day FOUR HUNDRED and FIVE

the framer

the framer

sits in the semi-dark

of his once-thriving business

wearing his USA hat

and 9/11 never forget t-shirt

he’s waiting on america

to become great again

for a renaissance in wall-hangings

or a great solar flare

in the meanwhile he’s had to sell

half his business to an insurance company

so every day a bunch of elitist swine in suits

take up space in his shop

where the prints and framed photos

of republican presidents playing poker used to be

they play their music out into the street

have set up tables for insurance information

they’ve even taken up half the marquee

above the store

it’s pretty obvious who runs the show now

but the framer

sits there as if he’s looking for lost time

he put his trust in another charlatan politician

disguised as the working man

and little by little his whole life continues to be taken away

because there’s no bailout coming for his kind

no savior in the guise of another gilded philistine courting votes

walking garbage opportunists with rhetoric and little else

it just is what it is

another dupe falling for the institution that professes to back him

another dream dashed in america

another life’s work dying like a wounded animal

i want to feel bad for the framer

but i just wish america made smarter people

real bootstrappers who didn’t fall for rhetoric

people who didn’t wear their ignorance on their chests and heads

like badges of honor

i wish that i could give the framer some business

but these days

even i won’t sink so low.

--John Grochalski

                                                           

day FOUR HUNDRED and FOUR

Clear Days

it was a clear day
on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941

on Nov. 22, 1963 the rain cleared
the bubble top on Kennedy's vehicle
was removed giving Oswald
a clear shot for the kill

Tuesday, September 11, 2001,
dawned temperate and nearly cloudless

I don't trust clear days
they​ hold such promise
then break my heart

give me a gloomy day
gray skies with the
promise of rain

warm blanket on the couch
cup of tea — good book
quiet home

but today is clear
a sprinkle of clouds –
is this the day

tragedy comes
for the world
or just for me

I don't trust
this clear day
give me rain

--Thomas R. Thomas

day FOUR HUNDRED and THREE

The Artist (Vitiated)

A.S. Coomer

The man is capable of beauty

I’ve seen it

He’s got a hand that can sing;

gives voice to the smallest detail

depth to a shallow, static medium

He used to work in the comics

I remember towering dinosaurs

& crisp printed pages

Now he designs headstones

I shit you not

& the death involved is symbolic

There’s art there but with it a cold,

creeping

A nod to the bygone years of color and flash

warmth

And, yeah, he still makes art

on the side

but instead of spreading that love

that beauty,

that way of understanding & interpreting

the tangles of life & love & community

he likes to get on the internet

& spew such tired tirades

senseless misappropriations of fact & rationality,

and, of course, #fakenews

Word is the president is looking to put on a Grand Military Parade

& this doesn’t sound like something a batshit, wannabe tyrant

with failing support and crumbling control would do at all,

does it?

I made this comment, on the internet,

&, you guessed it, the man had to chime in

Said the country would parade honest FBI officials down the streets of the capital too,

if there were any

Jesus, I thought.

This man can make Art. He can bring to life whatever he can conjure up

I’ve seen his work in person,

photos never really do justice do they?

I’ve seen the clarity he’s capable of

the perfectly straight lines so far from the tangled mess that he presents politically

& I want to scream

I want to cry

I want to tell him he’s wasting it

throwing it away for a faulty ideology

for smallpox blankets

for systematic racism and rampant sexism

for insults and bullying and might-makes-right

for Hatred with a capital H

I felt my heart pounding in my chest

beating much too quickly, with far too much force,

& I questioned this. Why should I care so much?

Why should I let myself be affected by the hatred reflected by a distorted mirror?

You can’t choose your family & all that

but family he is.

I told him I was embarrassed by the things he says

in his internet posts

He told me that I’d be embarrassed of myself

after I mature

& now I question maturity

What does it mean to age? To mature?

Does it come with an overriding sense of self-importance

the covetous icy heart of the haves

and the itchy, reaching hands, veined & wrinkled,

smacking their own excess away from the have-nots?

