3 poems

[August Highland]

"spank me"


#1
as i said to myself:
"ok it's nice to meet
people by chance
just for a moment
and exchange
positions
then produce the statistics
regarding the aesthetics
of our unique individual
government policies
economical systems
and even theoretical
thinking on education
gender studies
sectors of new
technology
even vocabulary tools
and cyberzionism issues
electronic music
sci-fi
fan culture
hip-hop
and
of course
spanking"
[laughter]

this is how it
works for me

smoothly like
a virus

because i
believe we are
too closely knitted
to be pulled apart

and this does not
even depend on
where you are
[more laughter]

once during one
of these exchanges
i got a freaky error
message

it was pretty cryptic
and uninformative
like the word
"oil"
which stands for
a multitude
of
jarring television
commercials -
i meant to say
a HUGE fucking
can of worms -
i don't want to
explore this further


[laughter]


#2
now guests of
an interactive
media festival
with multiple
simultaneous
connections
in beta stage
launch into a discussion
of contemporary
rhetoric legal fees
decentralization of labor
and the shape-shifting
of shy poets
which could potentially
be fatal
for nonprofit
spanking
organizations


[dead silence]


august highland
3:37pm
01-17-03


*****************************************


"augie has another panic attack in a restaurant"



our special of the day is
grass and wildflowers
sprouting through
eyeless skulls in
a death pit

yum...i'll have that!

for an appetizer
i would like something
to take away my
dignity
happiness
pride

and i would like the
crippled baby salad
type: text
genre: allegory
technology: flash
keywords: god's pony ride

do you have a wine
that will exhaust my goodwill?

what do you recommend?

your egoless mind sees absolutely nothing?

that's not what i asked bitch!
stop trying to help me become enlightened!

i am starting to feel uncomfortable

the guests at this restaurant go back
at least as far as the booze-induced
oblivion of my foster care years

and besides like all american restaurants
this one is too scene-driven

could you please suggest a hydra-headed
hole-in-the-wall
where the menu is warped
out-of-scale
by the enormous exponentials
of overpopulation???

never mind
my friend wants to stay

for dessert?

i would like to make love
to a festering corpse in a kitty box

and the sand better be clean!

[whispering and leaning across the table]

wasn't she a bitch?



august highland
9:31 pm
01-17-03


****************************************

"intellectual slasher strikes again"



i almost have to feel sorry for him
mainstream media stopped nursing
the cherubic infant before his first birthday

nothing can substitute for mother's milk

this is when his anti-globalization
gained momentum

particular features of his special
child status was evidenced in his
apparent inability or unwillingness
to answer the questions of his
teachers

and through some compounded
defence mechanism to accept
clichés backed by decades of
research

during one episode
of academic-professional
domination which made his
signature files and phone
numbers public to prevent
something potentially worse

he nearly choked himself
to death on a plastic
red laser sword
while listening
to a supernatural ballad
in a middle school library

the librarian
taking advantage of his
self-deluded
obvious bullshit

flirted with him to
the extent allowed
by the law

that's when the intellectual
slasher began applying
for grants from idealistic
institutions

he has never been rejected
once
and yet
he hides
from you know who:

THE
INTELLECTUAL
SLASHER!!!!



august highland
12:29am
01-18-03



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.443 / Virus Database: 248 - Release Date: 1/11/2003