Direction

Specificity is 
not required. 

Vague words, 
curtailed gest-

ures, the new 
moon pregnant 

with the old. 
Enough to 

point a rough 
but ready way.


Glueless

Postered walls. A
kind of transient lounge
for those who came
through, never stayed
to see their presence
over-written. The
blindness of history.

 
penumbra

That was the part that
always passed him
by. The moment when
things changed, when 
current became previous. 

He missed the nuances. 
Failed to realize that the 
shifts in light that came
& went were not simply
movements of the sun.


L'Avventura

& then he made
or jotted down or
maybe just thought 
a few words about
this movie in which the
leading lady vanishes 
part way through,
with the rest of the
film given over to a 

futile search for her. 
But when he left the 
cinema he found all
of his words had 
disappeared & no 
matter how hard he 
tried to recall them
on the way home,
they never came back

Clubbed clubbing

A chick band dance-
mix of "If You Could

Read My Mind" slaps
my face as I enter. De-

sensitized, sanitized,
stripped to the bone &

machine polished to the
point where the body

the skeleton belongs to
is barely recognizable.

 
What would chaos do?

Counter-
productive. He
held out his hand
to entropy &

had his fingers
bitten off. Now
he can no longer
hold out his

begging bowl,
& the ground's
too unstable to
rest it there.
 
Sometimes the results are pleasing

A Swedish botanist found 
a cardigan amongst 
some neglected fruit trees. 

Trimmed in black, it bore 
a skull & crossbones 
insignia, & was buttoned

up on the wrong side. She
theorized this latter aspect
might present a unique 

approach to a timeless prob-
lem, how to fit round 
poems into square books.

 
Your / expressions of / interest are most welcome

That water festival is almost
here. The property is known 

to contain pigeon lofts & new 
electoral reforms, a World War

II flu vaccination campaign, 
& several 1800s stables. It's ex-

pected some temperature records 
will almost certainly be broken.

from 100 Titles from Tom Beckett:

#84: Whose Skin Might This Be?

To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength.

Charles Handy

Alcohol acts as a sedative. Hormones

die down, dopamine starts to fire. I am

more relaxed, sorting out in my mind

the more meaningful aspects of my life

by writing down notes about them even

though I do not process language by an

analysis of its grammatical categories.

Our personalities, the environments

that nurture us, make us who we are.

Character has an inherently moral cast.

That an assassin has their own moral

code is something few people talk about.

To be comfortable in someone else’s

skin is the beginning of compassion.

#85: Scanning Barcodes

starts a new life of piety & righteousness

can put a child in serious danger of injury or unnecessary medical care

sometimes makes an individual decide to perpetrate a sexual crime on another person

makes some people say they feel exhausted & sad after doing it

makes other people turn to pornography to self soothe their anxiety or depression

is generally associated in the Western world with Right-wing populism

can cause your body to release a number of hormones

may cause inflammation of the pancreas

is a pejorative label used to discriminate against “new religious movements”

helps dogs to develop patience

causes your tyres to wear down more quickly

kills more than 480,000 people in the U.S. each year

will not lead to blindness

Note: The poem ‘Scanning Barcodes’ has appeared previously in Scud. Our thanks for permission to include it here.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a tracking
cookie. I don't
mind it

following me
around the
house, but I
hate the crumbs
it leaves behind.

∆

Today the post-
woman brought
me the end

of the world. It
whimpered at
me. Goddamned

Preacher! Spoilt
things for all us
pyrotechnicians.

∆

Today the post-
woman brought
me a refugee

camp. “What’s
this?” I asked
her. “It’s the cast-

off thousands you
said you wanted,”
she replied.

∆
 
Today the post-
woman brought 

me The City That
Never Sleeps. "I'm

here for some R&R,"
it said; & promptly

crashed out on the
La-Z-Boy in the front

room where it's
been snoring for

the last four hours.

∆

Today the post-
woman brought
me a compendium
of investigative 

studies by Shop-
Wiki & others 
that report an
average of 13 

people per year 
are killed by over-
tipping vending 
machines but less

that one every
two years is
killed by under-
tipping a waiter. 

∆
 
Today the post-
woman brought
me some ephemera—
at least that's 

what the customs
declaration on the
empty box said
was in it.

∆

Today the post-
woman brought
me a letter 
for Abraham 
Lincoln. He's here

only during the
winter months
so I sent it on,
c/o his Gettys-
burg address.

∆

Some geographies:

Batangas 

Only an exceptional lawyer,
with a strong resemblance
to motor Jacksonian epilepsy

& a somewhat heavier bass-
line trailing behind them, can
perform a confident victory lap

without slamming the putter
back into the bag & stewing on
their flight back from Manila.


Gabès

Candy may be hard
to find in the fast-
food franchises built
by the former colonial
government in the
airport terminal, but,
thanks to the U.S.
military intelligence
supplying them in
an electronic format,
pretzels are plentiful. 


Palembang

Scotch whisky — or was
it Irish? Or both? — is
said to be enhanced by
distilling it over burning
peat. Here peatland fire
is given as a reason why
not to visit the city. Not

always so. Yijing, a 7th-
century Chinese monk, came
back from a six month stay
excited by the plethora of
electronic billboards, & how
they scraped the sky. Little
heard from him after that.

Rumor has it the Dutch East
India Company obtained
his silence by promising him
the royalties from any future
use of that sky-scraping word
along with a speaking part in the
upcoming Blade Runner movie. 


Balikpapan

There was a pig tied up in 
a corner. A toddler was tied 
up on several pieces of board 
in a state of lying. How dare 
they say there was no evidence 
of white supremacy? My brain 
keeps running a marathon. The 
frontal lobes eventually get 
overloaded. We can't easily
make these problems go
away. Instead of dinner 
with a big group we have 
Zoom & cookies. It is so tiring.


Jezqazǵan

A quick snack is all the guide-
books say you can find here.
They suggest you go some-
where else, to a nearby city
perhaps, if you're looking for 
memorable moments. Maybe 
that's why the Soyuz rocket
of expedition 49 landed near- 

by, to relax "in a remote region 
in Kazakhstan" after the hustle 
& bustle of space. It was my
75th birthday. If I'd known they
were going to be around, I
would have invited them along.
 

Cork

Only infections 
acquired after surgery 
can dominate the 

men's 400m hurdles
& remove all un-
necessary programs 

in the expansive & 
expanding field 
of Irish studies.


Bayanbulag

It may be tucked away in 
a dark graffiti-covered alley
but you can often find out 

what yurts are currently 
on the market or what the 
relationship is between 

nutritional status & motor 
development by following 
the many conversations on 

religion & culture that occur 
in the manicured gardens of
the Divine Word University.