Sommerville, Not Bad

I was lost in Sommerville the other night. Walking around in circles. When I asked a couple on a porch for directions, they invited me to join them for beer and mashed potatoes from their spud bar. I shared my whiskey with them and they called me a poet.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone when I was lost:

Dear Dr. Dearborn-

Duty means you lose latitude like I learn skywatching. What we weave leaves wonder even. Ever vent over violence? Video-bingo? Bring it. Ring it in writing. Tighten the tongue, the younger wonder. Do worry, darling. Harm hath the hot harbor. Boring beings score scabies, scamming babies. Fables fall following fall for all calling allowances concerning waining cable pay-per-view programs. Granted-- progress greased gross products, but grievances butter ballots almost like almonds demand maintenance. Perchance people change angles gleefully. Glances fully glare loose stares. Starving hearts are helping singers bring sous-chefs Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos, Tostinos, Tecate, television and table-placings piercing Totinos Party Pizza. Hearty sleazes have heaved heavily. Help!

Whole Heartedly,

Hannah

Sept 8th List

I picked a bad time and I can't help.

I don't live walking over the bridge anymore now.

Now that life is completely digital the sky is really fucking clear but when it's blue it too blue. Most of the time shit is just overexposed and white.

We live in a place where our neighbors aren't our neighbors.

I'm not crazy for believing in earthquakes.

How long does it take a man to realize that he is his best beast.

Sometimes I joke about having a magic carpet, but i really do wish I had one.

Too many people say “good shit.” Good shit does not exist unless it comes out of my ass.

I live pacing one way over the same foot.

Labor Dub

Tomorrow this chair is filled. I'll savour this final day of Unemployment Summer.

Kitty Car Alarm

Her ceaseless meowing keeps me up throughout the night. Who is in charge? Maybe I should thank her: now I will remember dreams of daydrinking with new friends in my childhood room.

Fountains and Squares

How many would meet you by the fountain in the square if it was actually there. There are so many of these and never enough. An after hours beer outside of your apartment when the dogs and their owners are sleeping. A cigarette after you quit smoking. And of course, your feet with the pennies on a hot day.

Peter Pan Bonanza

Sometimes going far can get you
it did last week lost inside each
other wrote ourselves outta there
how can a bus full of gaming trivia
and dunkin’ mcdonalds go away
from anything when it’s there again
when every newspaper reads
multinational bloods and crips with
red, white and blue as something separate
we drink and write not about it while
always writing about it
hit me in the head with a pun or
a beer bottle or anything but me or them
it’s five o’clock somewhere bulldozers
mass burial party lots of skin
we sleep it off for a new headache
and stay right
where we are because there are
always girls and music

Back to Boston

I've returned from a city where I couldn't understand the language to a city where I can't understand the people.

Montreal 3

Montreal 2

Montreal

When you open up so much that it's not real any more, it's time to run out of whiskey and go home.

The New Year

My ears are still ringing. Ringing so good. See these guys if you get a chance. Well worth it.

An early start is rarely
never again will aging
act as attention pay losing
science youth save time
waste paper fool foil

HOMEWOOD SUITES

You only really wake up
in hotels
when you sleep in them
they're not free.
You know all the channels
on the cable television by heart.
Sometimes you need ice so
you can fill the sink with beer
and where you think you are when you wake up
is a hotel
you woke up in once
or twice
you went to sleep
a few minutes before the end of Knight Rider
and all of a sudden you're here.

-Dan Wooldridge
from Unemployment Sunday

UNEMPLOYMENT SUNDAY now available

a chapbook by Tyson Nichols and Dan Wooldridge

for a free copy send your address to tenichols(at)gmail(dot)com

Dirkon Pinhole Camera

My paper pinhole camera. It was fun to make and take pictures with, but none of them came out -- they were all grossly overexposed.

I followed the directions from the plans, which also give a brief history of the camera's eastern block origins. My modifications came in the form of the green electrical tape (for durability and to keep out light), the Crown Royal bag lining instead of black velvet -- from a "haberdasher" -- as suggested in the instructions (I've always preferred Crown Royal to Black Velevet), a piece from a beercan to make the pinhole (instead of paper), and the film-cap base which I screwed a mini-tripod into. Also, I didn't attach the fake buttons or some of the other showy parts because I didn't want them to interfere with my tape job.

Here is where I think I went wrong:
1. I probably should have pasted black construction paper to the cardstock before I cut out the camera to prevent unwanted light from entering the camera.
2. I think my pinhole could have been smaller. Next time I probably won't stick the sewing needle all the way through the beer can, I will just use the tip.
3. On my first roll (of two), something was sketchy with the advancer. You really need to make sure you feel a snug tension while the film slides out of the full roll into the empty roll.

I'll probably make another, but I might be over it. There is a cigar box on my shelf that looks like a prime candidate for medium format film...

CRESTING CRUST

sometimes always attracted to the park
shady afternoons, nightly nights
more and more mornings end up in here

from late lollygagging to work walks and
sleeping pass out pad bjs stop for this
now it's

sod sofa or choose the bench or
sink feet sink graveyard 1 grave
11,000 in 1 city block sing
about gallows and these trees

we just drink Powers and pricy
micro brews no libations anymore all
they were was poor or whores or homeless

but we have digital devices make us
look like ghosts new images
for myspace profiles

Silver Jews in Cambridge

Part of "How to Rent a Room." Sorry about the filming and the quality. I cared more about enjoying it while it was happening than I cared about documenting it.

Journal: 3/9

I type less letters in a moment every day.

That’s what you told me.

They all say their fingers are flaking off and I see a cloudless sky.

Will poems get shorter as commercial breaks get stronger?

Lucky for me, the new music I hear sounds really good right now.

It must be really good.

One of those weeks and jumped from Monday to Thursday.

I feel like I’m drinking.

Maybe it sounds so good because they both use too much reverb.

Sitting back instead of typing.

It’s only coffee—cheaper.

My window is almost made of bricks except for the sky.

And space.

This isn’t 20 lines.