,,ggddY""""Ybbgg,, ,agd""' `""bg, T H E N E O - C O M I N T E R N ,gdP" "Ybg, ,dP" ""` ,dP" _,,ddP"""Ybb,,_ .s*""*s .s*"*s. ,8" .+$ '""' `"Yb, .P' $ `.d' `b ,8' .+$$$$ssss+. sssss "'d' .sssP d' `b db. ,8' .+$$$$$$$$$$$$$$+. $$$$$ d' ,P' d' s*s $ d' `b d.+$$$$$$$$$$$$$$`*$$$$+.$$$$$$$$$ $ :$ d'.P .Pd' $ _ 8`*$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ o`*$$$$$$$$ T. `b. :$ TsP .Pd' $ .+P"*+. 8 `*$$$$$$$$$$$ OOb.`*$$$$$ T. `^**sT. .Pd' . $ .+P' :P 8 `*$$$$ YOOOObooi `b. $ T. .P'd' .P $P' .P' 8 `*$ "OQQQO" `TsggsP `TssP' d' .PT. . .P' Y, i. aP ,P d .P :$b+.d' .P' `8, "Ya aP" ,8' d; .P .d' .P' `8, "Yb,_ _,dP" ,8' `*TP .d' .P' `8a `""YbbgggddP""' a8' d; .P' `Yba adP' `*TP' "Yba adY" `"Yba, ,adP"' `"Y8ba, ,ad8P"' E L E C T R O N I C M A G A Z I N E ``""YYbaaadPP""'' .-. t h e l i t e r a r y m o l o t o v c o c k t a i l .-. / \ .-. .-. / \ / \ / \ .-. _ .-. / \ / \ `-------\-------/-----\-----/---\---/-\---/---\-----/-----\-------/-------' \ / \ / `-' `-' \ / \ / \ / `-' `-' \ / `-' I N S T A L L M E N T N U M B E R 2 6 5 `-' N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 3 A D A , G U E S T E D I T O R FEATURED IN THIS INSTALLMENT: Haiku series #1 - Heckat Halloween Party - Anomie the fox and the sour grapes - Ahmed Balfouni A Ghazal from, Bribs - BMC you are a warm rock - linear arithmetic - Rank Swiney In the Barracks - Melatonin Manifesto - oven what happened in edmonton - ada _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ GUEST EDITOR'S NOTE (congratulations n-com on the first national november n-com poetry month!!! and yes, read on my friends, read on) I found something on my desk that I'd like to share with you. It was a tiny curled shell, a fossil, lying there on one of my books. I'm not sure why, but I found it especially significant. Are you with me? Are you joining me in the here and now? Today I wanted to tell you about what it's like to have sex with an artist. It's not as though there was anything running away from me, but I just had to, had to know what it was like. It's some kind of tragedy he was reaching into, some kind of silly pretentious skin he would burn this tips of his fingers on. You'll get over them, someone said to me once, you'll get over those ones you never really knew. (I took it under strong advisement to create a poetry issue. I'm not going to say any more than this.) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ Haiku series #1 by Heckat _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " Don't depress me. This is already boring, you know? Out of date like wallpaper and the ripple effect. Doing the wave at ballgames. Stop second guessing me. What would you have me do? Catch flies beneath your wig? Instead I'll run to the pasty shop. Just try to stop me. Soft icing: lubricant. Each bite will satisfy me. Like rice fried with mushrooms. Like love at sixteen in the basement. You're on the stairs with a coke and I'm on the couch with the one you love watching TV. A kiss, and it will be forever. Turn the corner and watch us move together like snails. I told you, didn't I? That rice and donuts will win anyone's heart. But, no, it's you I love. The curve of your lipstick, drawn outside the lines. The way you rode that cow in your father's farmyard and didn't break a smile until we told him about it later by the fire. You are wild. So fuck me kitten, Burroughs style. Again and -- yes, don't stop even when the clock says it's time for work. It's now or never baby. The autumn's drowning us slowly. You know we'll always, and yet never more, be young. _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ Halloween Party by Anomie _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " (for K.M.) Snow White, passed out on the bed with all the coats, sat up and offered me a green apple candy as I applied eye-sparkles in the mirror. Her date was dressed as Spock, look for the pointy ears, that's him. I'd already seen her standing outside on the driveway with her legs apart and her hands hanging straight down at her sides. She had been saying to a distracted-looking man dressed as royalty, Do you remember meeting me before? Snow White ran in her hand-sewn Disney dress. Down the hallway beer in hand and everyone chanted her name. Snow White Snow White collapsed against Star Trek uniform. She held out the candies and I said no thanks. _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ the fox and the sour grapes by Ahmed Balfouni _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " that was a terrible movie says the critic not a word corresponded with my analytic _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ A Ghazal from, Bribs by BMC _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " (Found in a garbage can behind the liquor store) Snoop, Tupac, Dr. Dre. I still want to listen to all that good shit, Send me smokes. I got rolled in the cafeteria yesterday. Happy moms day from the hole, I guess shankin buddy was some bad of a idea. Thanks for the poster's you sent. They looked real good but then someone stold em. Too bad you havent visited lately? The owl flys over a moonlit field. Yours sincerly, Bribs Sanderson _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ you are a warm rock by linear _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " i don't feel anything but i'm conscious of it all no mixed emotions, yes, nixed emotions wake up early because we're better than sleep and better than exhaustion but more so, better than everything. better because we're weak because we're tired because we're so fucking disillusioned. or because we're so god damn stupid that we take our escapist dreams and fantasies too seriously, willing to defend their reality with everything our smoke-damaged hearts can bare. our discontentment with existence in the mundane runs so deep that we have to bleed hope out of anything and force a willful suspension of disbelief so we can pretend we can overcome it. but i can't overcome my fantasies fantasies that i canovercome this so no more wasted days i give up. i am a bitten cheek, you are a warm rock. i am out of ink, you are cherry chapstick. this is the way we oughta be. _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ arithmetic by Rank Swiney _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " franka wakes the sun up. slips her hand into its heart squeezes, holds before ripping herself through the sheets, over her husband's drunk form, out of bed. he will warm once thought thaws, once the heat steals into the wheels of his eyes. she wonders to count the wrongs against her. 7? 70x7? 