the world's most terrifying landlady kicks the bucket

We today
determine one thing:
value of life

touching on
traumatic life

 asking
the jurors to see
through her eyes

"You have heard of the despair
the anger
resentment

would you want that to happen to yourself
Would you want that to happen to your children

believe there is
reason for us to be
here on earth

somehow enhance
humanity, to love, to
touch each other
to breathe easier because you have lived

testify for Dorothea Puente

understand why so many people testified and asked
to spare Dorthea's life
if you have ever fallen
down and stumbled on the road
of life and had
someone pick you up
give you comfort
give you love

understand why these people believe
life is worth saving

human quality
deserves to be
preserved. It is a flame
of humanity that
burned
Dorthea since she was
young

That is reason to give
life without the
possibility of parole

if I could recycle lives, I wouldn't do it at all

a shift in bodegas

where I learned

how to gamble

and drink beer

elias the general

manager ­­–

rotund hairy

individual

worked late nights

elias and I were

friends

we drank beer

in the back

and smoked

cigarettes in

the front after

drinking beer

in the back

we were pretty

good friends

he told me

'I never learned

how to swim'

and took a

drag from his

menthol cigarette

I shrugged and

said 'you

have time

just take a night

off or something

and we can go to

a pool'

we agreed that

was a good idea

he went back inside

and I left with

his pack of cigarettes

in my hand

the next morning

I woke up

and got dressed

and went to

say 'hi' to elias

because I am a

good friend

I biked five miles

to find out his store was

roped off

and I learned that

elias was shot

in the face by a

pistol and crashed

backwards onto

cigarette cartons

that we planned to

steal one day

dirty fingers cause infections (part 4/7)

4.

the faces of the

faceless haunt

my dreams:

floating face-

down

the bloated

river

frozen in mid-

clap drowning

in happiness

'memories amid

debris and rubble­

coated with mud

a photo album lies'

caked with nameless

faces

i submitted this to some poetry magazine but i haven't heard back yet

laundry blanket the ground like leaves

untouched refuse hides beneath the bed

  burnt coffee

  wet cigarette drags

sleep-tossed hair biting dusty air

rosy cheeks kissing chest

  holding arms

  vines

  entangled vines

sweet assortment of nouns

  floating in the air

  lingering caressing exfoliating

drinking sweat and speculating

              cocaine drips from the blizzard sky

            coconuts thump within radiators

            bananas blemish and peel itself

  covetous guilt looms like jury duty

gratuitous gifts left forgotten

closed behind locked iron gates

buried deep unhinged memories

faded tombstones tower over piled laundry

  soiled leaves scattered

damp rustic chasms unabridged itineraries

damaged values incoherent spectral lovers

                                    leaves float on water

                                    leaves float on water

packaged cartons bleed

woolen beasts contemplate suicide

kick undevoured frightwalkers

under the influence of fresh burnt coffee

  dragging wet cigarette cones

finger-stench resonate on gloves

western landscapes stash candles under beds

rolling landscapes picturesque voyeurs

stained glass block eyes

scratch out bloody and pinpricked toes

              laundry blanket the ground like leaves

this happened in june a long time ago and it still makes me mad

vinny chin

chinny vin

vincent chin

            it was

back when he was twenty-

                                    seven

four blows

  to his yellow

  head landed                                     square

            fucking his brain

                                                "it's because of you

little motherfuckers that

                        we're

            out of work"

fuck you motherfucker

they said to

                        corpse

            as if they knew he fucked mothers

vincent

            lying

                        in mcdonalds ­–

imagine –

how would you finish a big mac

  red bat dusty

red louisville

kentucky red

            vinny's crown

motherfucker vincent

blue collar chinese american motherfucker

            lying on grease tiles             serving billions

trillions of french cut potatoes

trillions of dying cells

billions of hamburgers served

billions of neurons killed

two men killed one man

because of jobs

two white men killed one asian man

because of jobs

grab vincent by the shoulders

                        hold him down and with

                        four swift strokes end

                        his life as if it will stimulate

                        the economy

is that how the world will

come to be –

it's not fair

he whispered

rolling back cells

counting down the lives

droning comatose

forever

gchat Series 1.3

To: Jason Koh

me: bro

brooooo

where are you

why don't you talk 2 me

bro

broseph

i love you bro

but 

frankly my bro i don't give a damn, bro

I have this feeling bro that we're not in kansas anymore bro