How many smokes have I burned
since I wrote my first rhyming words
and attempted to call them poetry?
They seem to burn down so quickly
when you get to getting on a roll.
Sitting abandoned...
...on my lips
...between my fingers
...smoldering in forgotten ashtrays
...and burning holes in my clothes
I’d venture to say
hundreds times thousands...
Eleven-thousand-seven-hundred & seventy
I tell ya’
there’s just nothing like it,
sitting back,
flickin’ my generic bic...
scratching my head
and taking a drag while
scratching a word
and taking a drag that’s
scratching the surface
and taking a drag it’s
scratching that itch
and taking a drag
Then I realize
as I squint thru smoky filmed eyes
that I am done writing
right on time with my smoke
and alas
another crappy poem is born
as the crumpled butt dies
crushed
in an overflowing
stolen hotel ashtray
by Johnny Olson
Born and raised in Chicago, lost and found in Dallas, and currently on a swirling journey as an autodidactical painter, poet and writer. Johnny is also the mad editor, webmaster and host of MadSwirl.
SUBMISSION POLICY
Poetry (any form or style) and Micro or Flash Fictions wanted for an anthology on SMOKE. Not just the black clouds rising from the five-alarm fire next door, or the billowing plumes of smoke warning us of a forest fire, or the emissions from factory smoke stacks, apartment house incinerators, and crematoriums, smoke rings rise from cigarettes, smoke pours out of headshops, pipe shops & cigar stores--see that purple haze rising over the fields of poppies and marijuana we just planted--we've used it to communicate via smoke signals and skywriting, to cover our tracks and disappear with and without mirrors, combat the enemy on and off the battlefield, kill bugs, flavor food, cure illness, declare peace treaties, and fragrance our homes. Got the idea? Release it onto the page.
Guidelines: Submit up to three poems/micro fictions or two flash fictions at a time with a fascinating bio of 35 words or less, not just limited to publication credits, copy/pasted in the body of an e-mail (no attachments, please) to roxy533 at yahoo dot com & violetwrites at nyc dot rr dot com. We will also entertain up to six one-liners or 2 short stand up routines at time. Previously published work is OK as long as authors have retained the copyright, which will be returned to them after publication. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged. If your work is accepted elsewhere, and you still have obtained rights to republish, just let us know where and we'll be happy to acknowledge the other publication.
If you do not receive a response from us within a month of your submission considered it rejected and feel free to submit again. Due to the volume of submissions we cannot respond to each and every individual submission. Selection for the on-line edition are made on a ongoing basis as we receive your submissions. However, final selections for the print edition will made after the October 31st deadline. (In otherwords not everything that made the cut for the online edition will appear in print.) Please do not query. When in doubt, send the submission to roxy533 at yahoo dot com & violetwrites at nyc dot rr dot com.
Friday, March 20, 2009
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I've been there. You reminded me. Thanks. Frank Kelly
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