Round here
you don’t ask
where the new
tv came from
why the Coca Cola
is Slovakian
and why everyone
has seen
the latest films
before they’re shown
at the cinema.

If you want
whole communities
to reject your system
dangle lovely houses
and fast cars
in front of them
beam images
of washing machines
and Play Stations
into their homes
and make sure
they can never
legitimately
afford these things.

Yes
and if you want
to ensure a complete
lack of respect
please
send the police helicopter
low
over my house
again
at 5 in the
morning.
 

another shot of...
by reuben cruz, phoenix, az

an old school bar
where no one has a last name
and smoke from god knows what
enters your lungs
label-less liquors
from the seventies
broken chairs
broken pool sticks
broken jukebox
playing the song of our lives
and a black and white
television
displaying lost hopes
and shit that doesn’t concern us
restrooms
with the drunk handwritings on the wall
words to die by
and overflowing toilets
full of piss and dreams
and last week’s rent
and no soap to get clean
staring at life through
dirty shot glasses
that’s the joint
where i left my heart
and an unpaid bar tab
so big
that i won’t be going back
anytime soon

Destroy Everything
by Gregory A. Harison, Encinitas, CA

Destroy everything – lead this way to the end!
Forever. No, today.
Just today.
It’ll be over after that.
Just go away if that’s too much;
Not for me, maybe for you.
If we are left, then . . .
Suffering. Deadly illness in us all.
The heads hold the mind,
It is us, dwelling silently,
Screaming.
Telling us to . . .
Finish.
 

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