New Poem in The Racket SF

Today marks the first appearance in print of my poem "The Devil Comes Back."

Omar Villegas aka OuttaKnowhere made a film of it last year but it hadn't yet officially appeared in print. Today is that day. So head over to The Racket SF, pick up a copy... and maybe support earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria. They've been hit hard. Again. After having been hit so hard by war. It's hard to take if you pay attention even for a second. Contribute if you can.

Gimme a minute to tell you what's up with this poem: The aggressive history of the sugar trade. Sugar is cheap and a #1 killer. Sugar in the corner store. Sugar snacks. Sugar drinks. Sugar liquor. Thomas Kinkade's perverted images of sleepy towns in the snow. America's perverted Kinkade dreams of sugar dusted houses and white homogeneity. Sugar town cops busting a sugar shoplifting suspect with a knee to the neck pressed into the asphalt as justice. As if it is an officer's responsibility to mete out justice in the streets, into the streets, using the street as a correctional tool. George Floyd. More than Floyd. Sugar as a dead mentality and institution. Sugar as a cage, ending in death. Dead sugar prison complex. Sugar as a symbol of the American dream and the American nightmare. A white balloon needs air to fly and now we know of the Chinese balloon as well as the little French boy’s Red Balloon. Social justice as evasive as the balloon.

 With that in mind, please read the poem:

Nomadic Closes.

 I'm terribly saddened by the news of the closing of Nomadic Press. I've been holding off on this post because the news is being carried everywhere.

But seriously, THANK YOU, NOMADIC PRESS. They were the first to see value in my writings and encouraged me to write as wildly as I cared to and we proudly brought my collection Fiercer Monsters to life with a roaring fire in a large garden and wonderful readers and incredible music at the launch in 2017. We sold 55 copies that night. There were about 75 in attendance. Fabulous poets read. There were fairy lights everywhere. The house on the property was wonderfully haunted.

Fiercer Monsters is still available for the time being, until they sell out of their final copies. Then, the book will be printed no more. I hope these stories find their way to you again in some form, in some way, somehow in a future yet unwritten.