a new test entropy

1.

You Could Do Whatever
(You Can if You're Clever)

Attractant spray. Dominant ape. Swaggering drag. Tail tucked-and-taped. Pull your hog back in a sundress. Fuck it. Who cares. Take the stares. Go wherever. None of this is going anywhere.

            A message drawn in chalk.
            Taking up the whole sidewalk.
            Clogging the road.
            Deathly bloating.
        

2.

360 Dunk

Perverse incentives. Inverted percentages. Your manager managed to fuck you malevolent.

            Ain't that magnificent?
            Ain't that some shit?
            C'mon kid—
            You shoulda seen yourself.
        

3.

Bad Drugs

            Spider coming on.
            Octagon on octagon.
            Headflush oxygen.
            Vision floods.
            All too much.
        

            Webs spun.
            Whole world crawling round.
            Right in front of the eye.
            Then infecting the mind.
        

Is this forever? Am I the captive of all of these creatures?

            A shudder of breath.
            A stumbling step.
            Laid down last.
            And the alleyway wept.
        

4.

No Help

Can't even pay them to come around anymore. More ways of getting hold of people than ever before. More ways to get lost. Hell.

            Can't even tell if they see it.
            No way of telling if you're shadowbanned.
            Or bleached.
        

User exited.

You don't exist if you're out of reach.

5.

They Found This Shit Carved Into a Wall
(Excavating Late America)

▲ ▚ ∿ ⤳ ⟁ ║ ✦ ◦ ✦ ┆ ↷ ⤷ ◦ ✸ ▚ ⟁ ◎ ✶ ↹ ⟴ ✹ ✶ ∿ ↻ ✸ ◦ ▒ ⟁ — ◦ ☍ ❃ ◦ ◌ ╌ ╌ — ◦ ⁙ ∆ $ Ʌ ₵ ︰ ⧗ ⤭ ∴ ⚡ ✸ ✸ ∽ ∿ ⇧ ⇅ ≡ ⚒ ⤙ ⤚ ➰ ∞ ➿ ⣀ ∝ ∞ ♂ ◶ ≗ ⅁ ⤵ Ͼ ◓ ✵ ✴ ✴ ✤ ❖ ◦ ◦ ◦ ❖ ◦ ◦ ❖ ⥄ ⥀ ⊚ ⟠ ⟠ ⟁ ◦ ◦ ◉ ◉ █

6.

Fourths and Fifths

Take the top off the pentagram. Eye out of the pyramid. Fiat money. Five hundred fucking grand.

Whispering, "1913."

Uh-oh, uh-oh. Not good. Old things coming round. Forthturning. Reichstag burning.

            Detuned.
            Détournement.
        

Shit. Oh no! Oh no! Bang. Bang. Bang. Blammo.

Work the hammerswing. Clang clang clang. Up the ammo and the ante. Don't be ditzy don't be dainty.

Snort this fat rail of experimental amphetamines, go forth, and kill the enemy.

Over the top.

7.

The Contortionist's Report
(Journey to the Mind of the Ass)

He disappears up into his own ass. Flexible from fitness class. Bent up in a pretzel. G.I. Joe playset. Prime-time cable bent. Fucked up on Old Hollywood. Demonic mind control. Poison radiating. Narrowing apertures. Stunted ambitions. Gone kamikaze off rejected submissions.

            Fuck I care.
            There he goes.
            Further on in.
        

Houdini, Keaton, Cruise. All his own stunts. Jackie fucking Chan. Jean Claude Van fucking Damme.

Fucking damn.

Damn, damn, damn.

Fuck, ass.

Shit, spitting.

Horrible verbal plague. Playground taunts.

"Dirty skank."

            They'll probably name a drink at the bar for you after you die.
            Because of how famous your big fat ass is.
            From all the sitting.
            The pants-splitting.
        

            Screwball.
            Room moving.
            Wavy and wiggling.
            Your vision's gone and your hands are trembling.
        

Draw the doorway further. Duodenum yourself. Deepen.

Opensea Swimming in the Ass of the Self.

