Marty Shambles
Marty Shambles
charity
by Marty Shambles
“my charity is stronger / than red cross. it is / here to offer guns to / desperate people. the / people have to prove / desperation. we can’t / just give guns to / anybody.…“
i wanted to know the contours of the sun
by Marty Shambles
“like most kids i wanted / to be an astronaut for a / while, not realizing / until later that / astronauts are / overachieving nerds who / don’t do anything cool…“
fast and furiousing
by Marty Shambles
“i used to go fast & / furiousing as hard as / anyone but i couldn't / handle the movements / of automobiles.”
reclaimed redwood
by Marty Shambles
“…each ring is epiphany / forgotten, / like new years resolutions / and their inevitable decay.”
meat
by Marty Shambles
“is it the good part of the / animal or the bad part? / is it tender muscle or / sinew and viscera? / only the chew knows”
she stares at
by Marty Shambles
“[she stares at] me when i’m not snoring, / laying in the still, paranoid / night–she stares until / there’s a gasp or twitch”
why i write
by Marty Shambles
“i write for a world where / money doesn’t exist, / where worth is derived from /’ the bliss of gnosis”
clouds are like roaches
by Marty Shambles
“what’s / the price of rice now? / why are there roaches in my / basmati and why do they move / like clouds?”
80s poem
by Marty Shambles
“a rubiks cube is suspended / above a glass of Tab…”
the gutter dance
by Marty Shambles
“it’s a hungry time of night, / when the stomach sucks juice / from the ribs.”
there’s always more stuff to buy
by Marty Shambles
“walmarts look like churches. / churches look like walmarts. / prosperity gospel in the parking lot.”
untitled
by Marty Shambles
“…a plume of smoke pours / from my lips dangerous precedents are set every day.”
the big show
by Marty Shambles
“the adoration is truncated as they shuffle you / offstage to make room for the new players / who will be loved more than all your gestures combined.”
words are inert
by Marty Shambles
“the words illuminate a holy picture show… / then to again be inert symbols / scrawling the walls of this prison.”
how to regret a sentence
by Marty Shambles
“O-F-F-E-N… / you see the reactions of / your audience—faces washed / with disgust—-and you know / you’ve stepped in it…”
skeleton poem
by Marty Shambles
“everyone / vies for my attention, but i just / drive with my bones, waiting for a / metaphor that never comes.”
the pitch
Poetry by Marty Shambles
“step right up folks / step right up! / come see the amazing analog poet / watch this human anachronism / use an organic computer made of skull goo / to formulate sentences never before / uttered by man or machine.”