Three By CA CONRAD*

April 21
“Ought to send the mayor and them
other politicians over to fight the war!
You know how long they’d last! Yeah!”
--Kathleen McCollough, one
of Philadelphia’s homeless
Senior Citizen Soothsayers

phrasing lack…
time was
longer once

then the
sponge of
routine

whose idea
was this
planet
anyway!?

you mother
fuckers
shitting
on life

time

throat muscle!

hearse & 4
of Hearts
corner of
15th & Green

celebrity guest: ABUNDANCE!

car is nick
name of auto
mobile
Jay’s nick
name his
first
initial

what was a
window before
the word?

imagine entire
cities with no
language
no?
no.

for other
possibilities
please ignore
your priest

your
mouth will
free
you

gnaw your
foot from
the trap
c’mon you!

who mentions
Pegalina first? (one time
this guy yelled
*SUCK MY DICK!*
she yelled *I’LL CHEW
YOUR CROTCH INTO
A PUSSY!*
she’s not
kidding
mister!)

what are we
doing here
Sherlock
playing
Black Jack
at the bar this
fascist restaurant
where I once waited
tables Police Trainer
video game where
I sucked dope and
made out with the
nerdy dishwasher in
the cooler where
sausage beat cheese
where sex on the
job replaced health
insurance and rent
overdue where I
first thought if
restaurants in
the afterlife
don’t serve
themselves
I’m not
going!





May 1
“We just heard a live recording
of Dvorak’s *Symphony No. 4 in
d Minor*, with former president
Ronald Reagan playing all
nine instruments at once.”
--radio DJ in my
dream last night

shooting six
pointed stars
for the seal
of Solomon

what american
corporations
did Death
contract to
build our
eternal
hotels?

the unions
are *fucked!*

the Third
World will not
enter the
Afterworld as
the Third World
or was your
bible another
political
promise
or warm
piss
divined
as milk?

taste your
own and
let me
know

my friend
says she’d
rather see
state-imposed
atheism than
state-imposed
theism but I’d
rather see
the state
disappear

can’t we
imagine our
hands on
one another
instead? question
our extent
of warmth
LOVE was
a tomb for
awhile
between
borders

I will live
with you like
war has finally
ended please
meet me
there

if drag queens
ruled the world
our warmth
would never be
in question

great teachers
remain great
students

classic
evil new
evil what’s
the fucking
difference?

Sherlock and
I see Masonic
symbols every
place we look
Setting Mauls
Trowels a
butcher’s side
of beef in
window
sports an
All-Seeing
Eye this is
getting creepy
can we
leave
now?





May 30
“Just when you think
the work week’s over
there’s one more
lap to go!”
--Brett Evans every
Thursday

it never said
Tear Gently
it said
Tear Here

look at rush
hour—what if
it’s just a
repeat of
this after
we die?

I’ll be so
pissed off!

hold on
initiates
of the
sun

see how
they danced
and died
in a
hundred
year old
movie

they NEVER have
the *Valley of the
Dolls* soundtrack on
these goddamned
juke-boxes
around here!

ME: his father made
him pray to expel
all deviance

SHERLOCK: expel all
deviance!? where would
I be without it!?

that’s not a
loop hole mr.
president that’s
a hula-hoop

let’s follow the
insider trader’s trail
to the University of
Pennsylvania

Karma
another
cleaver of
the rich

it’s never
poor folks who
tell me every
body gets
what they
deserve

Sherlock wants
Diana Ross and
Lionel Richie to
redo *Endless Love*
as *Endless War*
it’s a
virus
Peace somewhere
means War was
sneezed some place
else our planet is
always sick with us

but I’m grateful
insects aren’t
bigger

(to the High Hat poet
who snubbed Sherlock)
Alice Notley told us
after her reading
“some poets like to
pretend poetry is
middle class” YEAH!
Alice KNOWS!

Lorrine Niedecker
mopped floors for
a living but if
her poems were
bullets most poets
would get it good!

* from his collaboration with Frank Sherlock, *The City Real and Imagined*, forthcoming from Factory School.