{"id":1323,"date":"2014-10-21T21:32:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T21:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2015-03-15T13:02:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-15T17:02:08","slug":"4-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/4-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

ICEBREAKERS SPEARMINT MINT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The natural joined with the artificial
\nto flavor this aid to social ease,
\npeppered with mint crystals
\nin the form of green pin pricks
\nembedded within a blank tablet.
\nFalse ice sooths as it melts, alluding
\nto the distant fires of sensual feeling
\nin that Eden some dream about
\nbefore such tingles got framed in the prefabricated
\ncommotion a promising commodity brings
\nto the market. Ice Breakers is owned
\nby the Hershey Company, today trading
\nat $90.23 a share on the NYSE. By the time
\nthis poem touches home in the book of the future,
\nthis figure will date it, throwing its status as a member
\nof the tribe that eschews contingency into doubt.
\nFor now, though, in the dissolving present,
\nisn\u2019t it enough to simply feel cool?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\fPEP<\/strong><\/p>\n

I drink from the cup
\nof Diet Dr. Pepper on ice —
\nso rich in its bouquet of 52 flavors
\nI think I can detect a bit of pepper in it
\nalong with a dash of cherry and a cola base,
\nthe pepper catching on the tongue
\nof the mind, so I say to myself
\npepper pepper pepper pepper pepper,
\nspeaking frankly among my personality fragments,
\nboldly in my crudeness.
\nProud of this tone, its trivial pursuit of the trivial,
\nI descend into the maelstrom.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\fTHE UNINVITED<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some wish, swept under the sweat of the day
\nby an anonymous broom \u2013 call it chance if you need
\na name. I\u2019m mostly ok in the world of namelessness,
\na bit like the shadow realms of the Ancients \u2013
\nrugged corridors of nothing but conventional responses \u2013
\nthe relentless rituals that keep you secluded from the otherwise mild
\ngrey twilight of chaos. You can hear that regularity in the street
\ntuned to the motors of the busses, the slamming of car doors,
\nthe ambient laughs, shrieks and blips of indistinguishable sentences
\nthat keep the air busy with their confetti, as if to assure you
\nthere are no bits of the universe lacking dusty particles
\nto announce, in advance, each corner. When you do
\nfind one down which to turn, it almost feels like you\u2019re walking
\nthrough the aftermath of some party or parade
\nyou\u2019re glad you didn\u2019t attend:
\nif you were invited, that sense of hiding out in the midst
\nwould disappear. You might be discovered by some sense
\nof responsibility, perhaps taking the form of a smiling person
\nwho suggests the two of you should have lunch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\fIMPROVING YOUR BRAIN PERFORMANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, there have been some exciting advances.
\nI\u2019m a big advocate
\nof those emulsified protein crackers
\nseasoned with Saturnalian seaweed.
\nIt seems this mixture allows neurons to overthrow
\ntheir oppressive helix programmers
\nand leap forward across the synaptic plains,
\nleading aggressively luminous light brigades
\nthrough the wilderness of daily thought.
\nHeadaches have been reported, unfortunately,
\nby some entities
\nthough these folks may be afflicted with defective vessels,
\nand thus their tendency is to fall back into entropic thought patterns
\njust because these make them feel more warm, fuzzy and nostalgic.
\nBut we, in this post-nostalgic age, must ask
\nif there is there really a place for them
\nin the political economy of the ingenious.
\nWhy there are those among us
\nwho can turn a bed and breakfast racket
\ninto a symphony of intensified international service.
\nOthers can dissolve the resistance of facts
\nin the acid of their entrepreneurial visions.
\nAnd then are those who dazzle
\nwith their techno-biological shamanism
\nconcocting new breeds of attitude, designed
\nto conquer through their bracing shamelessness.
\nSomeday these people, our people,
\nwill be the only ones left.
\nThen we can start talking about
\nan equal distribution of competitive weapons,
\nlevel battlefields,
\nmutually assured electrified barbed wire fences,
\nand all the rest of that hearts and flowers shit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The natural joined with the artificial
\nto flavor this aid to social ease,
\npeppered with mint crystals
\nin the form of green pin pricks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[110],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTraveltainted | Four Poems - Turtle Point Press Magazine \/ TPPM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/4-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traveltainted | Four Poems - Turtle Point Press Magazine \/ TPPM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The natural joined with the artificial to flavor this aid to social ease, peppered with mint crystals in the form of green pin pricks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/4-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Turtle Point Press Magazine \/ TPPM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-21T21:32:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-15T17:02:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Jerome-Sala.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1944\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ruth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/4-poems\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.turtlepointpress.com\/traveltainted\/4-poems\/\",\"name\":\"Traveltainted | Four Poems - 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