Author Archives: Tony Brown

About Tony Brown

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A poet with a history in slam, lots of publications; my personal poetry and a little bit of daily life and opinions. Read the page called "About..." for the details.

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Zero Point Zero

Y’know, I went back and read a bunch of the Zero Point Zero columns tonight.

I did some good work there, now that I’ve got some distance from it. I absolutely hated them at the end, but I’m ok with them now.

Might be time, soon, to consider a compilation. But I dont’ know how or where to begin, and I don’t have a lot of time to do it.

Any ideas?


The Last Good Thing

The last good thing
I will ever do
will be done on a Thursday,
in summer or perhaps
late spring;
it won’t be a weekend gesture,
or one made at the beginning
of a workweek, compelled
by pressure and dread;
it won’t be an autumn deed,
drawn from me by dead drifting leaves,
or a winter’s impulse urged out of me
by too much grey and white.

No, the last good thing I will ever do
will happen when I finally tell myself the truth
in the middle of the week
on a warm green day
and admit I have not done nearly enough
to deserve my
existence.

Once I say it,
I will kick off my sneakers
and walk barefoot on the hot road
from where I am then
to as far away from there as I can go,

but none of these things are the last good thing I’ll do.
No.

The last good thing I do will be when
I look back at all of you, the whole village, and refuse to
wave. Better still: the last good thing I do
will be to not look back at all.
The last good thing I do will be a sin of omission.

A man who never
did a thing
will become an object lesson,
and for years after they’ll say,

the only thing
he ever really did
was fuck up a perfectly great summer Thursday
for the rest of us.

Why
do you suppose he did it? Guess we’ll
never really know.

Something like this, though,
it makes you love
the ones around you even
more. Makes you appreciate things.

I guess
some good came of it,
after all.


the rites

i am
as always
awake and
the furniture is
as always
laughing
at my fat ass
once again
riding the wooden chair

all the rain that isn’t falling
couldn’t drown me to sleep

i lick myself
in fifteen dirty places
like any common dog
taking the time
to make a thorough job of it
going over and over and over me
till i’m
raw

counting the night down by the manic numbers

one the tossing of covers
two the reaching for books
three the stubborn yearning for love
four the gripping substitute for same
five the teary triumph of orgasm over satisfaction
six the pensive grandeur of waiting for dawn
seven the counting of pills
eight is the hour you should leave for work
nine is the hour you actually do

ten is nirvana or
ten is a joke

mania is all about nine
camping night after night upon
the last step
before completion

and i do it
until i have
surrendered
all hope of ever having
a garden variety
dream


Michael Jackson

Twelve people, locked in a room, plow through mounds of evidence and testimony for seven days and determine that based on what was presented, they do not have sufficient evidence to find Jackson guilty of anything.

The rest of us, based on our superior intelligence, decide that they’re idiots, based on the coverage we’ve seen of the case from the media we indict regularly for being sensationalist.

God, I love this country.

I think Jackson’s a creep. I have an opinion about his guilt. I also think I haven’t got a clue if he’s really guilty or not.

The people entrusted to make that decision did have some clue. I have no idea what they were thinking; but I’m willing to bet they thought about it harder than any of us did.


quickly yanking my jittery head out of the dark

this is interesting, from the childhood memories perspective. I never saw them play; one of the few big 70s bands I can say that about.

Pink Floyd reunites.

I now return to my depression and angst.


Narrative

failure
faceplant
dirtfeast
crater

revenant
supplicant
slingshot
fader

jargon
manacle
poorhouse
bottle

rorshach
monument
bluebells
throttle

sandman
tearstain
silhouette
tower

left behind
fall behind
far behind
over


how to tell that depression is clinical

if you should be, and you’re not, and when you shouldn’t be, you are, you’re probably clinical.

this is not to say that depression is always clinical in nature.

sometimes, it’s just about plain old suckage and self-esteem crapola.

sometimes, it’s guilt.

and sometimes, it’s just the recognition that life comes with consequences that are not always pleasant, but which are unavoidable. that’s all.

that’s all.

sometimes, there doesn’t even seem to be a poem in it.

EDIT: Guess I was wrong on the last point. Goddamn sadistic muse.


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hot hot heat

Today I have been very busy finding things to do in the basement that kept me quiet, isolated, and cool.

I was told earlier today that lithium, my main maintenance medication, is in serious short supply and I had to go running around to get a prescription filled at a pharmacy that still has it. If you’re using it, stock up now; I’ve been told the supply restrictions won’t let up until the end of July. Manufacturer issues. Ugh. Scary.

Now, I am doing school work, researching the antifeminist undercurrents of the Red Scare of the 1920s.

In other matters: Thinking hard. Feeling my way ahead.

Too much to feel and think about.


Florida, the summary…

A good week, professionally and otherwise.

Last night: the Broken Speech Slam, hosted by jbradley, was pretty cool. Neat venue in a coffeehouse/bar/alternative video store. Packed house. Some good poets in the slam, many of whom are now on my LJ friends’ list. Mr. Bradley was an excellent host.

I did pretty much a greatest hits set, since the room is unamplified:

Meta
No
Mission Statement
Punk
Getting Ahead
Conspiracy
fever
DIY

Good fun. Sold and gave away a bunch of books.

Flight home uneventful, except that upon landing we skidded aross the runway and the pilot had to do something kinky with the engine to get us back on track. Nothing was said about it, but I’ve flown hundreds of thousands of miles over the years, and this was definitely something out of the ordinary.

Home, naps, laundry, errands…and so to bed.

see y’all soon…


Home now. Naptime.

Full update later, including Scary Landing at Logan and Great Evening at Broken Speech.

Hello to all the new LJ friends I made last night…

Later, gators.


Florida, Day 4

ARGH. No more information.

Time to stop.

I go home tomorrow…but not before making an appearance tonight as a feature at the Broken Speech Slam. Come down, come down…I need to talk to POETS!!!


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Florida, Day 3:

Me at the end of today’s sessions: “Information overload…must have beer…”

I’m featuring at the Broken Speech Slam tomorrow night. C’mon down, O Floridians.

I return now to sweet slumber.