Illuminated Lunch

my mentor a jaded journalist

quite human delivered humility

remarkable even in her grudges

with a disdain for so-called luminaries

all puffery and obscene bulk

helming the woeful parade

patient dependable warm

and knew how to coax useful information

as we gossiped

she ordered only coffee in a French press

at our last lunch i joked 

the fare was light

Chaos Will Win

when we are small we acquiesce

accept limitations taught

remain averse to mess

identity mass-produced product of thought

but look there at her running in the rain 

each drop makes her someone new

she enters a house from the sodden lane

changed again from a change of view

wasted in moments spent stuck on a pin

it is freeing to know chaos will win

Destiny

only the careless

employ the word destiny

unironically

Knowledge/Belief

knowledge gradually

establishes suspicion

mistrust 

prominently displayed 

deny that faith 

proves anything 

probability may 

reverse those 

heroic spirits

in whom alone 

belief dwells

incarnate 

completely

I Would Be Immortal

that black winged death can fuck right off

upon its scythe and frankly suck it

i will never be ready to perish

die, breathe my last, pass away, or kick the bucket

i welcome vampires and all immortal curses

excess life could never be too much to bear

a trillion nights beyond compost to compose verses

you won’t take me alive heh little humor there

suicidal despair you wait your turn

tonight my mind is bright and running clear

i would live to see the world thrive or rust

tonight at least i will live forever without fear

Youthful Love Still Casts A Shadow

the howl and ache those days are gone 

when forward we swam never doubting 

the rightness assured only by our own joy 

of success the first breathless kiss 

of bristles thick with paint on linen 

those are the clouds this the sky 

all chiseled out of swirling cosmic rock 

the rejoinders that never stung only intoned truth 

made us laugh appreciating sunlit smiles distant music 

outside the unending music within the morning 

stretch and yawn in a button-down too big 

the taste of last night’s celebration 

the casual flirtation putting the lie in

the flawless veneer here are the trees 

and here and here more trees 

but stay here in the grass by the rocky beach 

the salt sea smelling of fish and the brilliant sunset 

now obscured by the coming storm

Hunters Gatherers

winter’s eyes of ice

crackling from the lakes

forest reaching branches 

breakthroughs spark the skies

embrace the slick black rocks 

while ocean waves crash over

widening portals grow 

flow unknown and glowering 

down and doomed to breaking fakes 

making meal of joy knowing

masks are unaccountable

old spark and close to coals

sit now caressing embers

whether we rise or fall 

it all ends

in a stone marked grave 

a hole of cold bones

Player

oh wasted heart

out late rain dancing

brined in shallow love

puddle lukewarm water 

nearly full but no overflow

evaporation ensures salinity

high below the lip see

the shining dry white line

Dissonance

sometime devotee at prayer

sometime spiritual ascetic

conditional belief audience dependent

consequences of traumatic evolution

the miracles of life 

the kaleidoscope of compost

the opposites don’t cancel

the empty air clasped in my hands

filled with a trillion things

i can’t see

The Fool Ascends

many-colored patch quilt-rounded shoulders

corners pinched in a fist at the throat

cape drags its train

through the mist damp grass

the little dog gives chase

to the top of the rise

to the edge of the scarp

now two ends held parachute

which wind blooms to rose

in the step away onto air

implicit trust bears the soul aloft

Modern Ouroboros

year by year bite by bite 

i have swallowed my selves

my core stuff digested

grown fat and quiet now

no more of that striving

hope the aperitif

making suffering seem savory

plenty to go around

table overflowing 

a circle is a hollow shell

Natural Encounter

blandished both undress

kissed blemish of a hillside scar

cool air brushing briskly past 

the little house inside the glen

stoked tongue of fire in the hearth

wanton limbs pressed caressed

Middling

woe betide rising seas 

eternal crashing wave sound of television static

against minor league dreams settled for in the about-face of day 

or at least the face presented

establishing a subjectivity quotient

divide authentic self by several sets of external expectations

othering each moment fragmenting the frame 

until a scattered human mass comes cubist in photo reality

flat screen circumscribed set-headed

strike the side until the image clears

reorients into recognizable pixel structures or breaks

knock it into sensible sense or buy the next

over the hollow sea sound

the interlaced drone of the waves

the drone of the waves interlaced

The Simple Solution

midargument brother against brother

too educated was the accusation leveled 

knowing some words other people don’t

is not intelligence

only knowing the best ones 

at the right time

recognizing this 

it’s smartest to remain dumb

Game Of Tag

the jagged rusted coil 

curls and juts just under 

old couch cushions

on the country house porch edge

waiting in the dim red dusk light 

for a child’s running leg to slice

stinging cold the bloody night

thinks the sound of tearing flesh 

and accompanying cry quite nice

I Made A Little TTRPG Zine: Campaign Zero

I made a little zine with an idea for character creation. I'm most familiar with D&D 5e, but this method can be modded for your favorite system as it's really just a modified version of the point-buy system that your characters play out, instead of just quietly applying before you get started with the game. 

