what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

perception is reality

or so the story goes

the parable the myth the legend

in your own mind

acid trip

black out dates

unlimited nights & weekends

what day is it? 

we now join 

your daily routine

already 

in progress

fixed gear conversion virgin’s whack track stand

toe straps too tight

attention      to all the wrong details 

don’t fuck with the limit screws dude 

the pendulum 

has to swing too far

before 

it can return 

tennis balls on the back legs of the walker 

scuffing down the hall out the door down the street

to the glycogen stores

completely depleted       Sold Out 

a slight variation in the routine 

radiates ripples across the continuum

concentric circles at regular intervals 

continuing from the center from the source

that seemed like a good idea at the time 

when they say September 28 they mean THIS Saturday

when he said Presidents Day he meant like 9 years ago bro

that April 26th was so 12.5 years ago

historic triptych

not not in my back yard (NNIMBY)

not not in my front yard (NNIMFY)

they're there they're there they're 

everyfuckingwhere 

as we talked about. my next coffee table book will focus on photographs of individually wrapped single serving sized bags of dogshit overflowing garbage cans in parks, playgrounds and public spaces. 

but my next next coffee table book with feature photos of junior junior proudly holding up Swisher Sweet wrappers that he's spotted in situ. 

don't even want to discuss my next next next coffee table book featuring photos of discarded dental picks. 

I don't do a lot of book reviews but this is worth it. This is the good shit.  James Tate will sit well on the shelf next to Joy Williams who wrote a book that appeared here and was perhaps the last time I talked about a book worth owning. Pour me a beer someday and ask me about the line between poetry and flash fiction or the line between prose and journalism or the line between a bike lane and a sharrow. 

Can't say I knew of James Tate before this year and if I did it was lizard brain level. But when I saw his work in Poetry, then Fence, then the New Yorker it seemed to be everywhere preceding the release of this book. So I bought the book and then I learned more about him and saw his 10 or 12 other books available at the library. 

the soldering soldier is always in flux

unfinished business

moving right along

peristalsis 

parenthetical ellipsis

her lips is 

Oh

to visit the vermilion zone

and stay awhile

let me

apply liberally and evenly

as often as necessary      and

reapply after swimming

there’s no such thing

all things being equal

insert variable

plug & chug    plug & chug

for best results dry clean

or hand launder

in lukewarm water 

--Wrote this ditty ten years ago but I’m still haunted by the vermilion zone mumbling to myself as I roll around in the rain

and the R. Crumb is timeless, never gets old that is. 

 is it raining?

that's the signpost up ahead, next stop  the twilight zone

I prefer to auto pilot back burner low bandwidth subconsciously lizard brain muscle memory pigeonhole all the stupid petty bullshit of everyday existence the workaday subsistence whenever I can.  It’s often easier said than done but when it goes down it opens up a little space for the good shit.  

Being 40 hour work week weak I don’t really care about your weekend plans or the idle chit chat that seems to be considered normal and or friendly. All that banter is an energy suck. 

You can make it yourself at home, it takes about nine hours. 

      or     

You can buy a 10lb chub of it at Safeway for $2.49. 

is it raining? 

I thought you said you'd never forget

is it raining? 

I'm a frayed knot 

is it raining?

you came and you gave without taking

is it raining?

I'm nervous and my socks are too loose

is it raining? 

I cannot give any legal advice

is it raining? 

let's roll 

Don’t ask me about $400 12-speed cassettes spanning 10-50t or the derailleurs that go with them. You’ll get nothing.  Ask me about 7-speed freewheels and thumb shifters and shortcage XT derailleurs. This little number Steve set aside for me at Bike Works opens up possibilities to transform my monstrous single speed Rock Hopper into a 1 x 7 or make my kid’s Mt. Lion 1 x 6 look a whole lot cooler. 

Which reminds me, I like IPA.  I like Caddy Shack. I like Caddy-Shack-inspired names for IPA. In this big beer vortex we live in there are endless choices. But the colorful packaging graphics and great names are often far more impressive than the actual beer. this time the beer is as good as the name. 

 “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["the perfect riser bar"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the handlebar involved in this case is not that."    Paraphrasing supreme court justice Potter Stewart’s famous quote. I’ve been digging around recently for a riser bar to neoretro-retrofit a bike I’ve had for 20 years. I cannot and will not try to document the metrics in millimeters of rise and degrees of sweep. I’m more into eye-balling it as I pull it from a milkcrate packed with used handlebars. Visualizing it and how it fits in on any given bike with particular attention to the stem it'll be stuck in.  Visiting Bike Works yesterday I was surprised by the lack of packed milkcrates in both the warehouse and shop as they recently cleared shit out in their fall sale. Recycled Cycles actually had more used bars to look at this week and that hasn't happened very often in the last ten years.  The search continues. I'll know it when I see you get nothing and like it.