Site Unseen (You)

A Songify mess of Megan McShea's "Sight Unseen" from her new book A Mountain City of Toad Splendor now available from Publishing Genius.

My daughter did most of the camera work, except when she was busy owning Centipede. I'm responsible for the shoddy editing.

Megan, I love you book.

Everybody else, you'll love it, too. Here's a great review over at the City Paper if you need that kinda convincing.

This is my first post typed on a keyboard in a long time.

The Top Everything of Everything

Reading Chris Toll's "Stack Overflow at Line 1"

Reading Chris Toll's "Stack Overflow at Line 1" (which is in the online Magic Octopus magazine and you can read it here but I know it is one of his printed books some place, maybe "Life on Earth"?) and (a) man, you were really cooking at the end, friend, the sentence rhythms were breaking into a new place and (b) this is a really gorgeous one, I'm glad I bumped into it unexpectedly this Saturday morning, and (c) it has TWO sword moments (an individual cutlass for one character and then a pair of swords for a second) which makes me think of Adam Robinson asking "Chris, do we need this second pair of guns in this one? Could we just go with the first?" but this time it's swords and (d) all of this makes me smile and I think I'm in the long and final stage of missing you that comes with a lot more smiles and golden memories and the tears are quiet and sniffly and a lot less "WTF, I don't believe you're gone."

I'm Writing This and You Can't See It Yet

That's the way it has always been

It's time to get to work whether your hair is curly or straight or whatever

Healthcare in the 21st century is a funny thing

Families in the 21st century are a funny thing

These, too, have always been

Myth voice, viruses, big, small, appointment viewing, gold coins and really old gold coins buried in the ground

Images is what images does

More and less vs. increasing pain

You'll see how much they care and then you will, too

Sharp edges, implements, transformations, thinners, pooling

Wait wait wait the change is coming

Location:W Laurel Ave,Sterling,United States

There's a New Kitten Up in Here

There it is.

And there it is.

No photos here yet.

There's the previous kitten, too, in a different room, occasionally growling, hissing.

There's sleep on my mind, allergies on my eyes, and a helluva day behind me.

Make 'em all helluva

Eat more shellfish and French food

There's this list of nouns welling up inside me and I hope I carve out a buncha time for George Herbert this fall

I love the kinda bad ass that stretches across centuries

I love the ephemeral kind just as much

Come October, why don't I buy some bourbon

We'll hang around Justin's fire pit and you can read me Herbert

And we'll eat burgers

If I were a cult leader, prayers would roll something like that

And there'd be lots chairs because the more chairs the better the cult, I'm told

We'd get silly transmedia, too

And there'd be something about fish, why not

+++

Get yourself a jar

Drive around the county listening to country

Speak up over the music when the time is right

The ding ding ding of "your keys are still in the ignition" when you open the driver-side door

Dust swirling in the beams and grit doing what grit does

Trains and gunshots and thunder in the distance

Midnight creeping over the horizon

Saying dome, stars, ways and means more and more

Some some some more and more

Everything hushes out and is gone

Location:Melvin Dr,Baltimore,United States

It'll Rush Away from You

Let your foot mark the chapter

Reminders and stepping out yards

Often counting to twenty to mark a wall, and all kinds of barked orders from one direction

Gentle and firm instruction from the other

Attack, assault, barrage, tackle, yelling, whistles, etc.

We saw the first place they see the sunrise everyday on the east coast

We saw pre-historic animals

We were many

The tides are massive, all kinds of things are breath-taking, the weather

This was almost the speed you brush the dirt off

There will be plenty of laundry and folding and catching up

There will be plenty of movement still

Finish lines are for fantasies

I guess

I bet I'll always be a sucker for irises

Location:Eden St,,United States

Well, First, This

That dream where your skin peels back and you're metal underneath

Someone gave that to you

What's the difference?

The one where you are stone underneath

You know plastic is organic?