70x70 more like it. dressing, she figures if the woman in the neighbouring house has as many griefs. franka thinks love could benefit from arithmetic. wants her sums tidy, no dog-eared corners. she worked as a clerk, and a telephone operator for the germans during the occupation. her fingers as fast as her mind pulling at cables, plugs in and out, flicking switches. still the tension and reflexes in her fingers, her knuckles against the inside of the metal bucket, kneading potatoes for pigsfeed. they snap, the way she flits the grain, to the chicken. _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ In the Barracks by Melatonin _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " This was your grandfather she tells me, and wads another apple core in tissue paper. A grey face in a deaf photograph. His coat is nice, I think, and realize I envy the dead for their clothing only. On the wall behind me a mermaid keeps an eye on my watch. I think it might be time to go. The table fruit has begun to spot and one smart pear has taught himself how to talk. He is elated with his new tongue, he keeps touching it, yelling: I've watched peaches die on battlefields, split open, naked, seeds showing! Puddles of juice in the dirt beside the gauze and the broken stems bent like claws. I saw a banana jump from a bomber plane. His parachute was sick, it wheezed. Two days later we found him on a rock, yellow mush blown from the thick of his skin. _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ Manifesto by oven _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " There's something cold in my apartment in the corner behind the dryer and I'm not sure what it is, but I should probably go check it out only I can't seem to get up these days, my bones mistake me for a two thousand year old fossil and my landlord probably wouldn't do anything about it anyway. There's something moving on one side of my bedroom whenever I try to sleep and it's not the dog, I can assure you it's something else that makes a strange grunting noise and burrows beneath my dresser, I was thinking I should find out what it is but I'm not too good at finding out bad news and I'm not sure I want to hear much more. There's something drowning in the sink and every time I do the dishes I hear it scream down there, I know I do but it seems impossible that I could save it or put it out of its misery I think maybe it would be more appropriate to just forget about it and sit back down on the living room chair with a glass of wine, the newspaper, a warm sweater, ear plugs. _/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"-._/"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_.-"\_ what happened in edmonton by ada _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._\"-._ _.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/_.-"/ " " " " " " " """"" " " " " " " " is the question on everyone's lips, even mine, but I won't ask, I swear, I'll ask anything else whether the water's been turned back on at your place, what do you think about oven mitts, and why some types of fish float like their dead when they're only sleeping, so I won't wonder, even after we hang up and you're cleaning last night's pasta plates and mugs of cold tea, throwing out the leftovers since you won't eat them anyway and they'll just rot in the fridge, taking the day slowly so nothing comes as any big shock, I won't ask myself or even think of all the million things that you might have meant when you talk about the bar and two men, but don't worry I don't need to know and I promise not to wonder behind your back or even right in front of you later on when you stop by my work and you look just the same, what did I expect really, what's the big deal doesn't everyone know someone who knows someone who knows someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time wearing the wrong shirt and forgetting for the millionth time to put a key between each finger when they're walking home happens all the time, small town Saskatchewan, and what do I know about it, just survival and just trying to make the ends worth while in the meantime your parents smile at you and never think twice. (so, by the way... what happened that weekend that you took off anyway, even though it's none of my business, it just seems like maybe you might want to talk about-) .-. .-. / \ .-. .-. / \ / \ / \ .-. _ .-. / \ / \ `-------\-------/-----\-----/---\---/-\---/---\-----/-----\-------/-------' \ / \ / `-' `-' \ / \ / \ / `-' `-' \ / `-' `-' The Neo-Comintern Magazine / Online Magazine is seeking submissions. Unpublished stories and articles of an unusual, experimental, or anti-capitalist nature are wanted. Contributors are encouraged to submit works incorporating any or all of the following: Musings, Delvings into Philosophy, Flights of Fancy, Freefall Selections, and Tales of General Mirth. The more creative and astray from the norm, the better. For examples of typical Neo-Comintern writing, see our website at . Submissions of 25-4000 words are wanted; the average article length is approximately 200-1000 words. Send submissions via email attachment to , or through ICQ to #29981964. Contributors will receive copies of the most recent print issue of The Neo-Comintern; works of any length and type will be considered for publication in The Neo-Comintern Online Magazine and/or The Neo-Comintern Magazine. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .--/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\--. `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' ___________________________________________________ | THE COMINTERN IS AVAILABLE ON THE FOLLOWING BBSES | |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | TWILIGHT ZONE (905) 432-7667 | | BRING ON THE NIGHT (306) 373-4218 | | CLUB PARADISE (306) 978-2542 | | THE GATEWAY THROUGH TIME (306) 373-9778 | |___________________________________________________| | Website at: http://www.neo-comintern.com | | Questions? Comments? Submissions? | | Email BMC at bmc@neo-comintern.com | |___________________________________________________| | The Current Text Scene : http://www.textscene.com | |___________________________________________________| .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .--/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\---/---\--. `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' copyright 2003 by #265-11/30/03 the neo-comintern All content is property of The Neo-Comintern. You may redistribute this document, although no fee can be charged and the content must not be altered or modified in any way. Unauthorized use of any part of this document is prohibited. All rights reserved. Made in Canada. By Canadians. And a couple Others.