I want to tell him that I believe he’s still capable

of beauty

of love

of understanding

That there’s enough to go around

That there’s plenty for us to believe in

That the way forward isn’t back

That, maybe, just maybe, despite his age,

he may still not understand how sharing works

That, maybe, maturity is knowing that we’re all in this

together

That we only get one shot at it

and, if so, why not spend it ALL on kindness?

Why not put it all on Hope and spin the wheel?

I ended up telling him that he backed the wrong horse

—the between-the-lines screaming for a change of perception

a recasting of tired, guilty eyes

a new mold for seeing

a plea for purging for all that misguided hatred

I mean, the man’s an Artist, he’s capable of so much more—

So, yes, I told him he backed the wrong horse,

a hate-mongering, orange-tinged horse at that,

a tupeed mane is a mane nonetheless

& he’s definitely galloping towards...

something

but I don’t think it’s anywhere near

Makingamericagreatsville, USA.

It might be more in the vicinity of

Oblivion

and can’t we, as artists, imagine a better future?

--A.S. Coomer

A.S. Coomer is a writer, artist, and musician. Available novels: Rush’s Deal (Hammer & Anvil Books/Lit Fest Press) & The Fetishists (Grindhouse Press). Forthcoming novels: The Devil’s Gospel (The Wild Rose Press) & Shining the Light (Atlatl Press). His most recent recording, goddamn it anyway, came out 2/16/18. www.ascoomer.com www.ascoomer.bandcamp.com  

day FOUR HUNDRED and TWO

unlike the dull promise of a good king

When I knew for sure I wanted to be
Nina Simone’s piano keys and not

the President of these Unaltered States
our troubles redoubled ringing in my ear

better to be a simple
willing tool of
actual genius.

All the nations of Winter went to war
with the nations of the other seasons

based on a platform that
personification of the calendar is

an extension of madness
anyway.

Lighting three cigarettes
for the patriarch’s trinity

Nina pressed out another threnody
on the starlight hidden in my spine.

--Paul Koniecki

day FOUR HUNDRED and ONE

"Piss"

He steals
tax payer money and
social security funds to
build machinery that
props up his
bed-bug hands so
he can piss on
the sick and
starving while he
salutes a
flag in which he
doesn’t believe.
Organless masses flock
to the spectacle with
moths open
wide, bedecked in
hollow slogans outsourced
from worlds they
cannot stand.
If we could
clip the wings of
this bird, we could
keep it grounded but
our lives are a
circus and we are
content in our
struggle.
Revolution is
nothing but a
distant dream
hidden in
cell phone
screens and
football games
and we
deserve
better
than this.

-Robert J. W.

WineDrunk SideWalk : ShipWrecked in TrumpLand week FIFTY SEVEN wrap up

In the biggest limp-dick order on gun control that i've ever seen....president* dipshit claimes that he ordered the Justice Department to seek legislation that would ban the "bump stocks" that turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons.....well....hallelujah we're all saved! thanks president* dipshit! While a outright ban on "bump stocks" would go somewhat against the NRA and its domestic terrorist agenda, these devices are not seen as an actual big deal to have regulated...so take president* dipshit's orders for what they are.....bullshit.

Further bullshit? How about the Florida REPUBLICAN controlled State-House outright rejection a to even CONSIDER a ban on large-capacity magazines and assault weapons....not actually VOTE on this, but to even CONSIDER it....what makes this all the more nefarious yet totally in line with how republicans treat citizens who aren't dangling lobby dollars in front of them....they rejected even CONSIDERING a bill with  students from Stoneman Douglas School in the gallery

....usa....usa....usa....

(I can't take credit for calling Trump president*.....Charles Blow has been doing that recently on his Twitter and I like the way it looks).