The one where there's more skin underneath

Or the one where you're just bleeding and dead

The one where there is a little city or a hive of insects

The one where there are tentacles and lights

+++

I like you better awake

I like most everyone better in the fall

There is tempting magic in all bad things or they wouldn't be bad

They'd just be stupid and I'd be stupid for toying with them

But you're right, there's a time for being stupid

The Bible told you so and you told me

+++

Singing a note until you pass out is no kind of magic

Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane is a passable quote but also no kind of magic

Life is no kind of magic, really

Wonder is no kind of magic, I don't think

I might try figuring that out

I've got some time

Location:Newton St NW,Washington,United States

"hyperion wiki" and Us

Then "Not your phone. Mental knowledge."

Aphorisms like, life and nine year-olds are always testing us

Makes me think about tests and strands of hair and lost heart

The sun makes me make vitamins or something like that

The sun makes me wish my sunglasses weren't in the car

A substrate of fear keeps me from getting them and makes me think of Dr. Strangelove -- maybe I'll watch that tonight

And the horrible dream with the lock of hair, the label, the dufflebag

It's drive-in season

It's crab season

There's a softshell festival going on

This is sun season, pool season, escape season, by-the-ocean season

There is no season to end all seasons -- just like there is no ring to rule them all -- those are fantasies

Three is the birth of triangles and a hundred colors

Planes, balance, civility, etc

Three is the birth of "on the way to four," and "on the way to everything"

It's a little known fact that four is actually the birth of trigonometry

Look it up

I'm gonna swim a bit

Location:Presquile Dr N,Easton,United States

That's Where I Am

5:38 and in motion

Rolling slowly rolling stop

A confusion of papers

Tires and ties and wheels and girders

Bolts and concrete and iron and rust

Shoulder bags, shouldered bags, baggy drawers, and all kinds of kinds

The drawers sounded good, nobody's pants are poorly fit here

Ears and neon, fasteners and faster

Just been one of those days

You'll read about it

Location:Hamilton Lake Dr,Hamilton Township,United States

When You Action This Way

"You can dance," "For inspiration," "Come on," "I'm leaving"

Sometimes you vote against a candidate, don't feel bad about it

And panic, remember it is a choice

If you live in a house, it is full of spiders and every single one of them is a good spider

You can have a laugh about boy spiders

You can see the whole world as one highly specialized sentence piled on top of another and another

You can worship at the Shrine of Is

I've whiled away hours there because whiling is what we expect

But I've done other things there, too

Elsewhere I've tried to focus on my shoulders, then my knees

I've thought in 3D

I've fought past the sensations on my skin

And I've tried to feel all of my skin all at once

I need to get back to these things

Location:Clover Hill Farm,,United States

May showers bring

Location:Monroe St NW,Washington,United States

Constant Capsule Contact Coffers

Who's idea were the enzymes

And approaching something like another lightspeed problem

First a switch and then many switched and many-er things out the other end

Does this accelerate the rate of change or alleviate it?

Does this convey a comforting sense of where I'm at?

Continuous who's getting more questions are not the answer

Continuous anything is not the answer

There is a time for watching

There is a time for doing

There is a time for sharing

Why collapse them?

How much of this is lies vs. how much of this is Monday?

This town is full of birds

Location:14th St NW,Washington,United States

Some Say the Newton Was Ahead of Its Time

Travel between galaxies, think about it

Inertia cuts both ways

So does lightspeed

We talk about things that ring true

We talk about alloys and precious metals

Actually, is there a such thing as precious metals or did I just make that up

If the communication communicates then it isn't mangled, but other things might be

What can you make with a cloud?

What can you test?

What can you measure right now?

What good is it?

A guy I used to work with once saw someone take a header off that bridge

I don't think he was sitting where I'm sitting

Telescopes, compression, monocles, individual trees or blades of grass, useful assumptions, expected distinctions

Sometimes a good day keeps getting better on the heels of a bad one, and I'm trying to figure out if that's why I do this

Brass is different things to different people, and there were and still are a bunch of people that either don't have a clue or don't care

There is maybe no difference between those for you

Are you sitting in the sun?

By water?

In a pair of your favorite jeans?

