Welcome to the perculator, verbosity's literary section. It's here that we like to showcase some of the poetry and stuff that our readers send us. If you're interested in submitting work, check out our submissions page or mail us!

the insidious me
Jenne Micale

your dirtiest secret i pried with blackmail
sobs picking the doorlock. the gargle of your
bullish throat stuffed with moldy undergarments.
once you loved and felt the world too deeply and
cried and cried and listened to joy division once
you had human sweat and human ducts and you
cried and cried in the black of the predawn.
until the therapist raised miracle hands
and proclaimed you healed for forty an hour. the
mysteries of the sacred me. the transfiguration of
apologetic wine into the blood of cruelty. the
tearyeyed muse burnt as a witch but happiness
is a solar self and a pregnant billfold in the
backpocket.

through the window

Ray Heinrich

the shadow of the building
moves
as the sun
forms it into the hand of a giant clock
grabbing the day
and pushing it to one side

glass moth
Jenne Micale

the glass scratched a white claw
from steel wool fangs

i had wanted
to get it clear as a cornea.
   the ridgeless
smooth sheet of the cerebrum
   in the starless
cerement of cranial pupa

   spun and spun
steel wool fibers the thread of silence
there is no butterfly
   but a mottled creature
whose wings are claw scratched to
a useless glass sheen
the bobbing
ornament of the yuletide pine

and here i was aspiring
to flock with bloodkin intelligentsia
to the great lightbulb of art

glass moths are bound to the planet.
their more real cousins smash into lightbulbs.
and what is there to do
but scrub to scratches?
after you left
Ray Heinrich

blue
me and one of my socks

green
the other sock

yellow
the stamp on the letter

orange
i ate it

red
the tomatoes i'm cutting up
for my salad

orange
the sun right now

yellow
the stamp on the letter again

green
but i'm learning

blue
the blue cheese dressing and me

simple
Ray Heinrich

Unrequited longing is difficult
stuff for me and of course i
cry at about every stupid film
i see and lots of other people
do too cause we are all trying
to get something back and grieving
cause we can't and we are all
comforted by words that prove
that somebody else out there is
in the same place too.


Part Sand

Ben Ohmart

My feet are there, breaking off
by the piece and when I'm at my knees,
I look behind me and you're still there,
getting me together, making me late
for the lecture, but getting me there at all.
Grades slip when fall brings its winds,
you look for me all over and I am there.
Lay down, roll within me, a weekend.
Come up, we're fine, the bath with a plug.
Mud, but you reshape me,
but into my own image. Photos. From all sides.
In the sun, my tan eludes me, comes back.
Joints loosen, no one can hear me soon,
I catch up and realize, you're too good.

War is Good Politik
Corey Welton

Ya got ya pachyderms and asses,
packin' in the bomb,
Preying on the lifeblood,
yea, every single one...

The people?
The masses:
propaganda by facists,
Bred on television
and brainwashed in classes.

"War is good politik, I hear re-election,"
says the pig to his cabinet,
who awaits his direction

Ten-thousand troops deployed on the shores,
two-thousand dead, halfway to four.

Halfway to four?
Yea, the pig's on a roll,
popularity rising
in step with the death-toll.

Who can we trust,
when they're droppin' the bomb?
GOING GREAT's, all you hear --
Gag order in Vietnam...

But what did we learn, then, by fighting the Red,
except that our brothas were coming back -- dead?

Now is the time, to take up a stance,
as the man is elected, snap outta yr trance!

When you look out the window,
there's war on ya own streets:
Think quick -- what army do we have to defeat?

...cuz they're all the same --
left, right, both agree:

"We gotta make war to keep America free."



We were a little low on submissions this month for the perculator. We encourage everyone to send us in some good stuff in the next few months! Here at verbosity, we'd like to keep bringing you some good quality literature, so help us out! If you're interested in submitting some work, try looking at our submissions department or mail us for more information.

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