To be honest....i dont even have a fucking clue what's going on with this Russian investigation at this point...there are so many people being indicted and lawyers pleading guilty, and if you read the insane tweets of the president* you'd think Obama and Putin cooked this whole business up together over a bottle of vodka back in 2014....I will say this....the noose does seem to be tightening around Trump's fat neck. Though I know it won't happen I'd love to see him in jail....but I'd settle for him disgraced and spending his remaining sad days in his shit-hole Florida golf course finger-fucking snow globes like Charles Foster Cain.

OMG...Jared Kushner might have his temporary Security Clearance revoked....that is if that oak of American "stability" John F. Kelly has his way. Kelly's plan is to revoke all security clearances for those who are still pending since June 1, 2017.....and because Jared Kushner and his slum-lord shady business practices have made a background check a wonderland of twists and turns, he STILL doesn't not have his security clearance in good faith.....but, never you fear, Jared is not going down without a fight....he's become quite used to the comic book panels that pass for daily briefings these days and is spending his time moaning and whining to anyone who will listen.....i hope it works out for you, Jared....it's a dark day when a white boy in America who was born into privilege doesn't get everything and anything that he wants....i mean what are we fighting for if that can't happen? maybe you can talk your rapist/racist father-in-law into firing Kelly once and for all....hell, maybe he'll make YOU chief-of-staff....all the same...keep living the American Dream, Jared.

On Wednesday.....because stopping by the hospital where injured Parkland students where, en route to play eighteen holes or rounds or however you quantify the horseshit that IS golf, didn't seem QUITE empathetic enough, the president* held a filmed White House sessions with grieving parents from the many many school shootings that America is as famous for as institutional racism and apple pie. In his defense the president* seemed more empathetic than we've seen him in 13 months on the job (must be looking at the poll numbers) or it could've been the fact that he was holding note cards with such empathetic phrases such as "I hear you." If you consider the fact that Trump very well could've shouted out "loser" at some sobbing, grieving parent or student, this is a big step for the administration.  All the same it didn't seem like much got accomplished...just more back and forth...and dedicated NRA tit-sucker that he is, the president* floated around the idea of teachers carrying guns and maybe having undercover cops on campuses. That's right, folks...instead of passing sensible gun laws the GOP is passing around the old idea of making our grade schools/middle schools/high schools more akin to prisons. Hell, why not put some weights in the yard during recess??

Then to add insult, I guess, to injury.....president* trumpbabydick suggesting giving out bonuses to teachers who DID carry firearms in schools.

folks....a good lesson incorrect thinking...a quote from our rapist-in-chief

"I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected."  uh.....well, after all, isn't the American Education System just a segue into a life in a soulless career? Why not completely break the illusion that children are going to school to be educated and not to become economy-supporting drones.

and this when the actual ARMED deputy on duty wouldn't even go into the school

While the president* was having his deranged "love-in" in D.C. lil' Marco Rubio and the NRA were taking a drubbing from folks in Florida over their failure to back gun control laws. Since I don't have the time or the energy to waste on someone who wasn't even competent enough to beat Donald Trump in a primary election in his own state, you can read more on lil' Marco's rough night right HERE

It appears Mitt Romney is ready and willing to drink the autocratic Kool-Aid

Wayne LaPierre brought his blood thirsty hard-on to CPAC this week attacking democrats and the media and whomever else the hard tip of his little dick could find in a fierce defense of the hopefully-one-day-to-be-repealed 2nd amendment. LaPierre said that Dems/the media and all other political opportunists were banded together to "eradicate all individual freedoms." Riiiiiggghhhhtttt because not wanting citizens to get fucking shot en masse by automatic weapons means taking away freedoms. Taking a page from the book of our dipshit/pseudo tough guy president* LaPierre also said that America needed to "harden our schools" with more armed guards....so....another comparison this week from a dipshit elitist Nazi wanting to turn our schools into prisons. LaPierre said a bunch of other dumb shit which you can read right HERE

But the icing on the cake had to be Wayne's going to that conservative tried and true (and TIRED) tactic of comparing citizens who actually want to see this country progress from the racist/violent shithole that it's always been into something that even faintly passes for the bullshit exceptionalism that we spew....to Socialists. Wayne.....that shit might've worked 60 years ago.....but you dumb fucks kept shouting the word Socialist when Bernie Sanders ran in 2016....and you know what happened, asshole?

