Author: David X. Hugo

l’apathie absolue

poetry

the elephant in the room
is that your mother is dying
from a cancer

and your heart follows the
rain,
down through the gutters

apathy is a warm blanket,
your body is a cold machine,
all around you a million shades
of grey paint pop-culture
pictures that disappear when
you look at them like
all of the fake-stars in the sky

there are few words left for what you see

you put your art in a grey can
and give it a stupid name;
this survival is an encouraged
and repugnant greed
and is the cancer itself

beauty is right behind that elephant.

memories or dreams?

poetry

i thought you were here but you were not
but i can feel you pulling me down
down into your sweet comfort
down into sugar soaked dreams

my eyes, heavy, catch shadows on the floor
thought i felt you pulling me down
down into would-be memories
down to where we sleep life away

my mind is tired, it needs a rest
i come to look for you again
you are not here, and never were
i made you up just for me.

driving through shitty towns drunk

poetry

inside you is a tension
from the building up of steam
and you won’t just let go of it
for that would be obscene
you pretend that you are limber
so to all it can be seen
yet you are just a child, dear
just-a waiting to be free’d
so come and take a ride with me
away from your sick dream
i’ll teach you how to lift the world
and put it down, where you please
see the colors of the void
and then, too, of the leaves
think about the higher things
and sit up in the trees
let all of our love out
and let it flow
in-between.

arrow

poetry

\\\on this given day
–we write in your language
on the L[an(231)]D we TOOK
from
you
777777in gasping sighs
and animal grunts
..eating
and sh1111111iting
a_____s class\\\\\less
middle of^ th#e ro0oad
m:::::o<<<<dels////
of an outdated design;
dea
d words{272634}
,

dead senses.

C E O

poetry

you should be concerned
about the grapes drying up
in your orchard as the heat-
wave creeps towards your
summer home

you should be concerned
about not remembering the
science behind convection
as the particles around you
start to accelerate

and when your stupid old a/c
finally needs replacement
and your help draws their
pentions, you’ll find no-one
around to sell you new models

you’ll sit between the rows
of brittle grape vines, a beacon
of passivity, greed, and
ignorance; dry bones for
the archaelogist of 2mrw

summer home

poetry

you woke up and ate eggs at
the bar in your summer home

on the beach
the sun pouring in and bouncing
off of your white sheets

and you must think it mad
the things i think to think
about,
and purely so

but those babies in the garbage
why,
they’re all miles away
outside of your bubble,
anyway.

a couple more days (to the tune of plastic birds)

poetry

i shouldn’t expect you to be like me
my pretty plastic bird
and when i took you to the fare
you said that life’s not fair

when i go home at night
and i think about it
i know i only want the truth
and that’s all i want from you

and when i realize
looking into your eyes
that they are plastic beads
i wish that you could see

i guess that i’m a mess
and i get left like that
cuz you can’t tell
i wish you’d go to hell

i lose my appetite
i’d rather be lonely
cuz it’s not fucking cool
being such a fool.

unnoticed

poetry

drowning is the loneliest as
even sound can’t get to you

water floods your body

thoughts flood your mind

thoughts of your friend’s faces
rapt in moments of sheer ecstasy

but not saving you
like the particles moving
a r o u n d your outstretched arms

and when you first go down
you know
and your heart
it knows

and it matches the bpm of
all of the saddest songs

a slow shuffle for the
last dance

you’re a wallflower at
this slow dance
but the song never resolves
and you’re last thoughts
are cliche

like that song candle in
the wind, or whatever

you feel like one of those
candles, and you feel the
flicker and understand it
like you couldn’t before

when the understanding comes…
well
you know what happens then,
even now you do

like when you had nothing to
do so you just fell asleep.

snakes with certificates, snakes with names

poetry

everywhere i look i see snakes
and i just
can’t
stop
talking
about it

how could one, when all one
has to see is snakes? snakes
by the dozens, hissing and
slithering in all different
colors and sizes.

i try and kill them, these

horrid

snakes

but

there are just too many,
and they wont even kill me,
they just hiss

and slither

and i sit in a big wide green
beautiful field with all of
the beauty of space covered
in fucking snakes and cry.

emerald

poetry

i have a cat and home and
she tickles my heart

(i don’t have a whining
air conditioner in my head)

i just got my rations and
i can smile through the
smog and my family
keeps me grounded
as they will last forever.
my dad teaches me how
to
hunt the hunt in any
season
and he guts it all for me
and he does all the
driving
and one day i’ll get
married, as a good
man is hard to find;
one to bring into your
family, as they will
last forever.

my name’s emerald,
and my smile out-shines
this taco bell™.

justdoit

poetry

all feeling left like falling rain
you’re in my bed i can’t complain
the thoughts in head i can’t explain
i want you here for me to drain
i want you here to cause some pain
and light the fire with the flame
you hand me dice to play a game
i’m bad at keeping myself trained
it is ingrained, i go insane
your car is still parked outside.