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001 abandon them



brain clatter come along

isolate like something's wrong

you’ll feel the horror of the dishes stacked high



a minute to be alone

a moment then the night tracks home

you’ll feel the missing from the house you just left



you might abandon all those that matter

words dive like vultures, oh god i’ll take the latter

your thoughts breed the swamp monsters always swimming faster

kick the sick dog, don’t bark back you bastard



one man’s forgiveness

can outweigh the next

the shorthanded fall to the pockets below



you shake your head

and draw what you hear

but you’ll never enter the closet you fear



you might abandon all those that matter

words dive like vultures, oh god i’ll take the latter

your thoughts breed the swamp monsters always swimming faster

kick the sick dog, don’t bark back you bastard





002 never thought i’d make a mess here



the kitchen oven doesn’t heat my food up. if it did i’d bake colors into cake. if it did i’d warm the house up a few degrees, and the mice behind the circuits - that chew on and on relieved.



i picked up meds and called the supermarket. down the aisle, raised up sales. the loaded strangers, they can’t stop regarding - in a sea of judgement that’s cracking underneath, that always sounds so sick.



never thought i’d make a mess here

at the worst i’d gather dust

there’s no way i end the cold war

but i’ll rag myself

and feel the lightness of damp towel made dry



i know a city bar that uses lanterns, to keep the moths out the door. the girl sells drinks - says she’s alive. she hands out bottles through the back, ‘cause there’s too much around, and just enough for the drainage we neglect.



never thought i’d make a mess here

at the worst they’d call the cops

they told me, go and study business

now the market takes the kids

while i couldn’t sell myself to make the grade



to fall asleep i need the tempo, of a slower speed than shame, of a slower kind of process, that makes the moment a teacher i can follow



never thought i’d make a mess here

at the worst i’d stare for hours

we get fired, forget intention

coma dollars

come out clean



guess i thought i’d make a mess here

at the worst they’d call the cops

they told me, go and study business

now the market takes the kids

while i couldn’t sell myself to make the grade





003 benefits



i take a pill for half the day

gone by news cycle matine

never enough i'm never enough

say it loud like they're watching us



sick time awaits

benefit start date

quit for god’s sake

no don’t this is your fate



fish bowl faces passing by

Watching their feed drop from the sky

bloated out i am bloated out

inoculated with neurotic doubt



004 tallied cell walls



exception override

critical mass

buried bonafide

huffing laughing gas

a meritocracy dies

middle lane pass

boiled by lies

frogs think jump last



tallied cell walls



moratorium calls

for ammo and tape

abducted camera logs

fashionable taste

enter epilogue

cold fascist state

stacking credit falls

burn all the banks





005 Berry’s Melody



bake bread on wednesdays, ritual and rise - it kneads you

smoke hard on those days, spiritual highs - it saves you

berry soft on a toothache, drives me crazy to try

seeded song/season sweet delay, sun’s up this fruit won’t die



when i sink into my hands, your touch demolishes my wrists and quickly flowers to support me

when locked eyes up the wall, you pull a path out your pocket, filled with notes from the day





006 shoebox



picking up the pods draw a diaphramic pentagram

soaking up the sponge while the dryness cracks off me

tailor in caveat it builds another lectern

color in the dots let the ink dry on option cons



panhandle darkness in a retrograde coke machine

tie a panorama to the steakhouse codeine

the people are drawn to the quarters in the fountain

plastic lawn chairs in the middle of the intersection

tone it down, foot down on the sidewalk crack

pick out the shoebox with monsters neath the coat rack



call a telephone box and tell 'em it's your nightmare

hack up a lung and let the blood fall anywhere

barricade the bombs from the idiotic bobbleheads

lick up the chemistry and snort the bottom fossil bed

tone it down, medication in a vinyl pack

pick out the shoebox with monsters neath the coat rack





007 grid



calendar gun - time’s lonely friend // home is at the end

crater wisdom - their names are shared // the way they fared

cheshire break me - the greedy flow // the odd follow

chase off dead leaks - no space for this // flood the palace



cut me out of gridlock



safely bronze league - the underdog // the callous fog

suits them keenly - the peace necktie // the warring lies

since it went off - the sirens sung // oracle fun

sub atom cough - the lines of red // the lines we dread



cut me out of gridlock

learn to let the ohm talk



008 youknowdamnwell



i spent all day under those fashions

harmed to the teeth, grinding your rations

sovereigneering



what casts the shadow, doubted shade?

