Status Updates From HSTQ: Fall 2023

Every day had a bright tomorrow
but the spiders have their way

Why did we lose our souls
No one believes in immortal things
Everything is cheap and made of tin
Not even a good echo for a dropped coin
And a man’s word is as hollow as a cave
We are all enslaved to our seven vices and hundred devices

Angels and a demon
She’s in a thousand deserts
drowning in semen
Demons and an angel,
both just wanna hike their skirts,
take turns with the label

This is a story about drugs and the woman
in my cold midnight room

When your wife has been ill for 2 years
and no doctor in the land can put a name to it
when she cries in bed each night
and flinches when you touch her
and all you can do is remember
how young and happy she once was
it is difficult to give a shit
that they’re fighting over sky-fairies in Tal Afar
or that demonstrators are up in arms in Barcelona
or that somebody made hot cakes on Facebook

Dirty martinis and Cuban cigars
Fishnet stockings on hookers
Playing my guitar.
Vacationing in Mexico
Women without wedding rings
Making a list of my favorite things.

i walk on
through a neighborhood
passing great big houses
perfectly manicured green lawns
cherry blossom trees
barking dogs
behind big gates
a muscle man is washing his BMW
shirtless
he stares at me
i stare back
i take off my shirt
he asks what are you staring at?
i say i’m staring at a mcchicken
what did you say, buddy?
you heard me loud and clear, chum

Maybe you’ve seen one
standing in line at the supermarket,
mowing his lawn, or driving in the car next to you,
this angry, decomposing,
pot-scraping infertility,
a dryness hollering out for death