the sieve and the sand » Roger Mugs

you know those times where fewer is more? this may or may not be one of those times.

Roger Mugs — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:10:58 +0000

dry air at altitude.
a romantic view of
return to routine.
tea and rice noodles
(the kind that never
quite satisfy hunger)

a sprig of mint cut in three and some ginger sliced in my sand-porcelain cup to ease the youch

Roger Mugs — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:01:56 +0000

five days in the ancient city
void of internet
(yes, that ancient)
walking winding streets
with pictographs where
an alphabet, or even characters
do not suffice
seeking a restaurant of refuge
or a moment away from the canal
where you wash your clothes
dump your sewage
and generally swim for funsies.

five days in the ancient city
days 6-11 of my cold
and 10 hours overnight on the
second floor of the train
to bring me home.

as the stress falls from my shoulders
i’m hoping the oppressive weight
of the mucus in my throat begins to ease
and as i walk roads paved with
black-top instead of hand-carved stone
i thank the Lord for civilization,
good food, 3g, and overwhelming sunshine

and a bed i call my own
naps i call my own
and hot water
i foolishly call my own.

fundamentalist style

Roger Mugs — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:24:23 +0000

this beard of mine
laced with honey
dripping for sweet
to you

stirrings of something more magnificent than can easily put to words. just stirring though. thankfully i’ve been spared a full-on confrontation with it. fairly certain i couldn’t take it.

Roger Mugs — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:22:44 +0000

i never felt i lacked something
i never felt i had need of until
this void grew so big
i never felt anything like it.
i never felt satisfaction after
searching like i know i’ll find
when i find it. i know it because
until now
i aint never felt it.

romantic for bears, kinda a little bit creepy for lovers

Roger Mugs — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:10:01 +0000

i’d stuff you with bamboo
for with you i’d take extra care
the best of taxidermists
hang your right side on the wall
(it is your best side)
and i would not settle for mere
cotton
for with you i’d take extra care
you’re my trophy, and to prove it
i’d spend a little extra and
i’d stuff you with bamboo

appreciation

Roger Mugs — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:40:48 +0000

thanks for rocking and rolling with me
while i fathered children
raised them, fathered more and began
the process of adoption.
thanks for writing with me through moves
and furloughs and job changes and
countless different degrees.
thanks for poetrizing through thick and thin
and daily (or at least sometimes daily)
giving what you got the sieve.
i grew a beard, got scruffier, meaner
and generally slightly more gruff.

but you’ve stood by… a writin’
often sans-inspiration.

thanks eh.

dude fight.

Roger Mugs — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:43:26 +0000

the beauty of being male
(apart from not having to curl up
beside a hairy buttox at night)
is in the 14 years since
we’ve seen each other
the two years since we messed
everything up
and the five minutes it took to repair.

the beauty of being male is that
a swift blow to the face solves
all our issues. and then we’re bro’s
again.

a helper stands at the front asking what you need and making certain all your papers are in line and ready before you’re herded to a small computer designed and built and researched for much more than it’s being used for now. for a mere number to be printed, a touch screen with one button, because this is really the best we can do.

Roger Mugs — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:32:56 +0000

have we really come to this point?
is this really the best we can do?
line standing reduced to numbers
handed out on small printed papers
views from games we spent too much
of our valuable time playing now
burned in the backs of eyelids
clear as the sky when we close our eyes
when we try to sleep
when we wake and find
we’re still standing, waiting for our
number to be called and wondering
is this really the best we can do?

i realized today

Roger Mugs — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:58:04 +0000

there was one thing the greats had in common and it weren’t
education
height
weight
shoe size
shoe string length
love for mcdonalds
patience with children
or the location of the roll in their eyes

a little repetition, add in the cuteness of a 3 year old and…

Roger Mugs — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:13:08 +0000

socks socks daddy you wear some socks
daddy tickle me
daddy tickle me
or like this or like that
daddy tickle me
tickle me
daddy tickle me
tickle me

here’s to hope our buttox is enough

Roger Mugs — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:20:27 +0000

sometimes all we really need is a swift kick to the buttox of our pants
but other times a swift kick needs to followed by several hard blows to the face
and when that is insufficient being threatened with our lives tends to help
though should our own life prove disposable loved ones are always there for threatening

Roger Mugs — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:28:27 +0000

a seashell on a wooden table
inland
so inland you’d never buy sea food here
and you hold it to your ear
because you’ve never been to the sea
and don’t know a clam shell holds
no sound
and wonder at the sand
you’ve heard is like your dirt
but finer
cleaner
less dead-moth-ridden

of decisions of eternal significance based on ignorance.

