lee
Toluca Lake and Monterey Park
Atlantic Square and Midwick Tract
And all those places and all their faces are what I dream of every night
For the rest of my life

See L.A. why?
For the rest of my time
Laugh instead of cry
For the rest of my life

Hot or gray
I’m dreaming my life away.
I’m in LA
Whether it’s night or day.

Hot or gray
I’m dreaming my life away
I’m dreaming my life away
I’m dreaming my life away
I’m dreaming my life in LA
Poem #8 off “I Loved You Before I Knew It”
Anton Angelino Jun 2023
I’ve been thinking about relationships lately, I think I see it now, I don’t want a brighter light, I want someone equally ****** up, someone who has it worse than I.
Someone all over the place, gullible, no offense, head in New York, but heart left in California, someone who loves what I love, stars-and-stripes-minded.
I don’t do what’s typical of me, I don’t catch feelings easily, I’m changing, I’m running from soft penitentiaries, I don’t admit I’m catching feelings, I don’t want a part two.
Love wronged me once, it was one-sided, I’m bad at holding my horses, running away from them, thinking I’m better off, somewhere off the Golden Coast in a cheap apartment.
Working the tables, someone once said it was possible, he made it, I haven’t yet, I don’t think, I get going to get that plane ticket and take a gamble with my life.
I’ll fall in love eventually, tell him about what I want and if he wants the same thing, then this is the meta of our sufferings, pack his things, wait for him to hit me up.
I’ll be walking by Barnes & Nobles with somebody’s hand in mine one way or another, I won’t be a father, only a disappointment to many but a hero in my eyes.
I’ll find someone whom I’ll love more than America and I’ll find a way to make it work, if we sink we’ll go Jack and Rose style, sinking with the ship.
Insomniac on the stoop or with a cup of cold tea looking at the flashing lights of the city I love, worrying for the man I love, thinking Sylvia by the stove.
But I’ll be the opposite of suicidal, high on ******* oxytocin coursing through my body like fire, that’s one hell of a reason to live, to be someone’s go to person to cry.
I’m channeling Joni Mitchell, I can’t conceal emotions, listen to “Song For Sharon” by a bay in my mind, clutch the wrist of my dream life and pretend I’m alright.
I see blur when I think of the future, I see palm trees through that blur, if you shiver thinking ahead, marry me, we’ll tremble together, naked in the glass room.
I try to be nice and be the light in the tunnel, but I’ve got like one day left, full disclosure, I’m so into you, because we’re not that different, actually quite resemblant.
We’re equally passionate about what drives us, but baby there’s like hundreds other people like us, if you’re not the one, whatever, I’ll be alright either way.
I will always be fine, I think that’s my curse, cause I overthink the simplest things, I refuse to die, I had pericarditis, I thought I was at the end of the line.
But I’m resilient, I’m faithful, I’m not letting go of the core of my heart, but I’m leaving the door open, turning a blind eye, come in with your problems, entry here.
I’ll listen to you cry, I’ll surround you with my arms, give you safety and be all ears, this is what I like in guys, not posing to be strong, I’m standing with open arms.
You have my number, but don’t live rent free in my mind, I got problems, rock and hard place, I’m playing a game you can’t lose or win, I’m stuck, but it’s essential I do this.
I’m out there looking, searching with my head up for someone who’ll call me pretty in my worst times, not tell me to be smart, but be reckless with me.
This ain’t a family thing, but I leave if you don’t make me stay, my heart’s like a river, often goes different ways, I’ll give you everything I have, I can promise that.
I have no heart of steel, but it’s not paper either, I want the **** out of the things I love, I’m possessive and that is my weakness, I can’t have everything I like.
And I want someone just alike, be adventurous, get on a bike and ride to the sunset, won’t drink and drive, I’ll be high on love hormones, wind brushing my blond hair aside.
Yeah I want that, someone who’s not afraid to cry, not be alright, cause I know if I’m ******, I’ll get ****** and it’ll be fine, I wanna be taken care of sometimes.
I want someone who knows what they’re doing, guy with experience and beautiful eyes, cause I’m a lover of beauty, admirer of Mother and Father’s grand creation.
I went on vacation to America, I saw LA, and Vegas and San Francisco, but that was the happiest I’ve felt in my sorry life, I thought afterwards I’d be fine.
Don’t understand why not, I had nothing else to live for or so I thought, I ran like set on fire when I caught glimpse of love in the rear view mirror of the black coach.
I think I want a new thing from life and that is to commit to a thing so impossible but doable and needed but scary, relive it’s what I feared so I ran, but it was a treadmill I ran on.
I’ll find a way to connect with somebody, comparing the bullet wounds of words and deeds done to assassinate our feelings, my thoughts are with me all the time.
I’ll be fine if I try, but tonight I’m alone in my room, no attachment to nobody, kinda loving my body, but I’m not loving my scars and resentment, he maybe’ll help me.
I’ll be good as long as I’m with someone who’ll understand why I can’t call nobody up like I used to, I’m chasing quite different dreams these days.
Who knows me, they get I don’t bend or break, I’ll stand tall beside him like sequoias from King’s Canyon, California, it means a lot to me when I see that in a guy.
I’m waltzing through *******, it washes right off, I’m unphased, not unhinged, not desperate but I’m feeling as though I’ll need someone soon or I’ll cry.
I’m never returning to my ways, I’ll be back in the States, I don’t know when, I don’t know how but I’ll be there, mentally I’m there now, in a Rosemead motel room.
I’m flying to the moon on a spaceship, Major Tom, I’m in space, I’m a goner, I left my telephone, I don’t wanna be contacted or contradicted, I wanna cry.
But not exactly cause I’m sad, cause I’m not, I don’t cry about wasted opportunities or wasting my life, I don’t go to parties, I don’t dance, but I sing lullabies.
I wanna cry because I’m no longer dead inside, I said I wasn’t afraid of anything and that wasn’t a lie, I know what I want, kiss him on his lips, talk about PTSD.
It’s tragically beautiful and beautifully invented, two souls once tormented now fly high like kites torn away from children’s hands on windy days, fly super high.
I’ll be fine when the time is right, I’ll find love, I don’t care if I’m two guys or a million off, cause you learn all your life and trial and error is how you determine your destiny.
I’m not giving up, I’m quite getting started, America I’m coming home, fireworks lit when I land in whichever airport I choose, that’s not important, I’ll be fine.
Poem #3 off “Divine Providence”

My longest poem to date. I wrote all of it in the middle of the night and kept my thoughts raw and unedited. It’s mainly about what I want from a relationship.

— The End —