Try being ridiculous a little more

Might be good on you

Meanwhile, I promise to try to eat a little more regularly

We'll catch up later

Location:Whitehurst Fwy NW,Washington,United States

This Day Is For Fortune; This Day Is for Everyone

Trayvon Martin's on my mind

And chanting and basketball players in protest hoodies and what's next

See shivers in your spine and go at them

Because go at them hard is our son

Senseless shit's gonna happen is our son

Sense of justice is our son

Wear a helmet learning to ride a bike is our son

Driving while black is our son

Hold the line and not on my watch is our son, too

I love this country and I do believe justice will be able to legally marry forgiveness in every state some day

I believe you can hold a picture in your head and then bend the whole world to it

It's been a while of too much bending to bad pictures

Hold onto good pictures is our son

Will you help me raise him?

I believe it takes faster-than-light light and I believe you can do it

Is our son in America today?

Is our son saving daylight?

Does our son know courage?

Does he know the many faces of conviction?

Stand up and be counted with our son

Always more standing up, always too few helmets to go around, but also setting bones and always Saturdays

I don't even know what I'm getting ready for

I didn't bring any facts

I'm trying my shoes

Location:Portland St,Baltimore,United States

The Wicked and the Dead

Sleep is for

Foolish consistency is for

Idle time is for

Yesterday's paper is good for

And good for various kinds of analysis -- qualitative, quantitative, verbal, specific, numeric, etc.

"I didn't intend what I said to be real"
And / or

"I didn't mean that as fact"
And / or

"I was trying to be true"

Or True or the Truth

Does the Answer play for Boston?

The Answer. The Truth. Beast. Big Man. Timmy. Yaz. The Iron Man. Dr. J.

Nicknames are the best. They're the real deal.

Dear sirs and madams,
Bees, in fact, don't have knees

Sleep is not for meth addicts
When they are in the throes of the demon synthetic

Reminder: Organic solvents were what used to make decaf coffee a bad idea and dry cleaning iffy

But I love a good hook like everyone else

I really don't believe there is a hidden meaning we should be looking for, but I struggle to take that feeling all the way to the ground

Sorta like ground and round have no connection outside of a butcher's shop

Well, more likely a butcher's counter in these parts

And French for ground and French for round have even less connection

Less than no

You know what I mean

And that I mean it from one way -- the kind of way that leads you to have your minions excise the excess words from Shakespeare's sonnets

I mean, how foolish is that?

How foolish is every tree? Every dogwood. Every skyscraper.

I am really starting to think I'll never get to visit an asteroid belt in this lifetime -- and I've never really thought there'd be another

At least I believe that you're you

And you're not out to get me, no matter what time it is or what dumb-assed thing I've managed to say

Dear OED explorer trawling the web. I hope you find this note and add "shit-ton" to the dictionary. It is such a great phrase-cum-word. It does such a great job of conveying an idea, an attitude, a cultural moment. What more do you want? I know, right? I don't doubt Google will show off its popularity and utility if you have reservations.

If you already have it on the docket. Excellent! I should check that OED more often (aka ever aka Little Johnny One Note aka the Brockton Bomber aka Sweet Cheeks aka the best damned cat I've ever known).

Sleep tight Spooky. Sleep tight Zelda. And sleep tight all the other animals great and small that I've loved and who have shed their living selves. You guys were awesome.

Location:S Hanover St,Baltimore,United States

Cats Everywhere and then the Creepy Baby

Cats with eyes from every angle

Cats stalking, cats leaping, cats rolling, cats focusing

An edge can be razor sharp

The creepy baby is crawling in the snow looking for a bottle

The creepy baby is crawling in a green open field looking for a bottle, it wants to be held

The creepy baby in the rain and the sunshine

The creepy baby never in its stroller, never with its mother

It has no mother, it has no father

With your ever-white onesie, creepy baby, I've never seen you in your beautiful house

My cards are under a new bed for 10 more months

In the future I will peer into more distant futures

Hands used to appear from clouds and bursts of flame

Hands used to be upturned, fashioned of wood, realized in marble

The Help, a blockbuster book and a blockbuster movie

That new Underworld in stretch-leather and latex and 3D

They come in threes in death and backup singers and Japan

They come to me in the evening with staircases that weren't there and standing lamps made lances

