the prolific wonderful small-press [is there any other kind?] poet doug draime died in 2015.  my brother in rhyme jonathan hayes & i dedicated our anthology of haiku ah: american haiku [mondo edition; 2019] to doug who passed away as we were assembling the first edition of the book.  doug wrote in many forms, including haiku, but his favored poetics is a rough-hewn lyric that explored the marginalized & neglected parts of our society.  as i said, doug draime was a prolific writer who published many many books, chaps & broadsides.  but this is a time that demands a digital presence for all especially any creatives such as poets.  i'm all in & keen for digital publishing & social media.  we are all connected via our computers & smart phones on the interwebs.  so it is very welcome to have a digital platform for the poetry of doug draime.  here you will find his poems as well as links to purchase his books [for even in our digital age we still love our hardcopies!].  i have put doug's website in the links section of this blog.  but if you would rather please click below & discover the poet doug draime.

                                     doug draime

i am awake & not awake


today doing chores including working
in the garden where my allergies
attacked me so severely
i needed to put on my covid19 mask

it worked
the sneezing abated & i felt the world
thru my lungs

strange things i have seen

at home depot a man wearing a suit buying an ax

on northgate blvd a man & woman
proselytizing the end times for jesus
because we are sinners
& the pandemic is punishment from god

how we have so quickly adapted to lockdown
wearing masks
standing at least 2 meters apart from each other
plexiglass barriers at points of sale

this century has seen a world changing crisis
every 10 years or so

what next
alien invasion?

i want to say hey to all my brothers & sisters
& non-binaries out there
in the art & in life

if i haven't reached out to you
know that each of you
[you know who you are]
i am giving you all my love

if we band together
as a species
we might make it out of this mess

absolute music

one of the most beautiful voices in pop music [my humble opion]

[fyi: filmmaker mick garris used this song in a scene of his own adaptation of another story about pandemic, stephen king's The Stand]

put this on my tombstone

  

HERE LIES THE POET RICHARD LOPEZ

LOVING FATHER OF NICHOLAS

LOVING HUSBAND OF ANNA

HE LIVED AS HE LOVED

HIS FAVORITE BAND WAS SOCIAL DISTORTION

shooting script: zombie pandemic lockdown


fade in

a group of two hundred protesters gather outside the state capital.  many are standing closely together.  most are wearing casual street clothes.  a few are clad in protective body armor & n95 surgical masks.  some carry signs that signal their anger at the government.  a reporter approaches an unmasked protester wearing a hoodie, jeans & running shoes.

a distance away from the protest are the sounds of roaring, moaning, growling, & howling  

reporter:  can i ask you a few questions?  you are not worried about the zombie pandemic?

protester: i haven't seen a zombie, my family & friends are not zombies, i'm not a zombie.  i think the mainstream media blown up the zombie pandemic out of all proportion & forced the economy to shut down

reporter: you don't think that the zombie pandemic is wreaking hell all around the globe?.  you don't see the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dead & infected & those numbers are growing exponentially?  soon the numbers of dead & infected will be in the millions?

protester:  it looks like hell in china & italy & nyc, but that's way over there.  nothing is happening in my life.  i don't see no zombies around here today

reporter: why are you here?  what is it that you do want?  

protester: i want to show that they can't take away my freedom.  i want to show the zombie virus pandemic i don't believe in it.  it's just the flu.  the flu killed more people last year than zombies.  i want the government to reopen the economy

the sounds of roaring, moaning, growling & howling moving a little closer

fade out

lust, hunger & desire
for tom beckett

spring evening cats throw their bodies
against the window

for two yummy hummingbirds
bathing in the fountain

happy easter 2020

 

the drive-in movie of my heart
for alex g, john b-r & jonathan hayes

a week or so in the lockdown anna texted me a link
to a story about drive-in theaters finding their second wind
in the pandemic / it follows that we need to isolate ourselves
from each other but we can't help but be social creatures
furthermore we are storytelling animals & we love nothing
more than watching a really bad movie / where can you find
all these conditions ripe for a distant social movie going experience
but at a drive-in theater if one is still open in your area

that was about a month ago when the occasions of lockdown
felt unreal & that somehow we would snap back to the comforts
of what-we-know but many things have changed / more businesses
have closed & we have adapted so well & so quickly to this new normal
that the relative safety of movie going seems like a distant luxury
& still i feel the sting of that which pierces the drive-in movie of my heart

zigzagging in the apocalypse

the days bleed into each other when i am working from home

i haven't lost track of my schedule necessary for my job

but i have lost track of the day thinking it's tuesday when it is wednesday

that sort of thing happens

but i have to go in to the office once or twice a week

& i have an opportunity to see the conditions of my beloved city

most business are closed & the streets are mostly empty of traffic & pedestrians

at least in the morning they are & still there are people out

walking themselves & their dogs or just hanging out in clusters

clusters!  what the fuck!

