Unlikely 2.0


   Adults do not talk to us—they give us directions. They issue orders without providing information. When we trip and fall down they glance at us; if we cut or bruise ourselves, they ask us are we crazy. When we catch colds, they shake their heads in disgust at our lack of consideration. —Toni Morrison


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Three Poems by Billy Cancel

Unless Fire Breather avoid fire
breather.           unless Fire Breather avoid
Stab Alley!

sins of the father make a house           a Home so investigations
begin in earnest / start at dawn,

"won't find any glass   at the bottom
of the answers:"           CASCADING WALL

OF DARK
BLUE LIGHT
BLUE BLOCKS;

(synopsis at 0500 -
exeter brooklyn           vitreous to specular
federal iceberg           8 to 4, moderate later.)




grey remote      winters spent
                                           self-assured     upon a low beige
pedestal gray remote winters
                                           spent with the assumption of
fine times ahead: full power
straight into their 'thicket
of squiggly bright lines:' Red
Paris Green Milan Composite
Overlay Red Barcelona Yellow
Berlin Powdered Ornamentals;
PULSATING SERENITY
BLUR. low-income neighborhood. high contrast black & white. dreadful
stillness. trace presence. floating crud trajectory. for all your travel updates
this is billy cancel live from the traffic center




black implosion      within the confines      of a rose:
other things      you should know:      yesterday's gauze
reloaded:     conclusive idiot spread:     church that watch
luv;      impending bi-location same zip      you'll be both
coming to the rothschild     working the shallows     this
calendar.      kate never liked the sound      of that movie
asking "years      of silk road but      can you still feel
back through the string?"     from slow action round
recent curve      she was      well groomed half eaten.
your tale of undoing will ultimately be just another
from the lush bio-domes of los angeles a character
defaulting flooded
with ghosts firm
recollections of fair
albion all clogged
up with collage.


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Billy CancelBilly Cancel is a Charleston-based poet/performer. He has been widely published in both the US (including Lungfull! Fact-Simile, 6x6, 580 Split, Indefinite Space) as well as publications in the UK, Canada & Australia. Billy performs in the poetry/noise band Farms & self-publishes through Hidden House Press. A collection The Autobiography Of Shrewd Phil was published by Blue & Yellow Dog Press in September 2010.