"cvs," "syncophant," and "filling myself all up on worm castles"

     cvs goblin highway federalsburg 21632     not landscape
with ruins pastoral figures trees but     2nd biggest retail 
pharmacy outlet in the whole damn state         pink-dot-through-
     white-bars warns of messy commute     traffic backed up to
junction 76     for the annual living people their heads
like birds show         when next we meet upon
     kryptonite drive     the light will change     steel lines shadows shall
continually respond     so make sure you keep your egg in morose
spin dizzy     $1800 rent check made payable to cockroach 
ambassador conversely     each flea has 2 big beautiful eyes
for it has gazed upon celestial vault         in merge-pool-golden-
     age     occasionally let loose passing train deafening noise
once trawled up some clubland overstayer     overwhelmed
now with fucking keys     hand out smokes more vigorous
blame work         unprecedented bull market stretch
     means we still have
some bleached
scans of original
left so     charge
your lucky star

 


 

     syncophant     will dream out a new quilt     to circumvent
the divide where     appropriately an     infernal specter is
piped through     the king string     clinical vigor all
smoke no mirrors         bright new attention tingle
     head     no privileged viewpoint     only simultaneous
frenetic action so     go off in another
direction adopt     an erratic flight pattern because     croyvania
6 run     the show round here         requiem for the whole
     enchilada in the dwang     shall give frobnitz some
percussive maintenance     won’t have to be grounded
in     a single logic         so straight is the main line     i climb
     trees to get away from it     even on plaza stormy days
maintaining butter & twang strategy     such yellow
green olive is subtle bingo     compared to hell unshirted
in a playground arena         from deep within stagnation
     era’s midgame shall emit     a large    
belch sweet sweet smell     yet
upon saccharine threshold     under    
the hedge     choreographed
pink     drenched deranged     it glows

 


 

     filling myself all up on worm castles     have learnt
to cop it sweet     & give out dirty orbs through
attitude adjustment hour     eat a serving of the
great unknown     get the green apple quick step
call out & file the day under bonus damage     screw
up my face     distort my features     so i consume
less oxygen & my heart beats slow         because in
     hot rain hard town     i fried my beans
frobnicating to the back of the room while
ignition & scanner eluded me     so i
let that poppy show run its course then
got him down close until syntax gave
way to speech     musical
score     then
noise         alone
     in my high dreary spot above the
searching mouths     my dial set to where-
did-the-road-go radio &     what will i hear
in the trivial songs of     the corn bunting & yellow hammer?
we need a piss quiz from you     no commercials & a piss quiz

 

 

Billy Cancel has recently appeared in PEN America & Boston Review. His latest body of work Psycho'Clock is out on Hidden House Press. His collection Mock Trough Rasping Crow is to be published by BlazeVox in January 2018. With his wife Thursday Fernworthy, Billy Cancel makes up the noise-duo Tidal Channel. Aberrations of all sorts at www.BillyCancelPoetry.com

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - 21:26