Michael Berton


Patient Parking Only

     sencha sensori
                                          satori in sunset  
                          saturated
                                                skyline
                                                                   brick red
                                                                              magenta
                                                                                        apricot

          weave              peacock              abstract 
                                                                                 exquisite
                                                                                                    demise 

                      quick crick 
                                    staccato cricket                 
          ricochets          
                  lickety click
                      eyelids
                                    blink        

                                      façade stubble
                 fragant                          
                                 flipper               
                                                 trill grip
                                                                                     rip   rip
                                                                                           raggedy lips
                                                                                                                           girl grill
                                                                                                                               rest
                                                                                                                                 in
                                                                                                                              peace

Bug Juice

teach mindscape mischief
Dad loaned son gun
jail through posterity
whistle while neighbors
circle for sport
covert lust rough
contact girls basket
ball ping-pong around
the chimney sweeps soot
embers alive well after
parents sleep children
wander genes reverberate
body shapes bagged
shagged a good supply
of fags in the gardener’s
pocket not enough to
darn a curse unless
unused on the dining
table bug juice and
bebop bananas whipspank
skeleton keys to the closet

Lickety Split

pop
                  pop                 pop
        pop               pop               pop
                                        pop                pop
popcorn
                      cop corn
                                           pop porn
           cop porn
                                   on the corner
                                                              of pop and porn 

pop the corn
                         pop the porn
                                                 cop the corn 
                                                                          cop the porn 
cop on the corner
                                    corn on the cob 
porn on the corner
                                                        porn on the cop 
                   pourin’ it on the cop

pop
              pop        pop
                                           pop        pop       pop 
pop the cop 
                          cop the corn               corn the porn 
             cop the cop
                                      porn the cop
                                                      on the corner           of pop’s porn 

got corn 
                      the cop got corn
                                          pop corn 
got porn
                     the cop got porn 
                                          pop porn 
            the cop      got corn holed
                                                   on porn
                   pouring slop
                                              on pop’s popcorn 

pop        pop
    pop         pop        pop                         
          pop        pop
              pop         pop       pop  

Penmanship

       where flows the libidinal energy constant frenzy through ink
jettisoned in subterranean logic structure symbol of sensorial
language in the deepest recesses through one’s body as sieve
dripping letters onto fingers forming words

       nascent cadence vanguard projection to and fro dance mono-
lith thesis rubble of babel babble of rubble underfoot template
simmers on oxygen noise velocity purring organic rhyme wrinkles
staining crevices then bulging pustules tumescent odors reeks and
scents makes skin tight with virility shots and punches to the core
orifice oral face vicious circles and ovals

       mania is a criteria for critical language gauge mind mantra
muse mimic subtle species mantle borrowed idiosyncratic cog-
nates scream protuberance slogans dwelling in hyper reflexivity
details raw and decomposing voids in common width of sphincter
pinch splayed along digressing zones of unsanitary punctuation
insideways cerebral glitches

       divide by the sum cauterize all tensile zilches behind your façade
then goof gargling three finger digit tincture zany cursive fragments
of existential exits scripted in oral permutation reciprocity in various
forms of random enigma



Michael Berton is the author of a collection of poems titled Man! You Script The Mic. (New Mitote Press). He has had poems published in Venereal Kittens, And/Or, REM Magazine, Volt, Indefinite Space, Cormac McCarthy's Dead Typewriter, Snow Monkey, Gertrude and others. He lives in Portland, OR.
 
 
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