This zine features a description of a potential starting area, an adventure hook to get characters moving, and a fold-out map.

I'm including pictures of the complete zine below. But if you would like me to email you the PDF so you can print it and fold it yourself, just comment on this blog post with your information. It's free!

Here are some instructions on how to fold the zine and even how to make your own 8-page zine!   https://youtu.be/Ixqr9e3wCxI

Enjoy! And be good to each other.
~MS

Simulated

if reality 

is total simulation

it makes no difference

but we do

Despair

the crisis despair appears 

first in a yellow haze across 

the well-lit room disguised

it never deigns to warn a soul 

before the storm but only 

whelms and stays

above the nose below the eyes

feet mired in hapless drudge

drinking in as apprehension

crosses the panicked face

dawning that saccharine hope

rides a soluble boat

Unborn

that long-rested animal 

freedom with its old instincts 

belongs prowling free 

rubbed raw with that illness homesickness 

and its incorporate resistances

continues unborn

a pregnant spectacle

a bridge 

a promise

Seeing Home

to glimpse earth’s splendor

eschew looking with those eyes

that see only mind

Roles

in the living room loafing i say aloud
the lavender has left your heart
from the kitchen where you're
straightening sheets of cellophane you say
the fuck are you on about

Power Lines

it was like a dream 

and i rushed to take it

now shaking and tired 

i can’t trust or fake it

the rising crush 

of your reality fills me

when i try to scatter 

it grabs and distills me

i’m ready to leave now 

open the door

i’m ready to go 

and get off of this floor

but power lines 

i keep getting tangled up in

when i start to fly and i fall

blind in dreams 

to the realities that we’re swept up in

will i wake up then

i will i will wake up then

The God Watches

low scream 

where wheels met road

mile on mile of steel

hour upon hour

to days end

on the way

the sun hung cold

flat and round

peering out from behind

the brown clouds

like a coin in the sky

Same Sweet Sound

sweet inebriate

not prohibition’s fell pome

homophonic fruit

Fell

by the splitting serpent’s tongue

it might be that the i venom

got into the brain

or by a drug consumed 

or a virus spread or

a fungal spore germinated

in the lungs and sent out strings

no matter how the invasion was won

the alien i separated self from sea
and sky and ground and we

was me

sent onward toward mourning

i was no longer with the garden

i was beside myself

Painting A Poem

if i make writing a poem

like painting a view

composition directs

creating illusory distance

toward meaningful depth

words brush strokes

fluidity to movement

only shown by remaining loose

and free as breeze

in the end it’s no good 

if i can’t almost fool myself

Irreverence

eat the cities

gulp the rivers

drink ground water dry

shit and piss and puke in the seas

pound the farmlands

to bloody meal

stamp the forest trees

down like nails and watch

the gushers of black blood

shoot into the sky

spattering the dust in dense brown drops

that ripple with rainbows in the sun

to it all set a match

so the air is thick as tar with smoke

what sort of a joke is this humanity

Light Out

chest a whistling kettle

head a birdcage bereft

           mouth the swinging door

fly back please quench the flame

i’ll prepare you a cup

                   and repair the latch

Bounds

entering the wood

by the cold dark tree becoming mulch

where the soft moss grows thickly

in unmanageable mats

goodbye takes the shape of a gold ring lost 

among red-brown needles

two fields separated by a young hedgerow

a dozen crows roost in the barren branches

on shallow furrows filled with frozen snow

the grey night heron lands amid the yellow grass

she turns up a red eye

for now the way becomes clear

crackling out across the frigid waste

push the wall of fear aside

we were made for breaking

Author-itarian

civilized writing is never so simple 

as sitting with a moving pen 

it requires sensitivity and fearlessness

with sharply applied vocabulary

proving again through hunting

which of us is fittest to enmesh and

gradually destroy the earth

Weekly How To Play

when the week beginning brings back

the sharp clear smell of fear of failure

the hollow hopelessness of the cycling same

you can follow or wallow or drown

you can choose to change your name 

you can switch which game you’re playing

but alone you cannot change the game

How To Greet The Day

right through off and slid on the way

to the pound of bean coffee apathy

twang guitar phone transported dream pop

beating like an ear drum thrumming

and the noise like a muffled whump

after the light crackled down from the sky

falling rising up to meet it waving one side

hello on one side goodbye