notion for the ocean to wake up made

era-sure faring (fearing)



you told me last, but you folded time

they called us fast, gravity’s hotline

cosmic curbstomp



stranded bike lane, this night knows it

calm this praising, raining fire’s pietistic

distich aesop



sank the next one, carmine watershed

they make no movements for the bankrupt lead

aggravating



fake news itch you shaking bug bytes

wake whose situation looks ripe

youknowdamnwell

naked comfort that we’ll burn alight (burn alight)

youknowdamnwell



i caught the neighbor posting lies

potholes and dentures, indentured ties,

mountains waiting



there came a grassness with my fever strain

touched on a runway through the shower drain

carefree could-ness



at last

it crashes

thank goodness



fake news itch you shaking bug bytes

wake whose situation looks ripe

youknowdamnwell

naked comfort that we’ll burn alight (burn alight)

youknowdamnwell





009 clones



if i could touch doubt, doubt it would feel as nice, as nice as it once was, when i was what i was blacked out, lashed out last night, lastly i remember you knew, knew i’d be fine, and i’m fine with it all.



line by line signs, signal wearing you out, wearing thin my disguise, spies in my head in my coat pocket, cut off coat tails, no more telling you about my day, days of our lives, living ain’t the same way out.



hello cyclone, you’re so familiar

hello my clone, you’re unfamiliar



over cold blood, scar tissue canopy, can you say that again, against this chest against all odds, oddly in your moonstruck gods, god the tides about to break, tired ties let me down, sink in under again.



hello cyclone, you’re so familiar

hello my clone, you’re unfamiliar





010 sugar & sin



oh the highest wire is a safety for birds

while the longest tight rope is where i hang my words

and the sunrise forgives me like the chaos unheard

so say what you will even if you don’t keep your word



oh mountains have whispered of heaven’s deserts

but sugar and sin don’t seem to make it work

you’ll tilt and you’ll know the weight that could hurt

when you fall again…



so it’s homecoming

so it’s the nightmares

so it’s withdrawal

so’s my minds prayer



so it’s becoming

so’s your angel hair

so’s the tight crawl

high in the air



and it comes in the waves so the body stays alert

afraid of the day that the faces come to dirt

you’ll call me a sick man from the rages i’ve blurred

numbed hard by the harsh tones of the damage incurred



yet weekly we meet here and discuss all the nerve

of what it took for us to forget what we deserve

sometimes i’ll reach back for the flower and swerve

pull off the path…



so it’s homecoming

so it’s the nightmares

so it’s withdrawal

so’s my minds prayer



so it’s becoming

so’s your angel hair

so’s the tight crawl

high in the air





011 lesson



draw your maps in pencil

draw your lines to fade

draw a blank where you expect

a new world might be made

draw upon a desire path

and all the paths delayed

draw down a compass

and a north star you’ll never trade



take a trip you never meant

take along the pain

use a map you ain’t used to

stick to speeds you can contain

make yourself a legend

in the methods you maintain

there is no right side up

when your heart can't be tamed



cuz you can have your labels

you can call it some possession

but the road you’ll find ain’t a path defined

unless you map out your lesson



leave a hint beside me

leave a trail of crumbs

leave a lot to be desired

in time you’ll see the sums

when the traffic is heavy

carve out a different way

let the fire take over

as you burn brighter than the day



cuz you can have your labels

you can call it some possession

but the road you’ll find ain’t a path defined

unless you map out your lesson



012 classic come down



ego pickled psychic barrack causes global leader collapse

in the righteous rain

need tos covet stiff worn adorned plastic paper waded relapse

in their needless pain

carbon footprint muddied shore bank in the green infested waters

in their riches gained

evil creeps in social boundaries building steam in fuckin cold wars

with no heat contained



gaslit kingdom

classic come down

moonlit and numb

classic come down



your electric train of thought

controls the instance

the expected cause of death

minds the distance

in times of chaos, call to arms

bare assistance

you might insist your views



gaslit kingdom

classic come down

moonlit and numb

classic come down



sick of their lies you make the cause

you turn up nothing

they enjoy burning pause

it’s aggravating

you might break the record



gaslit kingdom

classic come down

moonlit and numb

classic come down



crushed up windpipe in atomic winter

snuffed out voices in ballistic nightmare

forgiveness breaks under changes coming

called out death for ignoring my needs



gaslit kingdom

classic come down

moonlit and numb

classic come down



silenced shepherd in the mirror knows me

talked up demons know familiar dead weight





013 lucinerve



the nerve, and the tick, sleep together

they feel, a pulse so rare

the blood, on a plate, in circles

it begs for garnish and pills



and the iron, is in, your coffee

we are steepled, steeping sheep

and the shepherd, is hard, of hearing

all the pain, the bugs sleep through



the nerve says why, am i still here, in an age, that can’t sense

the blanket doesn’t keep me warm

the tick says now, is the chance, is the sign, is the time

for kicking covers off each other



and i don’t think we’ll freeze

and i don’t think we’ll fight

and i don’t think we’ll flee



is it liminal? is it safe?