A Movement.

So keep fucking with us NRA....the push back is coming.

For the record Comrade LaPierre was speaking to CPAC, otherwise known as the Conservative Political Action Conference....so basically it was one racist/blood-thirsty honky fucktard speaking to an entire ROOM full of racist/blood-thirty honky fucktards....so Wayne had to make sure he had his big-boy pants on and talk tough.

Trump stooge Paul Manafort is in the news again....apparently Paul is facing NEW charges in the Russian Investigation...this time for lying to banks and money laundering which....er.....I think is EXACTLY what his first set of charges were.....well, if nothing else, Mr. Manafort is consistent in his desire to break the law....that said....I'm starting to feel like the only person who might ever go down in this whole Russian Investigation is Paul Manafort.....he's becoming the shitty Christmas gift you keep getting instead of the thing you really want. Like every day I check the news expecting....hell....what do people even buy each other now?  I'll just say I check the new every day expecting something BIG....like DOUCHE jr. indicted....or Jared....or even the Rapist himself....and each time....all i get....is a Manafort.

moment of zen?.....Ted Cruz.....fringe lunatic AND a  Simpsons Fan

ladies and gents.....the new face of the GOP......

In the last big news of the week (other than Florida's bullshit above raising the age to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21) was the indictment on Friday of Trump campaign aid and stooge, Rick Gates, who plead guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators. Comrade Gates will be helping Special Counsel Robert Mueller build his case again...who else? FUCKING Paul Manafort.

.....Wake me up, Mr. Mueller, when you finally get to Trump.

All n all this has been another week of GOP horseshit, and it would be run of the mill if it weren't so sad and tragic that their chicanery has fallen, yet again, upon the backs of American families torn apart by violence.

I leave you with this......in the thirteen months that the GOP has been in total control of the executive and legislative branches of government (while hijacking the judicial branch), it's been more than proven that, other than tax breaks for corporations and dozens of draconian executive orders, that the republican party does NOT know how to govern.  To be quite frank, I don't even think they care to govern. They've certainly proven that they aren't even bothering to court the next generation of voters.....so what's their end game here? What do you do with a party unpopular overall among the general population, a party whose own voters no longer seem to believe/want active democracy but would rather have something more akin to an autocracy on one end and an unregulated oligarchy on the other end?

I don't want to sound like a fringe-Ted Cruz-style lunatic....but let me paint a scenario: it's late summer 2018. the Mueller investigation into Trump's/Collusion with Russia is at a close and it's been proven that there was collusion with the president's* administration. Let's say Trump uses Russian interference to claim that there is a "problem" with our election system (not too far fetched considering his administration is doing nothing to curtail continued Russian involvement), and that he calls for the 2018 mid-term elections to be suspended until this can be fully investigated. He gets the votes in a Senate/House that surely isn't moving to impeach his ass....and a quick run-up through the courts for all of the challenges to this act leads to a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court to suspend the 2018 mid-term elections......what then?  I know this is most likely paranoia on my part, and that i'd like to think there's still some semblance of patriotism in the GOP.....but i wonder.

Anyway.....sorry for being long winded.  Today at 10:30 we have the poetry of Robert J.W. and tomorrow at the same time the poetry of Paul Koniecki

I'm out of here for the month (I'll be in a dimly lit room catching up on 13 months worth of International news).  March is going to be pretty exciting.....WineDrunk's very own Women's MARCH.....Ally Malinenko will be taking over the blog for the month....i've seen the submissions rolling in and I personally want to thank each and every one of you for contributing....and I hope you like what we do here and will want to stick around after March is over.

