Mark Cunningham

4 Specimens, Plus Horoscope

[specimen]

The termed used to be “white trash.” Now it’s “undyed recyclables.” “Like flies around a dead deer’s asshole,” was judged to be a bit too colorful a way of expressing our interest. Hume disproved the actuality of cause and effect relationships, so there’s no real way of knowing how this stain got on my shirt. Technically, most things moving through the air are UFOs. She was voted most likely to end up as a Bellmer doll. Cotton candy, my foot: I know fiberglass when I taste it.

[specimen]

As the guard made yet another three-point shot, the announcer shouted, “He’s unconscious!” I lie down to relax before going to bed; two hours later, I wake up, then can’t go back to sleep. Charles Bukowski has published more books since he’s been dead than most writers get out while they’re alive.

[specimen]

Using technology far beyond human comprehension, the aliens traveled eighty gazillion miles and then didn’t see me standing behind a bush. She said she missed her prime because she sneezed right then. The instructions were to imitate human beings in action, which made us wonder what we were. The dog posed with its tongue stuck out like Einstein. All afternoon free, and I didn’t make it to the post office; when I took a nap, though, my body moved through space at eighteen miles per second.

[specimen]

A lot of rocks and a steep slope, but bouncing always looks festive. You can be illiterate and still get a paper cut. Fortunately, the aliens communicated mainly by guffaws. Stop yelling at me--I didn’t lower the blinds all crooked; it was the spider on acid. He said he was firing himself inside.

Horoscope

You might want to approach a situation differently. Not everything needs to go your way right now. Let someone else choose. Why not jump on the occasion and pretend you are an easy-going Taurus or some other sign? Know when to back off and do something very differently. Defer, and you’ll come up with answers. Defer to others more often. Others clearly want to and will dominate, no matter what goes on. Tomorrow night: as if you have a choice, let someone else dominate.


Mark Cunningham is the author of 80 Beetles from Otoliths, Body Language from Tarpaulin Sky, and 71 Leaves, an ebook from BlazeVOX. A new chapbook titled Leftovers is on the Gold Wake Press site