            Like a dolphin, slick.
            Buzzing joy noises.
            Humming old songs.
            Making poor choices.
        

            There are many ways to be rich.
            Each starts with a crime.
            This isn't a novel observation.
        

            This is YA Fantasy.
            This is supernatural teen romance.
            This is a toxicmask donkey-dicked freakshow.
        

            A goring at the rodeo.
            Gaping at the maw.
            The spectacle.
            The show to go to.
            Where it's happening tonight.
        

[then some trite rhyme with "light"]

(I'm so tired of myself) (I awake yet despite)

8.

How Many of Us Have Them?

            You never know what you said that drove them away.
            Well not never but almost.
            Few will tell you.
            Straight up.
            No one wants to get tough.
        

Intercepted Transmission // Drone Op But they'll kill you from across the world. Like a drone operator getting bored.

9.

Years
(Years)

THAT ONE TIME YOU SPENT THE NIGHT AT HER "PARANOID" UNCLE'S HOUSE AND FELL ASLEEP IN THE SOLARIUM:

            And you awoke in a room.
            Tropical birds spoke amongst each other.
            Rapid-fire.
            Puffing pipes.
            Machine gun patter.
            Chuffing clever.
            All professorial.
            In their little tweed outfits.
            Looking adorable.
            It made no sense.
            But you tuned in.
            Eased into the leather chesterfield.
            Took in the smoke.
            High as the birds feel.
        

"1913." "1913." "See?" "1971." "Finally." "1945." "Before." "1913." "Agreed." "1694." "Bank." "Bank." "Bank." "1215." "Not a bank." "1910." "Jekyll Island." "Exactly." "Heckel, heckel." "1871." "Which?" "District of Columbia." "Ah." "Dammit, burn it all down . . ." "1776?" "1776." "1789." "Which was worse?" "1789." "Obviously." "1865." "Of course." "Corporate personhood." "1868." "Designed to fail." "1878." "1933." "Emergency powers." "Still." "Still?" "Still." "1947." "CIA." "NSA." "All agency." "All hands." "1952." "Close enough." "1963." "1865." "1979." "1987." "Crash." "1995." "1996." "Telecom Act." "Consolidated." "Everything." "2001." "2001." "2001." "Patriot Act." "Still in effect." "Everything." "Wrecks in effect." "That's the point." "Tet-tet." "1917." "True." "1919." "The continents screaming." "1944." "Bretton." "Yes." "1971 ended it." "Made it worse." "1834." "What's a border but a suggestion?" "1848." "Passed on." "Revolutions." "All failed." "Hopes sailed." "Or succeeded." "All depleted." "Depends." "That's not needed." "1871 again." "Communes crushed." "Rhyming rust." "We did that." "Of course, of course . . ." "Do it again." "Yes." "1914." "Obviously 1914." "But why 1914?" "1913 made 1914." "So 1913." "1913." "1999." "Repeal." "2008." "2010." "Unfortunately." "1980." "1975." "1973." "You sure?" "Which part?" "All of it." "1953." "Changed everything." "1954." "Started earlier." "1898." "Empire." "1823." "Destiny." "1845." "Made a mess." "1846." "War." "Theft." "Expansion." "More." "1832." "1816." "1791." "Hamilton." "Rothschild." "Everyone." "All of them." "1815." "Always fund both sides." "It's what we do." "1717." "Speculative." "Grand Lodge." "Interesting." "1666." "Fire or number?" "Both." "Can't be both." "Six six six." "Nine nine nine." "Bitch bitch bitch." "Argue all the time." "1776." "Good or bad?" "Yes." "Both." "Can't be both." "Flag battered." "Bother." "Oh—" "1871." "Corporation." "1999." "You said that already." "1995 then." "Still wrong." "1913." "Always 1913." "Hm."

10.

Quiet Us
(Post-Collapse)

The excellence of exhaustion. Warm sweat damp. Water offered. Cups filled and filling. Feeding into one another. Waves lapping. Disappearing on distant shores. There's no need to struggle and fuss. Not anymore. The quiet click. The closing door. █