That said....for those of you wanting to contribute beyond March I will still be checking for submissions....so send me your poetry/fiction/rants/nasty images of Ted Cruz and crude drawings of Wayne LaPierre with a hard-on....

SUBMIT2RESIST: winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com

day FOUR HUNDRED

Smoking Character

I get stoned in front of words…
Typing furiously, getting at nothing
but excuses…falsely identifying
empathy for just cause…turn
down the heat just to live
and repeat again…

A thought goes away…leaving
nothing but writers block…
back to the pipe and an imagination
full of failure…

--Dan Provost

                                                           

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY NINE

one of us/one of you

noel gallagher finishes his set

before 10 pm like a proper 50-year-old man should

he ends with a cover of the beatles

all you need is love

introducing the song by saying

this was written by a man who used to be

one of us

but then he became one of you

meaning lennon

and it’s a good end to the concert

one big long sing-a-long

one more chance for the oasis blokes in the audience

to pump their fists and spill their pints to the past

but truth be told i’m tired

tired of being sober over over-priced drinks

tired of standing like some gushing teen over rock idols

and it’s a long way back to lower brooklyn

where my wife and i will find out the next morning

that seventeen people were shot to death in parkland florida

another school shooting in the land

where killing kids is as american

as institutional racism and apple pie

but we will try to talk past the massacre

over morning tea and coffee and sourdough toast

discuss what we want to do with the day

like people who have lives worth living

a movie? a museum exhibit?

we will go back to noel and revisit the concert

the songs we liked

the ones we wished he played

idiot oasis fans who didn’t know the new stuff

how noel slipped a bit of the rutles into the end of

all you need is love

and did anybody else notice?

i think back to what he said about john lennon

being one them

becoming one of us/one of you

maybe noel had something else there other than location

when he said that lennon became one of you

because john lennon was murdered in cold blood

on the streets of new York

for next to nothing

and what could be more american

than dying like that?       

--John Grochalski                                                                           

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY EIGHT

Black Night

Cadet Bone-Spurs-in-Chief

seethes under cover of darkness,

envies tank displays by despots,

plots the mother of all military parades,

tweets bogus theories, frustration.

Investigations of corruption,

obstruction of justice

close in on the black lair

where Donnie John hides,

surrounded by boot-licking cretins.

One by one, his sycophants

are swallowed by the rising tide

of accusations, subpoenas, indictments.

Treasonous criminals are about to reap

inescapable, righteous comeuppance

--Jennifer Lagier

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY SEVEN

Mr Pink Pussy Hat Salesman

I noticed you at the women’s march
as we all prepared to walk
you on the fringe of the crowd
a rolling cart of pink pussy hats
anti-trump sticker, paraphernalia

I noticed you again
as we marched
our pace slow through
Pittsburgh city streets
you galloped along
after, pink hats shaking
as you tried, tried again
at another sale

I noticed you one last time
as the speakers finished up
marchers returned to wherever
standing on the corner
selling a hat, selling a sticker
maybe it’s not fair
to believe I could find you
as easily at a Trump rally
selling hats and t’s
Make America Great Again
maybe its not fair
but I realize simply
Capitalism
has no allegiance

--Jason Baldinger

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY SIX

falling in love on youtube (to and for Per), p. 2
the quisling of negativity, modern science, p. 4
to drink from the night herself (after the just-announced title of the forthcoming at the gates lp), p. 5
finnish vinyl for the ladies, p. 7
jonathan livingston seagull (à la holocaust), p. 9

--Garth Ferrante

Bio:

Garth Ferrante is a complete unknown who teaches, writes, and makes games out of challenging his own creativity. He writes because he loves to, because he finds meaning and purpose in it, because if he didn’t, life would be lifeless.

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY FIVE

Sixth Poem (Bend Over and Spread Your Cheeks)

Nearly broke my mind writing the fifth poem, but that’s okay I’ll soon get over that.

