your Editor

your Editor is a troll homunculus succubus and incubus little succulent simulacrum beast Editor
is your intimate nimbus you should be intimate Editor is your under side under you
you should animal engage your Editor grab its buttocks firmly towards your solecisms your Editor is sophisms yourself solipsism
you should engage yourself
you’re an animal
turn yourself buttocks toward your swivel buck rock and drool
or perhaps maybe might be on purpose redundant with intention messy but consider it correct to venture and work in a circle spin
circumlocute say circumambulate or
remember The Editor would wants will be a prude priggish old toothy marm toothless codge will age and drool the age of drool
and druid you are ageless drooling
you’ll have to shout out loud now then forever shout it out
your Editor will cost you drain your resources you’ll put it in a home
shout now so it/her/him can hear now while you can
Less is More HaH Dah! Don’t succumb don’t be charmed wear garlic a cross (if you have to)
you have to
slaughter yourself
you will slaughter yourself
Less is
prudish priggish simplistic silly sniggery downright not not level unfortunately so and
trilling off the tongue
you should fall in love with your sweet and naïve
silly passionate teary
you should smile and hold her hand drink your coffee sit together at that table
smile I know dear hold her hand
pat hand hold hands her hand
hand over the gorescarred book
I know dear I know
I know dear I know
amuse yourself with gentle pure simple purling pouring insistent conversation
but never ever try and listen
the awful words the hideous hissing subliminal profound surging changeling submerged sibilant foundling what they
mean what they mean don’t listen
Do Not Understand
you should love your editor
you should never-ever get to know her
she will murder you
in such an intimate way.

There Goes Prose

Sitting on my boney aching ass shiny shellacked chair
absent beleaguered mind wandering mind wandering heart
until Martin (clarion) Bell himself plangent thank god finally stops his own dong
janitor dragging a dumpster down the hall “There Goes Prose!”
married, dumpster rattling
the rectangular table the other end that voluptuous poet
whew god I lust
to be unfaithful to run
running charged to fall
fall flat on your face
oh for christ’s sake adulterer pick your self up –
sell a poem.

Hey Hank! (For Charles Bukowski)

Is there anything more irrelevant than a creature who lives only to write poetry?

The lush
and pleasingly plump
blond
girl

drove up fast coughing
and spit out the window
on my coat.

Self-conscious
head bent forward
she fumbled in her bottomless purse
and found

fecund
my goddess
of poetry.

Hey Hank! Hey Hank!
Oh Jesus Charles?
Henry!
Charles in drag
Since when do you dress up?

Is there anything more ridiculous than a writer writing about writers.

Henry Stanton’s fiction, poetry and paintings appear in 2River, The A3 Review, Avatar, The Baltimore City Paper, The Baltimore Sun Magazine, Kestrel, PCC Inscape, Pindeldyboz, Salt & Syntax, SmokeLong Quarterly, The William and Mary Review, Word Riot, and The Write Launch among other publications. His poetry was selected for the A3 Review Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Eyewear 9th Fortnight Prize for Poetry. His fiction received an Honorable Mention acceptance for the Salt & Syntax Fiction Contest and was selected as a finalist for the Pen 2 Paper Annual Writing Contest. A selection of Henry Stanton’s paintings are currently on show at Atwater’s Catonsville and can be viewed at the following website www.brightportfal.com.