All the better to stab you with, my pretty

My pretty, what small fists you have

All the better to punch you in the eyeball, you evil old witch

Punch punch punch

Dodge

Punch parry parry punch punch punch

Dodge

Lean into it. Leap into it. Give it what you got

Give it what you have, this is all you have right now

Cats, creepy babies, movies, nightmare adrenaline, and small fists so much better for punching eyeballs

Location:S Fremont Ave,Baltimore,United States

7 Things You Didn't Know About Me Cliché

Just past 8:30 and it's starting to pour in

Facts you don't know about heterosexuality

Jennifer Anniston getting sexier year after year

Someone dropping bombs on Kurds yet again

When someone tells a funny joke to someone they don't know and the teller is (way) more attractive than the average bear is the listener more likely to laugh or freeze up like a deer in headlights?

This is not one of the world's pressing problems -- and I'd agree, there are a shit-ton of variables to break down on the way to the answer

I'm looking forward to a cup of coffee

And I'm wishing there was a comfy reading chair by the front window to go with it

Then the Sunday paper could do battle with a friend's novel for reading time

Yeah, I know I said I was going to wait until I was on top of all this stress before I crack your novel

But that started sounding like, "it'll be a lovely companion after the Rapture," and that just ain't right

I ate better yesterday than the day before; today's goal is to eat well and breathe well

I didn't set any Resolutions this year, that isn't like me

George Clooney, you are a sexy, sexy man

To all the sexy men in my life, you are sexy, sexy men

To all the sexy women in my life, you are sexy, sexy women

Ain't life grand?

To all the people in my life, soak it up while you can

To all the dogs in my life, I know you can't help it and I'm trying to change my perspective

We took 10,000 years to make you what you are, who am I?

To all the cats in my life, keep tearing it up, beautiful

We'll nap together on a heap of our bleeding victories some day

With the sun spreading across our bellies

Just like you like it

Location:Portland St,Baltimore,United States

Keep It Together

You can do this watching Grey's Anatomy.

You can do this piece by piece.

You can do this with stress, with the space between lines, with a ponytail.

You can do it with crystal blue eyes that go for miles.

With a British accent that goes for miles.

Everything can go for miles. Nobody gets to choose.

It can be your second wind or your third career.

Be kind. People will keep on dying.

That thing you read? It's happening hundreds and hundreds of times every week.

Mattresses are wearing unevenly all across America.

People are sleeping on floors all over the world.

I used to love sleeping on couches and some day I'll love it again.

Would "There Will Be Bleeding" be an even better movie?

There will be Thursday, first, and I'm hoping the big me shows up.

Location:Washington Blvd,Baltimore,United States

RiverLINE, Exit to Wallenberg Ave

I can't thank you enough for the uneventful ride.

And the weather out... perfect.

Thanks for the nice walk earlier, the woods were nice and the air was so fresh.

I thought I was gonna get mud all over my shoes, but I didn't.

Adrenaline's a funny thing.

Lots of Giants jerseys. And striped shirts. And striped hats.

Who has time for striped hats?

Who has time to see the doctor?

I better get on top of this throat thing.

Imagine all the geniuses gone.

Imagine everything, all the time, at every moment.

And that photon again and that neutrino and the beginning and the end.

I didn't sleep well.

Waiting happens one moment at a time.

Location:S Clinton Ave,Trenton,United States

When It's Saturday and Tomorrow Is Sunday

When it's Saturday and tomorrow is Sunday

When it is Saturday and coffee is on

When it is Saturday and all eyes are on Indianapolis

When it is Saturday and the sky is looking pewter and feeling good about the day ahead

When the whole world thinks one thing and so you can plan on something other

When you feel like a nut and at the times when you don't

Winter will never be Spring, but it'll always be more than you think

This is February, this is Saturday, this is philosophy of a kind, I guess

This is predictable if you've spent time around here

And my phone will tell me the weather to expect in Baltimore and DC and Princeton and Wellsboro and Paris and Marfa

Hit the road, hit the street, rent a van, rent storage space, make a dining room, make a good time, eat some lunch it is Saturday.

Location:Penn St,Baltimore,United States