We must make allowances for all sorts of collateral damage when the shit starts piling up and we don’t have a strong enough back to shovel it.

Get inside the red wheelbarrow and I’ll push you around like William Carlos Williams when poetry still meant something and a human stain didn’t bite you on the ass every time you attempted to return it whence it came.

La Charity gets it so does Provost and Smith and a host of other lonely hearts that refuse to back pedal or meet their maker just yet.

Dylan also gets it no matter the myth he covets like a bull whip or latest copy of the Ladies' Home Journal.

The proof is always in the pudding even and especially when their spokesman turned out to be a serial rapist who enjoyed pushing Quaaludes far more than Jell-O Pudding Pops.

Some people lose their appetite before they’ve even gotten a bite while the swift and dogged fisherman knows if you don’t cast your line and wait quietly you’re unlikely to catch a single fish or have anything resembling a good time.

We broke the speed of sound when we fucked like two astronauts lost in space, but that was nothing compared to when we landed and you stuck your middle finger up my blowhole.

The chemistry we created would leave any high school science teacher speechless because those who can do and those who can’t teach high school science. And yes I most certainly believe in a good education, but what I don’t believe in is the Lord of the Flies bullying mentality that most schools now operate beneath. And I am not only talking about students bullying other students, but also teachers bullying students and students bullying teachers. Bring an apple to school get ridiculed. Bring a semi-automatic rifle to school and show your fellow classmates how it’s really done.

We’re so far down the rabbit hole it’s beyond not funny how desensitized we’ve all become to the next assault, the next massacre that will occur before I’ve even finished this poem. And if you think a failed and bankrupted businessman who respects no one and only wants what he can get for himself and his entitled, pampered family will make America great again well good luck with that because he only ran for office to prove to everyone that he could and now that he’s won he’s doing his best to hide behind family and Twitter and any other distraction that keeps us from seeing him leave the stage before the tank is lowered into the water and we’re led to believe he’s inside with only minutes to escape.

I’ve lost confidence with our public officials around the time they started throwing the word homeland around. For me that was just too close to comfort with the Fatherland and the Nazi’s and a failed evil regime that never should have existed in the first place. The pundits calling Trump a genius for how he won the Republican nomination and then the Presidency are dead wrong because there’s nothing genius or for that matter even smart in tearing into your opponents like a Pitbull on steroids and there’s also not much to be said about an opportunist that uses race to stir up the masses and then drives it home with an extra helping of populism to make sure the swarm is properly induced to do their bidding.

Nearly broke open my skull writing the last poem, but that’s nothing to how I feel now. I’ve never felt more broke down or disgusted, but after eight years believing there might be a chance for us to come together and make a difference I guess it’s no surprise we’re more divided than ever as The Liberty Bell cracks all over again and we the people are taken out behind the woodshed and whipped to an inch of our red, white and blue lives with a brand new switch that resembles the old sickle and hammer. 

Charles Cicirella

1/11/17

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY FOUR

NO. 5

Collage by Matt Borzcon

WineDrunk SideWalk : ShipWrecked in TrumpLand week FIFTY SIX wrap up

I'm on vacation this week....or what I like to refer to as Staycation...a week in which I overeat, overdrink, binge-watch movies, binge-listen to music, act as a man-about-town in various art museums, pretend I'm independently wealthy, and catch up on the many tomes that I've laid aside (i.e. catching up on comic book reading)...so...for the dozen or so of you who still read this weekly wrap-up I'm going to be brief this week and not my usual long-winded and "thoughtful" self.

So.....for this week.....

