Marty Shambles
Marty Shambles
the knock
by Marty Shambles
“maybe it’s / somebody who is supposed / to be in here… / …but perhaps they are not / meant to be anywhere / near this place and the / door is the last barrier / to catastrophe..”
fry cook
by Marty Shambles
“i worked as a fry cook / in san antonio, which / left a greasy film over / my eyes, rendering the / most vivid sunsets when / mixed with the pollution / of the city’s collective / cough.”
i’ll never get a surprise party
by Marty Shambles
“…she’s so wicked / with sauce i tell / everyone we know that / she’s melting now and / everyone has already / forgotten her. everyone.”
ambrosia salad
by Marty Shambles
“virginia slims lit, the / smoke trailed up to the /ceiling and made an /omnipresent cloud of / disavowal.…”
a decadent squalor
by Marty Shambles
“when they fell asleep i / got locks of their hair / and smoked them like it / was something good. i / let the nihilism of the / hair take over. i got / hooked and smoked myself / bald.“
bible meat
by Marty Shambles
“the / gristle of God gets stuck in the teeth.“
when i was too high to smoke
by Marty Shambles
“they know that i / smoke sleep and whisper / a scoundrel's poetry / into the pillow.“
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.”