Roger Mugs — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:00:16 +0000

a book of wisdom
filled with pages
of foolishness
in the hands of many
without hope for
more
basing every decision
on being better
when the best is
nowhere near good enough
when the best is
menstrual rags
before the only One
whose opinion matters

the caliber of people under God’s authority consistently blows my mind

Roger Mugs — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:14 +0000

kingdom shakers
fumble when they shake your hand
their mouths don’t work quite
right, nor their memories
and despite their high level of
education they keep copious
notes because of an accident
they had in a car riding off the
side of a mountain 15 years ago
(and incident they don’t recall
personally at all, only what they
‘ve been told)
which left them with a perpetual
at-best three months of memory
but yet they shake
the kingdom at its foundations
and to have stood in the same
room with these people
(let alone to shook hand with them,
or worshipped alongside of them)
never fails to humble me.

if it weren’t obvious already, you may think yourself important, but there are those out there with power to make you eat shit and smile and pay for it

Roger Mugs — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:25:51 +0000

some folks get all the attention
and some folks brew coffee
some folks go live on television at 9
some folks take out the trash at the tv station

some folks, they say, long to not be known
they sit in their cubicles, wait tables, laminate construction paper,
all for the greater good
and some, i hear, desire nothing more than a great name.
famous cubicle sitter, waitress extraordinaire, or THE construction paper laminator.

some folks get all the attention
but some folks just brew your coffee
or grow it
or produce the fecal matter with which your coffee is fertilized.

some folks get all the attention
but other folks have all the power

reflections

Roger Mugs — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:30:23 +0000

smoke from a pipe
from a chimney
smoke from your mouth
up through your nose
into your lungs
from a pipe
from a cigar
from a cigarette
smoke
in this house as
we run screaming
from the fire
fire in your pipe bowl
wrinkling your thumb
as your cover the top
yellowing your thumb
from the fire
fire in your pipe bowl
fire in your heart
fire in the house
we run
fire in your heart
you run
fire in your pipe bowl
as we sit in the snow
bundled in warmth
warmth from the fire
as we sweat and run
from the smoke coming
down the halls at full
speed
as we sit and stare
fully relaxed at the smoke
in our mouths
the fire under our thumbs
the burning in our hearts

经济危机

Roger Mugs — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:42:58 +0000

the cranes are still here but
the people have gone
and this place feels alone
but i still walk along

this crack-ridden sidewalk
deserted and grey
the prices were rising
then fell fast one day

and i run past these things with my eyes closed and music on blaring to drown out the silence of the people who left and left me here staying in a city of so many, but none of them living.

Thomas C. and Steve J. accredited (even if inappropriately) for significant inventions of life-altering magnitude

Roger Mugs — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:47:47 +0000

my lack of need for pen and paper to compose
has removed the problem i’ve had with
the roundness of my legs.
no flat surface is now—
no problem.
more and more writing can be done
whilst otherwise occupied upon porcelain.

certainly technology has more to be praised than this. but right now, there is little for which i am more thankful

and you’re gone

Roger Mugs — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:04:29 +0000

water slips between.
you slip quickly between my fingers as i grasp
for you.

Journey

Roger Mugs — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:13:28 +0000

10 hours from now I’ll be in the air
still agonizing over the length of the road ahead of me
14 hours from now I’ll be on the ground sprinting between man-made obstacles to prove I’m not a terrorist
15 hours from now I’ll be in the air
19 hours from now I’ll still be
24 hours from now I’ll be questioning my mental sanity, my own stamina, life.
26 hours from now I’ll again be on the ground between pain, but in a country where everything works right. It will be relaxing. There will be a meal consumed.
28 hours from now I’ll again be in the air
35 hours from now, for the first time in six months, I’ll be home.