THINGS THAT SPEAKER PAUL RYAN IS LENDING HIS THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS TO

obviously the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left, at the time of this writing, at least 17 students and adults dead.....if Speaker Ryan, Donny John and the GOP LOVE to do anything when there's a shooting, especially a school shooting, it's offer their thoughts and prayers....they do this in lieu of passing any kind of significant gun legislation that would prevent things like the massacre in Parkland from happening in the first place.  For the record this is the eighth school shooting in the United State since 2018 started....there have only been seven weeks in the fucking year.

or maybe Speaker Ryan's thoughts and prayers are with the fact that this human piece of garbage who pulled this shooting is in with white nationalists....just like Donald J. Trump and many of his supporters....nothing keeps a party going like shared interests

to go along with that...speaker Ryan must also be offering his thoughts and prayers to NRA head Wayne LaPierre's hard-on...it is a known fact that after each mass shooting in america Mr. LaPierre gets a long and sustained yet painful hard-on that he can't shake off for days....it gets worse when GOP lawmakers begin to debate how we need MORE guns in America to counteract the people already mowing us down.

...on a side note...maybe if I'm the FBI and I'm being attacked by the Nazi in the White House and his deplorable minions in the house and senate.....i don't go and bungle a case involving a school shooting....but that's exactly what the FBI did back in January when they were informed about the walking piece of shit's desire to kill....I'm on vacation which essentially means the internet is dead to me, so I haven't checked Donny John's Twitter, but I'm willing to be he'll be having a field day with this.

anyway....gayly forward....

Speaker Ryan must also be lending his thoughts and prayers to "president" DOUCHE MOTHERFUCKER's budget plan, fondly known here on WineDrunk as the "FUCK YOU AMERICA" budget. This sucker is a doozy and I'm not sure what chance it has of passing in the Senate, but with all of the elimination and/or cuts to domestic programs and much-needed government agencies, this piece of heavily bound toilet paper is a Paul Ryan WET DREAM....among the more draconian cuts and eliminations: bye bye student loan forgiveness, bye bye Head Start, cuts to food assistance, cuts to medical assistance, bye bye ACA yet again, cuts to people living in rural areas....and a whole shit ton of military/defense spending and privatization of government assets.

But for as much as Speaker Ryan hates immigrants and poor his thoughts and prayers are probably going toward DOUCHE not vetoing any bipartisan immigration legislature, which the orange-hued rapist/racists said that he would do if he didn't get his shitty wall....we may soon see how serious Donny John is about this as on Wednesday a bipartisan Senate panel came up with an immigration plan that would bolster boarder security and seek a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants.  You can read more about the plan HERE

OR....maybe Speaker Ryan's thoughts and prayers are with the 13 Russians, that's right folks, THIRTEEN Russians, who were indicted on Friday with charges of election meddling....in a 37 page document 13 Russians and 3 corporations were charged with promoting discord in the United States and undermining public confidence in democracy....to paraphrase Assistant Attorney General (for now) Rod Rosenstein...this is a big one folks...obviously it's not yet making the case that DOUCHE obstructed justice (although anyone with a tv set/the internet has already had that proven to them), but these first indictment are one more HUGE step forward.

lastly....maybe Speaker Ryan, like many millions of us, has his thoughts and prayers on a complete and total democratic takeover of the House and Senate in the November 2018 mid-terms elections...seeing as though his spineless ass and the craven GOP won't stand up to the game show host running the nation into the ground, maybe his thoughts and prayers SHOULD be on the nation taking his dumb ass out of power.

Well...that's it for me....back to sitting my fat ass on the couch and crying over Joan Didion Documentaries....but stick around...today at 10:30 we have the collage work of one of my favorite poets, Matt Borzcon, and tomorrow we have the poetry of one Charles Cicirella

Remember...March is Women's Month...and in honor of that WineDrunk is putting out the art/writing of women and those who identify as such....i'm going to be hands off that month and Ally Malinenko will be taking over...subs are rolling in, but please send if you can...put the word MARCH somewhere in the subject heading...and also....don't forget about us once March ends...it's great to see a lot of women artists taking to this....but I'd love to see your work in April too...and may...and June...and...you get the drift.  And for those of you who've been sending...thank you...if i haven't gotten back to you in an email, i apologize....i tend to pretend the internet doesn't exist when i'm on vacation.