is it enough not to hear it plain

and the doctors, say ghosts, replace you

but when i look, i'll know the truth



the nerve says come, sit beside, tell a story, say goodbye

is it malignant i believe it so

the tick says don't, be afraid, beat yourself, treats withheld

you deserve what the future holds



and i don’t think we’ll freeze

and i don’t think we’ll fight

and i don’t think we’ll flee



014 when i eat the rich i taste dust



checking over shoulders, anxious in my head

the broom of the flesh sweeps up stars



calibrating old fears, the people drop instead

it's all the same counting liars



when i eat the rich i taste dust



guillotine the guilty, call upon the gears

machines breed the demons we kill



give up feeling empty, the mission will take years

the land we stole in dirt landfills



when i eat their fish i taste rust



sick the children on them, we'll clean up all the bones

holy ivory empire



cash in all the blood gems, may jewelry be our stones,

novas don't start with slow fire





015 wellness cig



come down, the acid eats my friends

sickness comes instead



way out, the wellness cig is lit

the embers feel my skin



ashes remind

lashes so fine

infected past time

kindly denied



stay down, in devil poses

i think i impose



lay down, the laughing roses

feel thorns between toes



bury the line

come up with signs

dig into knives

stones in my mind



ashes remind

lashes so fine

infected past time

kindly denied



016 avalanche



that day a whisper, that brought an avalanche

the slopes followed, hopes carved

i'll make sure I don't miss her, in growing our branches back

our kitchen noses know the path to follow

never mind the kilter of paths run over

i know it means something

please allow no filter for our snow rover

it chews up all the debris



and that's what you mean to me

at twenty below

the warmest hello



sometimes loud noises might shake down the mountain

our sturdy builds, our foundation stands

think back on last time the way that we won then

the landscape restart can't keep us apart

we'll let new steps lay the tracks for the creatures

they'll lay on our porch, wait for dessert

all through the night broken trees print their features

across our window, waiting for winter

to pass



and that's all we can see

let frozen time go

to spring days that glow



the light time, the long calls,

the late kind of windfalls,

remote work to hand saws,

dancing torque in forest sprawl,

another toke pass protocol,

and fire pits and shared shawls,

our gains found in glade walls,



and i'll wait for us to be

the trust that you know

bound through trials and woe



017 locusts



graveyard shift does the palette bleed

from sharpened tongues choking on the feed

earlier came the nested needs

in time buried the likely weeds



if i make enough friends will i frenzy the locusts

if i hop all alone will i die in the grass

if work til i’m dead will i finally focus

if i stop in my trakcs will i know what will last



sink my teeth in the final hour

break my neck on time's roadside flower

lose my senses the notes devour

crinkle paper on rotting sour



018 event horizon



some nights darker but I don't fold

the torch inside that she first told



No event horizon, can hold my light that finds her whole



She insights a graver toll

The one paid up for my control



No event horizon, can hold my light that finds her whole



I walk this space and time with her hand

Until I reach the last grain of sand



No event horizon, can hold my light that finds her whole



019 thank god for cancer (miss me from heaven)



talked about god being in your chest,

about the tissue kept from your heart.

can i bum a light you said

and at first a dime to get you fed.



came for the blue flame grill,

stayed for a roasted fissure.

peppers painted black,

say i’ve got your back.



that global knock out padded my pocket,

unemployment dollars a bit too much.

we split it even.

funny how family starts to believe in.



had to leave, but it’s not my choice.

saved enough to keep you going.

thousand mile delivery

with clouds lining silvery.



wasn’t there to see you get an apartment key,

but i felt what it meant.

not much savings but we’ll struggle the same.

i’ll never let you feel their blame.



the bills got to be a bit much,

it maimed to say that you can’t stay.

that cleaver taste

and the same old waste.



the legs gave out,

you couldn’t stand it.

time for the quacks,

the records on the fax.



while you can’t sleep my wallet rests easy.

i am cut down to a size that can’t be touched.

thank god for cancer,

death to old dancer.



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