hip hop haikus + assorted musings

For DMH and nostalgia's sake: Valpo to Vina

2011-05-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

February 24th, my last
day as a 24 year old &
I feel like a jerk. My
hands are dirty, mascara
is all over my face,
my mouth tastes of
fermented death & the
last sip of water is long
gone. I'm pretty sure I
pissed my pants at least a
little bit on the walk
home last night, and without
a doubt tested the patience
of Panchi's mom when we
stumbled in after 1 a.m., &
again as I stood half-naked
in the laundry room
attempting to explain
that I'd spilt red wine
all over myself & that I
was sorry. If my Spanish
isn't already broken on a
good day, it's compound
fractured when I'm
drunk. I can't recall
what I wrote to whom
on the internet, but I'm
pretty sure it's things
I regret. I will
probably dedicate a chunk
of this afternoon to
looking for my cellphone
in the grass in front of
the grocery store where
we spent what must
have been a long time
wrestling a branch of a
palm tree. We won.
All I want is water:
to drink, to shower and
if I'm lucky, to wash away
this hangover and rinse
out these tethered
memories of a night too
good to not leave me
feeling like shit right now.

A sunset south of here

2010-05-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

And Brave We'll Be

2010-05-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

She started dancing to that fine, fine music
You know her life was saved by rock & roll

-Velvet Underground

Valparaiso

2010-03-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

A city of
street art
outdoor elevators
naval ships
romanticized
Pablo Neruda
impossible maps
vegetarian fare
big hills and
most importantly

HAPPY HOUR

Bolivian border

2010-03-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

I loathe terrible
bathrooms, fuck it, I'll just go
pee behind that shack.

Oh the Catharsis of Clarity

2010-02-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

Call it irony
coincidence
or maybe
perfect timing
but
love don't
seem so good
to me today

Oh, the stories I've got to tell you

2010-02-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

A bottle of red, and they're yours...

been gone awhile

2009-11-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

the blog just doesn't do it for me no mo'

perhaps because i already question this digital age enough

perhaps because i'm the type who likes to write by hand

perhaps because i'm gearing up to travel

there will be more to come, but not right now.

From the back pages of my heart

2009-10-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

...

Oh, Henry

2009-10-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

... And this new life I feel is mine, absolutely mine, to use or to smash as I see fit. In this life I am God, and like God I am indifferent to my own fate. I am everything there is- so why worry?

(Miller, "Peace! It's Wonderful!")

2009-10-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

Some days, I can't help but feel this way.

These are a few of my favorite things...

2009-09-23T16:13:00.001-07:00

Goofy, cute, useless, awesome.

A mildly embarassing case of mistaken identity

2009-09-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

One rainy afternoon as I sat in my comfy couch divet mindlessly flipping t.v. channels on on a rare and coveted day off, I came across a clip of a music video. I only saw it for two seconds, and I could've sworn I was witness to a butch lesbian, pop music star on the Much Music countdown.

Could it be true? Clearly this matter would require further investigation. Upon closer inspection (more precisely, google image and a wikipedia entry), I realized that this mysterious gender-bending, chart-topping sensation was, in fact...

... A fifteen-year-old boy named Justin Bieber.

He looks like this

And like this

The lessons to be learned from this brief case of mistaken identity?

a) Teenage boys can be mistaken for cute lesbians.
b) Not to expect anything too earth-rattling, like a chart-topping dyke to hit pop culture. Not yet, at least.

Living City

2009-09-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

wet pavement
nervous eyes
honking horns
careless obscenities
culling some
semblance of
a 20-something
life full of
strange faces
sad faces
pissed off faces
one or two
happy faces
buses full
insidious rain
trying hard
not to bump into
anyone since
we're playing
a game where
we pretend
nobody exists
day jobs
night jobs
in between jobs
stiff drinks
fast cash
big ideas
live updates
staving off
boredom by
piling on the
pointless shit
can't spend
a moment alone
in spite of
always needing
to get away
forgetting what
it's like to
have silence but
remembering what
it's like to
have love

the rain on mute

2009-09-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

save me from a sight

most unsavory, don't give

me those junk yard eyes

These are the good times in your life

2009-08-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

... so put on a smile, and it'll be alright.

