Sunday, 14 September 2025

Five Poems by Joshua Martin

 






Mum Tanking Billiard Ball Bearings 

 

three puns & parrot obituaries 

stampeding barbwire shrugging wolves 

slurring grocery store monkey moonshine 

departing without resistance inhalation 

hurray for good riddance drilling pints 

racing against aftershock televised hot dogs 

formerly a beer gut mathematical bullwhip 

dressed in typeface gutter denial chateaus 

a merry-go-round template of a stalling 

alongside geothermal nose onion caterpillars 

wrapped & futuristic & blessed as a timebomb 

horn-rimmed jumpsuit shingles 

picking tortoise playgrounds like halitosis 

a little further trapezoid tea party serenade 

munch-munch-munch kangaroo relegation 

shortly blamed exotic fog machine tomes 

an assignation mindfully rancid in tree form 

archaically full-sized though vexing wallpaper 

twenty-years reflected in a shoebox pinwheel 

attempting flattering fountains of taco quarantine 

seen jutting & scratching & hollowed like an oasis 

pouring subjective snails into a blender 

where the annex slaps sausage lightbulbs 

recording incognito orange pork climbing pores 

through glassy-eyed gorilla kissing mosaics 

borrowing champagne crudeness below grade 

prisoners as delusional electoral dictionaries 

enveloped in an imbalanced tomato virus 

it all falls inwardly like a cacophonous canopy 

turning round & round until tunnels ripen 

 

 

 

 

deft billowing toupee mockery 

 

beach sedan circus cleaver 

empty silk naval mushroom 

sleepwalking measles bend 

teary of course organs 

incompletely cosmic Dodo  

resigning salon stratagem 

fetching sundry accents 

humiliation purification drums 

anthill sacrilege poodle 

cyclone represents cubism 

melting trapdoor element 

elephant in a coma 

recorded commune DNA 

knackered hunger skins 

flinty scorpion species 

gloom in bloom in June 

idealistic ozone plaques 

vibratory wooden acropolis 

opaque languid puppets 

fall compelling fatigue 

bare the intoxicated ennui 

hot air balloon diatribe cushion 

common comic pathways 

stroke roast lackeys 

left abrupt hatchet contours 

treasured criminal quotations 

steal flighty thin wrestler 

decent opposition buttocks 

independent muscle stools 

shattering rhyming exhibitions 

rendered headless hyperbole 

no-whim-no-shoe-no-commercials

 

 

 

 

Ambushed Vaporous Scolding Noisy Delirium 

 

tender diseased hoofs describe morphine water jugs 

teetering like a crawling immune system dime 

cushioned against a droll revolver skyscraper village 

given to impresario draperies 

then the kneeling lampshades devour luminous petticoats 

drunk on hacking chessboard larynx ribbons 

chasing telephonic jawbone chalkboard horoscopes 

finely tuned as in simultaneous sandwich cigarettes 

so bored that cannibals relent with sparkling chrome 

twiddling earthy vacuum crescendos  

at last a cosmic perversity t-shirt pimple 

reconstructed in fig-like manneristic brutality 

devoted a celebratory aversion 

fried and baroque and framed skeletal tambourine decomposition 

somehow less influential than celebrity celery 

though temperamentally furniture 

centuries oozing hammocks of scabs 

clearly porous in train track voyages 

a lasso of a terrain of a bubbling eucalyptus proverb 

although skin diving like cantaloupe blueprints 

fists shoved into squirming church pew oinking 

neither immortal nor concise nor the staccato dresser drawers 

then an injury combover judgmental tenderness 

disclosed in physiological grasshopper approximation 

squeamish swift debauchery livewire aquariums 

covered in mutating stomach reservations 

then the knives disappear empty as a hedgehog pheasant 

whistling Modesty Blaise tabernacle latrines 

polishing tooth manipulation adoration sucker punching guts 

ugly and spinning and pouring empty gazes into sprained photographic squalor 

 

 

 

 

lifting. sifting. dragging puzzled footnotes 

 

revolver hotel sinking underground shopping spree. vivid fable. overtaken rideshare vibrator frequency. mention stingray to receive 20% off. brain sandwich dysfunction. propositional temptations yield circumcised hinges. before oxygen and after guillotine handshakes. other side of the carpet rodeo broth arises from the effortless fin-de-siecle fins. negative exertion purification. sleuth a considerable t-bone milkmaid. all these magnetic schisms spell currency space heaters. developmental shock value monopolies. all relative vegetative wristwatch typhoons thrusting parking lot criminal activity. carriage. carriage. set-up. bomb squad regurgitation doctor’s visit embarrassing a biblical disintegration method. measure. whiplash lindy hop. soaring peace talk dungeon zoom. poke. sucker punch in modest shrinkage. beach towel s&m heart attack maps. maketh chemistry bodkin assemblage specializations. tribal to the point of porous parapets shirking responsibility. management zit valves. jukebox stooges. thrice shivering turnip vest. must a vein rupture in assisted suicide x-ray palm trees? runt. punt. stevedore until reaching mammoth posterity injections. another punch. running in place. cardio mischief. hunger comedian dancing in a blimp. braided handlebar vinyl demarcation. in chaos we trust. coconut diversion. thorax in willful obscurity. 

 

 

 

 

Slink and Dribble in the Hazy Beaver Mist 

 

Chrome induced a shallow yeti 

explaining kitschy salmon cubes 

to underrated fizzling nobs: 

 

graced, shorn, lambs dressed in 

funereal real estate opportunism 

dangle puzzle pieces over trampoline 

martini scar tissue gall bladder: 

 

tadpole or the disc jockey running 

amuck though village squares armed 

with a radioactive heat pump? 

 

welts of greedy birdhouse analogies 

descend upon hopium cultural 

diplomacy channel surfers at 

various stages of drowning plea 

bargain masturbatory disadvantage: 

 

scream, a scammer building advice  

columns out of whalebones while cellars 

drift through cosmic dairy debris armed 

for the hostile takeover of kilt factories: 

 

if tides pool resourceful scum buckets 

then why do all manner of toupees 

fear the economic implications of 

synthetic ice cubes? 

 

bald sympathy cards dwelling beneath 

inferiority complex jaw stretched until 

thinned like a kangaroo eating bowls 

of wilted cherry popsicle despair: 

 

one curfew stigma sets in the clutching 

vice of memory unfolds a burning locket 

of criminal neglect upon a sun-spotted 

dental hygienist longing for something 

more than a job security goalpost cult 

of empire










Joshua Martin is a Philadelphia based writer and filmmaker, who currently works in a library. He is a member of C22, an experimental writing collective. He is the author most recently of the books Approximate Preparation for Cannibalistic Symphonies (C22 Press), isolated version of nexus (Pere Ube), and lung f,r,a,g,m,e,n,t,s before grazing *asterisk* (Moria Poetry). He has had numerous pieces published in various journals. You can find links to his published work at joshuamartinwriting.blogspot.com 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Five Poems by Jim Murdoch

  The Road Not Taken      (after Frost)      I took a road    although in fairness   the road took me.      I meant to choose   the choice r...