so i have to zigzag thru the streets doing what i can to avoid them

& they are doing the same

there has been more than one occasion when i get that look

from someone walking their dog

what the fuck does he think he's doing walking out here all by himself

& yet it is hard to avoid people for we are so sociable animals

how could it not be hard when what we did as normal a couple months ago

is now a potential vector for the virus

& people are taking the pandemic seriously grave

many of the restaurants have converted to take out only

all of these eateries have developed protocols to keep customers at least 6 ft apart

one such popular cocina set up barriers between staff & customers

that shouting for the food is necessary

how we have changed so quickly

that i wonder how we might snap back again to what we once knew as normal

like tonight when i shopped at Safeway

was turned over & many shelves were bare of products

that i worry that this is the new normal

scarcity & want from need like needing a roll of TP

& not finding it

the bubble of abundance now permanently burst

or could we snap back into what was normal a few months ago

i have no crystal ball but rather i can act within the circumstances given me

& i am still in search of a couple rolls of TP
 

grand ol' men of letters on a sunday afternoon

 

portrait of the poet in a pandemic

 

live blogging starship troopers [1997]

the troops just landing on the bug planet & are getting their asses kicked by the bugs.   but what i don't understand is why the Fed Govt. doesn't just nuke the bug planet from orbit, just to be sure.  why land & sacrifice lives as human beings use their advanced technology on very aggressive but yet unarmed insects?

i've never read the source novel by robert a. heinlein.  i tried reading A Stranger in a Strange Land when i was a wee lad but couldn't get thru it.  i place all the blame on me.

now the troops are back on board their ships licking their wounds & reading the long list of their dead.  the music is somber & elegiac.

heinlein created a militaristic fascist world government one where young people can only become citizens if they serve in the military.

there is an ambient cruelty in this flick.  starting from the media coverage [earlier a condemned criminal's execution was advertised on TV for all networks to broadcast] to our heroes' bootcamp training where the DI smashes faces & breaks the arms of his recruits.

the troops returned to bug planet & vow vengeance!

again, why not just nuke bug planet for orbit, just to be sure?  heinlein was a hard science fiction writer so why not use nukes?

well, of course in this world people are as cheap as toilet paper so maybe nukes are expense & human life is cheap.

the bugs are pretty pissed & have innate bio-weapons like the ability to spit acid so the fight is pretty tough.

but really, machine guns vs. bugs?  & the bugs are giving the machine guns a run for its money?  really?!

so the troops have won a battle.  it's party time!!!  beer & steaks for everyone!!!

this is so american, as in old time classic western movies american, that there is even fiddle music playing at the celebration.

i know this is a prelude to some bad shit that is about to happen.

could this be the hero's journey as detailed by joseph campbell.  our hero, johny rico, played by casper van diem, had to reject home & hearth to enroll in the Fed Govt's military & he proves himself to be a natural leader.  am i expected to watch this story thru his eyes?  really?!

because he was told after a night of partying & lovemaking that he is gonna lead a troop on a dangerous mission on the bug planet!

i feel like beckett: i can't go on [watching this movie] i must go on [watching this movie].

what?! the bugs can fly?  these troops are fucked!!!

the troops are making a stand at their base under attack by land bugs & flying bugs.

this is kind of like a zombie movie.  i mean zombies are just malevolent bags of meat with teeth.  they win because of the size of their numbers.  these bugs too.  there are more bugs than there are guns & troops.

the troops are retreating.  they are outnumbered.

i am no military thinker but i would consider, if i were the soldiers, to take their assault to the skies & carpet bomb these bugs to the back of beyond.

it is wrong to root for the bugs?  the Fed Govt. did land on their planet.  well, the bugs did launch an earlier attack on beunos aires & destroyed the entire home town of johnny rico.

holy shit.  rico's lover just died from her bug caused wounds.

rico is at his lover's burial ceremony & giving the official definition of the difference between a citizen & a civilian.  i guess the citizen is the grunt who does the dying for the government.

rico is given command of fresh troops.  oh it is on like donkey kong!  he just gave his st. crispin day speech.  watch out bugs!

the bugs have a different theory.  they can launch their bio weapons, summoned by their thoraxes, like missiles into space.  the Fed Govt's orbiting ships are taking heavy casualties.

denise richards is a command pilot?  & a badass?  goddamn, i've been watching this flick for over an hour & i just noticed this fact.  or maybe i haven't been paying that great of attention.  but richards is not the epitome of kickass soldier.

well, she & her colleague patrick muldoon have just been taken prisoner by the bugs.  to become egg laying sacks for the bugs?

something like that.  muldoon's head's been pierced by the queen bug & she seems to be digging his brains.

but rico saved richards.  by some device that he held that made the bugs retreat.  i could rewind the movie to know what the hell he held in his hand, but why bother.

in all that excitement & richards saving rico & his troops have won the day.  they have queen bug in a net.

they call the queen bug the brain bug & is studying it to know the bugs' weaknesses.  & the media is using the victory as recruiting propaganda.

& that's it.  the movie ends.

i remember this movie was released when i just started grad school.  i was looking forward to seeing it.  but i didn't at the time.  it's been on TV a bunch of times.  but i haven't watched it to its finish until tonight.

i wouldn't say it was a job well done.