Highlights of the season: Acquiring, then fixing, then riding a bicycle. Not getting hit by a car on said bicycle. Making it down East Hastings not once, but twice in the middle of the night by myself unscathed. Every single barbecue I ever attended. Home-made sangria. Home-made mojitos. Beach days, even though I can count them on one hand. Jogging around like a sweat-loving long distance runner. Discovering Budgies Burritos, best $6.50 you can spend. Planning and executing one hell of a FUNdraiser. Conquering Grouse Mountain the next day. Social Distortion at the Commodore. Receiving letters and postcards from friends all over. Substituting some of my hell-raisin' ways to catch up on sleep, often. East coast hospitality. Surfing, swimming, kayaking, and wakeboarding in the Atlantic. Allowing great things to become greater...

I am a

2009-08-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

reeling riveting ruckus

gonna invade your heart

burning emblems of the modern-day proletariat

2009-07-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

shoes hang on the wire

and if I could reach them I

would set them on fire

Summer Underrated

2009-07-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

These days I get by

on books, beer, Portuguese songs

and hijacked Q-tips

truespeaker

2009-07-11T20:39:00.001-07:00

"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."

- Augusten Burroughs

If I were a country singer

2009-06-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

I would write a tune

in dedication to all

the gropin'-hearted

As per your request

2009-06-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

I hope by the time

you find your words I can be

around to hear them

long fingers +

2009-06-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

an affinity

for alliteration is

the root of it all

Ode to Christ, All Mighty

2009-06-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

There's this girl

she has this

jump to her walk

a quirky curb hop

a bounce in her stride

the kind that

reminds me of you

since

you do that, too

I look at that

Frankendrawing

of you all the time

up on my wall

next to

nothing at all

Cuz Christ

All Mighty

stands alone

Lackluster Emissions

2009-06-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last night

I dreamt I was at the Safeway

on a dark and stormy night

just like in scary movies

and all I could think of

was how badly I needed

to pee

I searched frantically

for a place to go:

a bathroom, a water closet,

an outhouse, a bucket,

a toilet in the middle of

the Safeway would have sufficed

I just had to go !

my relentless search

was seemingly futile

I began to lose hope

and as the pressure in

my bladder built

I noticed that everyone else

in the Safeway had to pee, too

as if to join in unison over a

singular cause, except in the

context of pissing your pants

it's a lot more like

fierce competition

I started climbing up the rafters

looking for a place to go

while other need-to-pee-ers

followed behind me like

a pack of wolves ravenous

for flesh; pissing, in fact,

is a basic instinct

just like hunger

somehow I found a toilet

up there, though I don't know

if you could really call it that

a toilet made out of rubber,

collapsible and warm, having

been left near the heating vents

up in the rafters of this

godforsaken Safeway

I didn't care, and lurched

towards it, with a pack of

need-to-pee-ers hot on my trail

the dream ended

with me peeing into

this rubber toilet

pants down and

surrounded by people

simultaneously I felt

embarassment and relief

when I woke up

this morning, I still

had to pee

but I was alone

with a real bathroom

only five feet away

I count myself lucky

and I basked in life's

small luxuries

To the apathetic litter bugs:

2009-05-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

Any cigarette

butt you litter stokes fires of

karmic discontent

me and my friends

2009-05-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

hiking the landing pad
having more fun than you can imagine
www.katalinnovations.com

Anatomy of Good Riddance

2009-04-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

You would have to dig

pretty deep to put your hand

on my foolish heart

A note to my muses...

2009-04-13T22:29:00.002-07:00

Don't be scared if I

write a line or two about

you. Better than none.

2009-03-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Be Your Own Doll

2009-03-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

I don't have to hurt

any of you, since I can

make myself draw blood

Until We Speak Again

2009-03-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

I will sit and feel

overripe and blow kisses

in your direction

add it to the list

2009-02-26T15:19:00.000-08:00

that boy has these lithe

wondrous enticing magic

mending dyke hands

childhood tactics

2009-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

the world is upside

down, so climb the monkey bars.

hang out, enjoy it.

custom-made irony

2009-02-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

it's kind of ok
that I'm your untouchable
you kind of screwed me

in truest andro form

2009-02-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

genderfuck with care:
take a peek at my musing
magnet underwear

how 'bout you?

