NEW SCAMS FOR ADVANCED IMPOSTORS

James Quentin Devine 𝒎.𝛎.𝛅. 💙

█In the end, it criticizes itself. — JQD

𝟭. A A B A A Start

                Throb of sex.
                Rubber necks.
                Looking back.
                See what's left.
            

←

                Flourishing,
                ravishing,
                pulverizing
                boy.
            

→

                Demolish.
                Destroy.
                You're destiny's toy.
            

↓

Staggering heights. Cynical ploys.

↑

"Notice how he really constricts himself so as not to reveal himself. He hides behind all those geometrical lines and pointed edges. You can feel his controlled aggression." — IRENE JAKOB,
on the artworks of JACK RUBY aka JACOB LEON RUBENSTEIN,
American artist and assassin 1911–1967

𝟮. Open Six of Me

            I'm at your service.
            No really — it's your funeral.
            A softsighed lullaby lofted just to fill the lull.
            .
            Do you feel at all?
            Tip-toe treetop tall.
            Hear thee,
            Heed the call —
            .
            PICK-UP:
            .
            Walking in on closet drama.
            Queer old times at Rag-o-Rama.
            I'll wear your clothes.
            I'll be your mother.
        

𝟯. Scare All

            He loved scaring people.
            Scaring the shit out of them.
            Fucking people.
            Fucking hated people.
            Fuck people.
            .
            Then one day's expired night he died he did.
            Fucking with people.
            .
            The car threw him 30 feet in the air.
            Driver didn't see him.
            He'd been wearing a disfigured goblin mask.
            Waving around a big stick he'd found.
            Walking hunched low.
            Traipsing the weeds.
            They hadn't had their headlights on.
            .
            And they say he didn't keep his head.
            .
            There was some debate at school as to whether he'd screamed.
            And the count of the gallons he'd bled.
        

𝟰. Mr. Blackwell

            Don't say that you weren't warned.
            My charms are well-worn.
            I'm the best dressed guy in town.
            That's the only reason I stick around.
        

𝟱. Subvocal Lava Voltage (Old Coat Molting)

            The shit you say under your breath could get you on a watchlist.
            Slips of tongue and stream.
            Burntfield recordings of deepdarkening dreams.
            Hissing tape.
            Molten.
            Hold on hardened.
            .
            Exercise some caution.
            Discretion's a blessing best sought in exhaustion.
            .
            A poem in concrete.
            A guillotine emotion.
        

𝟲. Dozen on a Dozen's a Hunnerd Forty-Four a-Buzzin'

            Drunk girl cannonball.
            Here-I-Am slouched in sidewalk sprawl.
            Can't be me at all.
            Couldn't be.
            Wasn't.
            Never was.
            I wouldn't.
        

            poorly rendered low quality primitive 8-bit snk cutscene of two drunk guys one white one latino talking excitedly about a new business venture on the back patio of a goofy neon bar in los angeles
        

𝟳. How Kevin and Enrique Got Rich Was

"Imagine a beer brand called Two Beer Queer sold only in two packs,"

He'd slurred.

Stoned and drunk on the patio.

Arm slung around some new strange friend.

And the conversation went on.

A while.

𝟴. Whorish Houngan

Hungover. Hung. Over. Hanged. Overhang. Over. Hangoverhangoverhangoverhangoverhangoverhangover—

𝟵. New Scams for Advanced Impostors

Take a stab at the abacus —

What are you supposed to do after you're tired of playing as yourself?

(drugs)

Let someone else take over?

(songs)

Big gimmick change?

(clothes)

Maybe have a kid?

Volunteer fire department?

Sell real estate?

Dissociate?

Masturbate?

(What are you supposed to do after you're tired of playing with yourself?)

Much to contemplate —

A future in which you're demanded.

Wrinkled and withered.

You can still kind of dance.

A bit.

Trot.

Tut around.

Fit into old pants.

Taut.

Tuck.

"Hey-hey,"

They say,

"You don't look a day over ninety-nine,

baby-bun."

They'll say:

"So-so so-so so-so young,

at the high old age of a hundred-one."

𝟭𝟬. Whisper Networks (Santa Ana Sinister)

            Found out someone I used to know's a plastic shaman now.
            Saw it on a signpost.
            Wisdom given.
            For-profit.
            .
            What a laugh.
        

𝟭𝟭. Reverse Calf / Black Jet

Black jet. You're living for death.

Black jet. You present in leather.

Black jet. Fashion shoots at night by car headlight and shadow.

Black jet. You're a silhouette.

Black jet. You get what you get.

𝟭𝟮. Scanning

Shimmer of mother-of-pearl buttons tugged in on a cream ribbed-knit cardigan over mocha skin. Stocking height aperture. Skirtrise. A ponytail at play. A man in womenswear. A woman in menswear. Visible brastrap. A bralette as a shirt. Chunky text scrunched over Big Tits. Long cuffs. Firm buttocks in denim, confident. Boatnecked clavicle. Suggestive drape. Long-legged gait. A chain hung low in the hollow. Sunlight filtering through. Eye-smoulder. Plunging neckline. Silk slip whisper under. Linen rumpled just-so. Shadows in what's shallow. Velvetchoke and creeping hemlines.

