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content warning: this poem contains mentions of extremist ideology

UPON AN UNEXPECTED GRAFFITO

​

Jacob Walhout

PROCESS

Just to riff and spin around


No wonder
 

The pixar lamp
but bent up
like an animal
caught in the act

 

Blasted microphones
find strange glee
in me


#QANON scrawled on a paper towel dispenser


Pert (jaunty, neat, chic, trim, stylish, smart, perky, rakish, natty, sassy)
means not even close to what I thought


I get balled up sometimes


No chunter


As in the feeling
of clenching
when I play Vivaldi wrong and dad yells


I’ll get bald up sometime


My worst somatic horror
is teeth or fingernails


Swung nonstop
between bleeding out on the page and
starving it until it
gives me sympathy


Like the swing between


teeth or fingernails

growing where
they should not


As in the feeling of
flapped palm skin
when I play Beethoven wrong and dad yells


Bad commercials
find strange bees
in me


The pixar lamp
but straight backed
like an animal
on a spit


I get tensed up
sometimes frozen


#QANON dragged across a toilet seat


Just to laugh and
pin a sound


No luster


The pixar lamp
but lubed up
like a wheel
after grousing in the cold


Aux cords
find strange few
in you


#QANON stamped on branded toilet paper


Great (prominent, eminent, important, distinguished, illustrious, celebrated, honored, acclaimed,

admired, esteemed, revered, renowned, notable, famous, famed, well known, leading, top, major, principal, first-rate, matchless, peerless, star)

means not even close to what I thought

​

I get shawled up sometimes


No worries


As in the feeling of
utter failure
when you play Tchaikovsky wrong and I yell


I’ll get hauled off sometime


My deepest chemical horror
is eternity and myself


are eternity and myself


Hung nonstop
between pledging allegiance to the page and
waterboarding it until
it leaks information


Like the hung between


plants or animals
dying where
they should not


As in the feeling of
getting punched by a punching bag
when you play Dvorak wrong and I yell


Bad art
makes strange pleas
of me


The pixar lamp
but eyeless weeping
like Polyphemus
pink CGI water


I get dressed up

sometimes and
starched


#QANON forced through a small hole

Jacob Walhout

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