2009-01-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

now it hits me that
maybe, sometimes, a fish needs
a good bicycle

With regard to Other Woman (v.2)

2009-01-02T11:24:00.000-08:00

I'm going to turn this jealousy into love !
Somewhere, isn't jealousy just love all shook up?
morphed, stirred, twisted...

Take heed to my will, my willingness
to be (happy for) your happiness
carefully constructed in another's arms

Maybe I hold nothing against us
She's a pretty thing; the perfect subject
for your pretty pictures

eff

2008-12-31T02:22:00.000-08:00

crackling kernels
of popped culture seem sweet as
shopping mall make outs

sometimes you're lousy

2008-12-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

let me remedy
this futility with a
spoonful of sugar

Riddle Me This

2008-12-11T00:15:00.000-08:00

I am nostalgic
at present time. What the fuck
am I tomorrow?

This might sound trite, but

2008-12-04T15:51:00.000-08:00

The way you look at
me- most euphemistically-
... is so disarming.

Empirical Measurements: the Depth of Emotion

2008-12-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

it starts and ends with

two sand dollars
a dreamcatcher
& a useless map

one adventure
(the plan is not to have one)

two birds of a feather
(proverbial accuracy)

200 cigarettes
(200 conversations)

26 oz. of truth-telling tequila
(no lime necessary)

three hotel rooms full of laughter and love
(it's not the place that matters, see)

one week coming & going
(in-betweens matter most)

though we need not
measure, because
when you look

it's all in my eyes

TurboRebel

2008-11-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

Don't ya know how fierce
I can be? Set me up for
battle, then set me free.

thou shalt not fuck in vain

2008-11-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry. We just can't.
If you must know why, it's your
name. Rory... too strange.

an interruption from your un-regularly programmed haiku dosage, spoon-fed with care

2008-10-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

In the vein of Ginsberg's epic poem "HOWL" I wrote a "because" poem in class. We were to take a sentence from our cut-ups exercise from the week before, and run with it...
With Dadaist flair, we covered an entire page with writing. The whole damn page. The way it should be. For twelve minutes, we wrote while William S. Burroughs ranted about poetry made from newspaper cut-ups ("When you cut into the present, the future leaks out," he warned.) Cut the page into 4 pieces, rearranged the order, and braced ourselves for the discovery of some jumbly/poignant/provocative phrases. Alas:

My eyes are a chaotic rush of emotion, and I feel empty and exhausted, like folklore fucked with my head.

because I just put everything into something that didn't give back.
because I've been living on coffee and cigarettes for the last two days.
because I used to think it was just a game and treated it that way.
because I wake from tireless sleeps knowing I dreamt all night.

because seeing isn't believing.
because I let you in.
because you've left an imprint, and everything is different now.
because I could get a prescription for this, but choose not to.

because you revel in raw emotion.
because nobody taught me how to do this in university.
because karma isn't instant.
because if I give you everything, I'm naked.

because this world's sadness weighs heavy on my heart and I feel it most when I feel yours.
because I hate the way people talk sometimes and wish I could shut it all out except for the smiles.
because I'm too far away from the mountains and the ocean.
because as soon as you think you know how it is, you discover that it isn't.

because I decided to meet you for coffee instead of going home.
because your mother hates me, even though she doesn't know me.
because I know it will all be over soon, and
because I find you more beautiful every day.

Love triangle at the Inuit throat singer

2008-10-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Me, you, her. Taking
our seats. Waiting for beauty.
Spying for trouble.

dualism is a farce

2008-09-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

angels with hacksaws
demons with cotton candy
Love & Hate conspire

Honesty vs. Bravado

2008-09-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

I laid it out on
a dinner plate. You took it,
ran, and sealed our fate.

knee's in the gutter

2008-09-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

thought they were the best
$10 jeans ever, and
then i saw the "gash".

When I hear the song Warsaw

2008-09-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

sometimes I wonder
was Joy Division really
"post-punk"? I think not.

Cosmic Loiterers

2008-09-07T23:17:00.000-07:00

so, what happens when
outer space is out of space?
...galactic karma.

amused bouche

2008-09-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

I see the way you
melt me down and stir me up, like
sugar in a coffee cup

quarter-life crisis

2008-09-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

moving back in with
your parents is kind of like
relinquishing power.

a matter of personal preference

2008-09-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

I would rather wear

t-shirts ironically

than wear ironic t-shirts.