SUBMIT2RESIST ; winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY THREE

the plague

he doesn’t even realize

that he’s being hit on

by the man on the other side of the bar

he just wants to talk about the neighborhood

the good old days of pizza joints

and the smell of garlic up and down 5^th avenue

discos and john travolta daydreams

rambunctious kids breaking open the water plug

playing stickball as neighbors hung out of windows

or beached on lawn chairs on the sidewalk

brooklyn when it was really brooklyn, he says

every single day was a street festival back then

he says, you could pretty much

leave your door open all night and nothing would happen

because everyone knew everyone

nostalgic and magical american delusion

the placid payoff to some for ignoring a history of treachery and lies

the man leans in sipping on prosecco

and says, tell me more

as packs of loud old blonde women come in for lunch

there’s nothing to really tell, the bartender says

the neighborhood has changed

coded language between us colonizers

meaning they’ve moved in

some sinister other with darker skin and darker accents

replacing pizza joints with falafel ones

all you can eat chinese and taco trucks on every corner

store signs in five languages for the uninitiated

new people hustling for the dream

day laborers loitering outside the alpine theater at dawn

hoping someone pays them for the work

it’s just not the same, the bartender says

and you can see his lily little dream

crumbling before his eyes like it has so many times

i think i see what you mean, the man says

finishing off his drink and stepping away from the bar

as if backing away from the plague

he drops a twenty down and leaves without looking back

as the bartender shrugs and drops the cash in the register

before turning back to the pack of old blonde ladies

recovered and rewired

reveling in their familiar cadence and charm

giving those good women his honest to goodness

toothiest of apple pie american grins                

-- John Grochalski                                

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY TWO

carnal anatomy

with a hint of vertigo deception

something burning

speaking of arousal, hiding and seeking with an affinity for poetry

 I climbed the spheres of musik and found no sound but the echoes of distant planets

 from dying worlds

 the silence of the multiverse in the breath exhaled from every babe

 all of us a monk and nun

sage or deviant

 of what would never be remembered

yet never forgotten- that's the trick of visions and the state of being

for every stream of light projected through crystal goblets

  a river of spectrum eternity flowing - a full feast of particles

 we love what we destroy

 how about we consume what we are

 to expose what we are not- plastic vomit voodoo reality dumb-show dim-witt solution, asymmetrical eggshell minds- cracking the yokes of infinite ideas

 and all we can come up with are wax-work constructs melting in the sun,

minds in flight

 we're not exactly igniting into the phoenix in a marvel of wonders

leaving ashes everywhere

--MIKE ZONE

day THREE HUNDRED and NINETY ONE

Me too and You too

He says he didn’t know.

Or understand.

He didn’t mean to do anything wrong

even when he walked her back to the couch

poured more wine

and tried again

after having just failed

to fuck her.

I think about that party in college

him so witty and charming

following me from room to room

me flirting back because it was fun

and I liked him

but wasn’t going to fuck him.

His anger frothy like the beer foam

when by the end of the night he realized

this was not going to end the way he wanted,

spewing at me that he put in all this work.

Realizing then that I was a thing to be overcome.

That the dance I thought we were both doing

the one I hoped would end in plans for coffee

the next day

or a movie

was in fact not a dance at all

but a simple hunt.

This is the way we are raised.

Women demure.

Men pursue.

Think of Han and Leia.

The lessons have always been there.

This is what we talk about when we talk about rape culture

but all men hear is rape

and not culture

and all they think of is a cartoon scary man in the bushes

not themselves,

pouring more wine

pushing for sex

thinking every kiss will lead there

like those who claim

there is no climate change

because it’s cold

means there is no global warming

The subtlety is lost in the context

because the lesson has been taught over and over and over again.

Just keep pushing/ just keep pushing back.

Remember just because it wasn’t

violent

doesn’t mean it wasn’t

a violation.

--Ally Malinenko