Sucker (Artificial Colors and Flavors) and other poems

Matthew Lee Bain

Sucker (Artificial Colors and Flavors)   Pure-white boy; smile, negative-space grape (Sugar) Pure-white girl; laugh, negative-space grape (Syrup) Pure-white boy, girl play marbles in negative space (Acid) Pure-white girl (Partially hydrogenated)- eyes nose smile, negative space - rides pure-white pony (soybean oil) Pure-white boy(whey), girl(soy)- happiness in negative space - ice skate (lecithin a) Pure-white boy (milk, skim)- elation in negative space - rides soapbox racer (Condensed) Pure boy, girl - negative complaisance - sail away into dark-blue happiness (including FD&C  Blue 1, Red 40).

Sometimes in the Soft Dead Winter   Sometimes in the soft dead winter trains chuff through   Coal-black snow-wet steel huffing PU-ffing crow-stack plumes   Where loneliness lives in the heart of the forest the winter is bleak and white   No-one hears the thunder of creak ice or the whoo-P of fell trees...   Sometimes in the soft dead winter trains chuff through Johns and Janes jump from open cars   They leave sooty snow angels or rolling snowmen trails and footprints gone in seconds   Sometimes Johns brave the creak - No-one sees them slide beneath the ice sheets, chuffing steam like winter trains   Some get lost in the beautiful wastes - disappear like footprints - cold solstice ornaments   No-one lives here with loneliness in the heart of the forest   Where winter is bleak and white Black trains chuff, PU-ff.     Sometimes in the soft dead winter Janes and Johns jump from open cars   Janes leave soft clean star shapes, sometimes - and footprints lightly - Their skin is pure as snow Their eyes are as hard-blue as ice   No-one watches their footprints disappear and follows...   Black trains blow and bellow Chuff and PU-ff, screeching down the ice-hard tracks - Creak ice thunders deafening in its shift - Trees whoo-P down to indurate ground - Nothing else can be heard

Side Effects May Include   BEDLAMENE IS HERE! Here’s the cure to depression And allergies, All in one fell swoop! Say “bye bye,” And good riddance to those pesky Blues and sniffles With just three pills a day!     SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE: Scrotal hemorrhaging and bloating‑ Growth and protrusion of horns from skull‑ Secretion of blood from nipples‑ Subliminal impulses to cannibalize family and friends (please ignore them)‑ An uncanny ability to speak with And control kitchen appliances‑ Abundance of obscure visions such as:  Dancing, skeletal children, Elvis’ gutted torso Hanging from trees, colored capsules raining Down from the heavens, extra terrestrials Giving generous lapdances accompanied by Glowing genitalia, etc.‑ (In studies, only 20% of participants Reported the ability to prophecize The return of the all‑mighty Amon‑Ra.)     Ask your doctor about Bedlamene today!

 

The Matthew Lee Bain ship is slowly but steadily approaching its thirty-second year at sail on this dreary and otherwise uncertain sea of life... Other than that, he writes fiction, studies literature, and practices Tae Kwon Do. Two of his poems were recently published in The Rose and Thorn and The Shantytown Anomaly; and a short story, "The Orange Mammoth," has been selected for publication in the upcoming anthology Horror Library Vol. 3.

Photo Courtesy of 123rf.

 

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Poems Copyright © 2008 Matthew Lee Bain. All rights reserved.