"helios, you adorable psychopath," "here the palm trees wave at you saying everything is possible," and "the split second the heart of the solar system skips a beat for no reason"

helios
you adorable psychopath

your climatic shenanigans endear me
 
go on
burn us all
turn us into deserts
turn us into waste
but don’t burn yourself just yet
instead let me dance with you
 
you gorgeously round serial killer
 
i’ll slap you in the face
nibble on your lips
& ask you: what did you have for breakfast today, honey?
 
solis

you marvelous mussolini 
i want to gently masturbate your tentacles of fire
& waltz through your lava
 
penetrate        your soft chromosphere
 
perform          fellatio
perhaps           then you’ll stop
melting down the north pole
farting out heat waves
set our oceans on fire
burn down our forests
 
surya

you sexy rapist
in a few billion years
you’ll forget how to dance 
you’ll trip
fall on your face
run off on crutches
like a crippled jupiter
 
from a ramshackle spaceship
post-human vigilantes
will watch you 
commit harakiri
like a sea-urchin
 
goodbye now tonaltzinti
you wondrous life-giving murderer
your ten billion years are almost over
cyborgs are breakdancing out of joy  
in the direction of their next star
 
soon you’ll be a black hole
gods and goddesses will hibernate in your groin
& we the people?
forget about us
we’re long gone
 
who cares
 
it’s over
 
so long you beautiful
round bastard
 
life on earth
wasn’t that great
it wasn’t that bad either

 


 

here the palm trees wave at you
saying everything is possible

(for Dean Moriarty) 

i live in la la land,
here palm trees wave at you
saying 
everything is possible
 
enjoy strolling around 
our gorgeous strip malls 
 
marvel at the hollywood sign
stumble at the hall of fame
piss in an adorable latrine 
buy acid at grand central market 
 
be sure to visit me
one day
while high on LSD
 
together we'll hit historic route 66
to las vegas
like hunter thompson &
oscar acosta 
we'll look for the american dream 
in a taco 
 
or let 66 take us up 
to san fran of another era
we'll kiss carlo marx 
shoot with old bull lee
join philip lamantia in a 
peyote ritual 
get drunk at the vesuvio cafe 
with bob kaufman
 
at north beach
we’ll goof around with dean moriarty
 
goof around with dean mo-ri-arty 
 
 
i live in la la land
here palm trees wave at you
saying 
in reality
not much is possible 
 
still
be sure to visit me one day
we'll hit ... 

 


 

the split second the heart of the solar system skips a beat for no reason:

your name will fork out its tongue before shooting itself in the face
 
you’ll try turning to god but bibles are burned in underwater libraries
 
your favorite breakfast place instantly changes into a gas chamber
 
your reality folds itself up like a used napkin & you’re eternally blowing your nose
 
your dog looks at you with contempt & barks he wants a sex-change
 
in your front yard a party of eunuchs electrocute your birth certificate
 
they smile at you when you ask them to leave
 
you switch on the tv
 
the news woman mentions the acropolis is turned into a lesbian mosque
 
you open your mouth & the symphonies hidden in your throat set themselves on fire
 
three-eyed angels dance for you wearing leather mini-skirts
 
you hear your ancestors whisper family dramas in your head
 
they tell you reading books on kindle is like copulating with a sex-doll
 
after you orgasm an assault of paleness storms into your bedroom
 
& twenty blue children whip their cats
 
two jupiters run off on crutches
 
the carnivorous plants growing on your back hold a BBQ party
 
until the heart of our solar system resumes its regular rhythms.

 

 

Giorgia Pavlidou

Giorgia Pavlidou is a writer and painter living in Los Angeles. She holds an MA in Urdu Literature (Lucknow, India), and received her MFA from MMU Manchester, UK - although having LA poet Will Alexander as a good friend and mentor has been exceedingly more impactful. Both her visual and linguistic work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in such places as Beyond Words, Caesura, Revue de la poésie in Toto, Lotus-Eater, Zoetic Press, Maintenant Dada Journal, New Urge Editions, Witchcraft Mag, Puerto del Sol and Entropy.  She is the main English language editor of SULΦUR and an editor of The Room. Giorgia recommends the Trevor Project.

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Thursday, September 2, 2021 - 22:05