𝟭𝟯. Shot/Reverse

She hates the way her bit of bellyfat cottage-cheese hung low and uneven when she'd make videos of herself getting fucked doggystyle.

Does all her own editing because ever since the old accounts Got Deleted it's been difficult to get the subscriber count back up.

Old sales funnels don't function anymore.

"It's not that I'm fat,"

She isn't.

"It's just, like, the angle? Or something . . . I'll have to ask Jason, I think his little brother went to film school . . ."

He hadn't.

But it was a plan, albeit one doomed to failure.

            a bizarre moire glitched cursed photograph taken with a malfunctioning 8-bit camera of python the world serpent at delphi encountering a slaying archer eschatological apocalyptic psychedelic distortion
        

𝟭𝟰. Thou Art Cursed Above All Cattle

I'm not sure which walk of life you're from, but it's a crawling one. . and Me Me I — And me I'm high-wire. Me-I. Do nothing. Me I do nothing and well. . Well, Are you master or servant? . Knowing: The middle is excluded from the horseshoe milieu. . And as for me, Me-I — . My name is Jumbo Mortgage. The great disparager. Devourer. The wrecked-home. Dumpo. The hump of a dowager. Gonegreygardens. Plaquehearthardened. . Demoralized beyond all belief. Not-to-be. I-I. . Darkartsdiscarded. Crunch of underfoot. Crisped leaf. . Brush your hair and comb your teeth. █

JAMES QUENTIN DEVINE 💙 mundus vult decipi
𝙻𝙾𝚂𝚃 𝙴𝚁𝙾𝚂, 𝙲𝙰

[false ending]
[false ending]
[false ending]

$ 𝔹𝕆ℕ𝕌𝕊 $ 𝔹𝕆ℕ𝕌𝕊 $ 𝔹𝕆ℕ𝕌𝕊 $ 𝔹𝕆ℕ𝕌𝕊 $

ᵂᴵᴺ ᵂᴵᴺ ᵂᴵᴺ

💙

> initiate A.I.

(sʟᴏᴘᴘᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄʜᴇᴡᴇᴅ ꜰᴏʀ ʙᴀʙʏ ʙɪʀᴅs)

I. Glimpses of Violence and Desire

1.A A B A A START This poem uses stark imagery and fragmented language to evoke themes of aggression, control, and the objectification of beauty. It references Jack Ruby, blurring the lines between art, violence, and celebrity.

2.OPEN SIX OF ME A darkly playful piece inviting the reader into a world of performance and transformation, hinting at themes of death, sexuality, and identity.

II. Portraits of Fear and Mortality

3.SCARE ALL A brutal and visceral account of a young man's death, exploring themes of fear, rebellion, and the fleeting nature of life.

4.MR. BLACKWELL A short, enigmatic character sketch of a stylish figure trapped in a cycle of self-destruction, suggesting themes of loneliness and societal facade.

III. The Undercurrents of Language and Thought

5.SUBVOCAL LAVA VOLTAGE (OLD COAT MOLTING) A poem exploring the power of unspoken thoughts and the dangerous potential of language, invoking imagery of heat, constraint, and transformation.

6.DOZEN ON A DOZEN'S A HUNNERD FORTY-FOUR A-BUZZIN' A disjointed piece capturing the hazy state of intoxication and denial, playing with language and repetition to create a sense of disorientation.

IV. Dreams, Schemes, and the Pursuit of Wealth

7.HOW KEVIN AND ENRIQUE GOT RICH WAS A fragment of dialogue capturing a fleeting moment of intoxicated inspiration, hinting at the entrepreneurial spirit and the search for unconventional success.

9.NEW SCAMS FOR ADVANCED IMPOSTORS A cynical and satirical exploration of identity and self-invention in a world saturated with performance, questioning the meaning of authenticity and the hollowness of external validation.

V. Spiritual Decay and the Commodification of Belief

8.WHORISH HOUNGAN A repetitive and evocative piece, playing with the word "hangover" to suggest themes of spiritual emptiness, addiction, and the weight of past actions.

10.WHISPER NETWORKS (SANTA ANA SINISTER) A brief anecdote highlighting the disillusionment with a former acquaintance who has become a "plastic shaman," commenting on the exploitation of spirituality for profit.

VI. Aesthetics of Darkness and Transformation

11.REVERSE CALF/BLACK JET A series of evocative fragments centered around the image of "black jet," suggesting themes of darkness, death, and the allure of a transformative experience.

VII. The Gaze and the Performance of Gender

12.SCANNING A detailed and voyeuristic inventory of observed bodies and clothing choices, blurring the lines between genders and exploring the power dynamics of the gaze.

VIII. The Distortion of Self in the Digital Age

13.SHOT/REVERSE A glimpse into the world of online pornography and the anxieties of self-presentation, exposing the vulnerability and the calculated artifice behind the screen.

IX. The Curse of the Dispossessed

14.THOU ART CURSED ABOVE ALL CATTLE A powerful declaration of self-identification as an outsider, "Jumbo Mortgage," a figure of ruin and despair who stands apart from conventional society. The piece ends with a cryptic message and the author's signature, leaving the reader with a sense of unease and a lingering question about the nature of the curse.

✦ Lost Eros, CA, Nov 2024.