Channie Greenberg,
Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks:
An Omnibus
excerpts
Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks: An Omnibus Author: Channie Greenberg |
This book contains selected poems from KJ Hannah Greenberg’s first sixteen published poetry collections and art from many of her print and electronically issued images. Some of the poetry and some of the art first appeared in Bewildering Stories. |
Gooey with Clay, Peanut Butter, and Snot: Intergenerational Faceoff
Gooey with clay, peanut butter, and snot, through combinations referencing the
Slippage of lifetimes, Filene’s bargain basement, maybe elegiac costumes, they
Shoved fat fingers into coin returns then scheduled nuptials days later. As well,
Lots erased mementoes of motion picture industry cohorts’ backing, conveyed
Meaning via unanticipated passing, permanent crippling’s amorous encounters.
Midnight reached, cultural mischief approached, alternate vistas on ecstasy essayed,
Their parents reclaimed certain mastery of comings & leavings, returned their space
Invaders games together thru odd, gleaned feelings about borscht, dental floss, life’s
Stations. Devoid of youth’s impunity, elders stopped gliding round written texts and
Inert catastrophes, self-rule’s maniples, albs, drops needing nonage’s waterproofing.
Midlife body parts, no matter how regularly applied, are psychological soap & water.
At best, display as staid responses to goings-on, at worst, as unctuous, non-utilitarian
Kudos to garment industry sorts, to fiduciary whims, to poofed audiences & poodles.
Ritual items, prestigious wares, vengeance agents, headaches; they sift interpersonal,
Sign guest books in permanent marker, hire old-fashioned fountain pens to stimulate.
Elsewhere, fourteen children squeezed together. Some uninhabited sprogs gambolled
Directly to parking meters, whose issue, in order, got insufficiently appreciated when
Divided among those frisky frolickers accustomed to dashing without breakfast.They
Reserved no problems, though, when taking multiple buses to raves and corner stores,
Excepting the fellow whose bed dissolved divers social unions, wiggled group karma.
Seasoned by labor’s measly wages, social climbing’s scant pulp fiction, haemorrhoids,
Folks inimical to tacit civilities, numb to single parenting, ballets’ cost, downers’ grip,
Establish smokestack-belching of pollutants, impede manufacturers’ workers, snigger.
By fifty, linkages stanchion unsustainable hypotheses ’till feuilletons faithfully reflect,
Perform abbreviated work, kickstart wealthy mistresses’ careers, fail, recycle, ever lag.
Ballooning among opined sagacity, exacerbated hormone levels, kindred reality swings,
Such boys & girls pillaged enough comestibles for all hungers, especially of upper legs,
Collar bones, also lanky hair; oral tradition trumps poetic language plus older literature.
Dusk whispered no fresh, superficial lessons in feminism, machismo, gender confusion.
Kids never did, never will feel compelled to stay “wholesome,” “helpless,” “ immobile.”
Poem: “Gooey with Clay, Peanut Butter, and Snot: Intergenerational Faceoff.”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024
and Fluid & Crystallized. Fowlpox Press. 2012.
Art: “Gooey with Clay, Peanut Butter, and Snot: Intergenerational Faceoff2”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024
and as “Crazy Daisies” from Winamop. Apr. 2021.
Mackerel and Chocolate Spread
Compounding weird foods results in marital
Fleering, and, furthermore, in psychedelic
Nightmares.
It’s not that two-headed wildebeests remain
Problematic as much as that losels claim
Real estate.
Don’t eat mackerel and chocolate spread,
Before bed, even if pregnant, especially
If not.
No one gets hanker sores from imagined
Paramours. Properly, their cruses, heps
Are hallucinatory.
Better to nibble at cookies, swallow tepid
Milk, take hot baths than fall to deliria
Sourced from fish and fats.
Poem: “Mackerel and Chocolate Spread.”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024
and Communicated Childbirth Options. Seashell Books, 2023.
Art: “Mackerel and Chocolate Spread”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024
and as “Experiment.” from Yellow Mama. Jun. 2023.
Right Lights of a Copy Machine
Red lights of a copy machine, candles, elevator boxes, cliffs near the ocean,
High school lore, that which sings of gaily trudging toward aromatic plants,
Many years imprisoned via knolls near seafloors forgoing phosphorescence,
Once folks provide craggy stories, rebuffed merit, brandymel, steel-cut oats.
Nepotism in the Old World, protexia in the new, underpaid heroines pursue,
Hence, to integrate unkind mentations into children’s conception of “teens.”
’pity we elect to incline growing up with trilled, doubled jealousy, not verity,
To equip generations with religious items, craft, not farming, tools, or words.
Authenticities suck away courage if creature discourse intensifies cowardice.
Muse over poisonous, emotional quinzhees leaving precious saplings fragile,
Plaintive, melancholic chants discount values except profitable MP4 models,
Desktop microphone broadcasts, mount YouTube miracles & aunties’ purses.
Thursday nights, many souls search spaces for ethically meager, imagined bases,
Spill developmental crawling, dire notices, moral visions, uncomfortable images,
In local dressing rooms, within nursing homes, throughout taverns, airports, jails.
Without strength for stressing socially relevant cognates, “running away” results
In dilemmas; growing older, banking on cab drivers not to exploit fares, mayhap,
Bites of fermented tobacco sucked down alongside of artificially blended shakes.
When magnificent red and gold hues, most frequently associated with billboards,
Arrive at whatever constitutes a new gobsmack, inhabitants numbering hundreds
Scatter dears, aliens, four color prints, or seasonal delights in the queen’s private
Bathroom. Daily doses of manga cure no ills but affix motility to physical ethics,
Especially while instigating strokes, individuals prolix across complaints, distrait
Noises, read aloud out-of-the box outlooks, grievous cheese, negligible reactions.
Poem: “Right Lights of a Copy Machine.”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024
and Rudiments. Seashell Books, 2020.
Art: “Right Lights of a Copy Machine1” as “Unknit.”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024
and Synchronized Chaos. Jul. 2023.
“Right Lights of a Copy Machine2”
Rpt. from Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks, Seashell Books, 2024,
and as “Red Wine and Cyanide” from Yellow Mama. 2024.
Copyright © 2025 by Channie Greenberg
