John Deming

HEADLINE NEWS
 
 
            1.
 
I’m plasticene
I’m plastic
my debts exceed
my assets
 
got the need and latitude
for depression medication
 
top doc: media bias
on antidepressants
‘astounding’
 
amazing
 
 
2.
 
a day in the life of the world’s
busiest airport
 
let down and hanging around
that’s what it’s here for
 
I’ll drug
my own blood
in the bathroom
 
and pretty much
love every gate
even e’en more
 
 
            3.
 
hi. my name is katy
and i’m a grateful alcoholic
 
I’d start on having babies
but I’m terrified of colic
 
I need some time to think
I think that’s probably worthful
 
how a bubble in a
beer could be so
 
many perfect
circles
 
 
            4.
 
I forget what we’re talking about
in the middle of the conversation
 
forget why I left one chamber
and entered another chamber
 
few things are as inevitable
as mental deterioration
 
hot on the trail
of universe’s darkest secret
 
I don’t know anyone very well
I like being alone on the weekend
 
 
 
 
 
HEADLINE NEWS
 
           
1.
 
that terrible person
just screamed
I hate my kids
 
prosecutor: pope faces mafia ‘risk’
 
drunken nothing worth
looking at is better than
the sky
 
how could my brass
crooked ashtray
I’ll find it
 
 
            2.
 
longhorn skull over a fireplace
bullethole between the eyeholes
and as big as them
 
that’s the way that I feel
when I wake up
I’m a citizen
 
it’s never been a dry vote
everyone’s recidivists
 
all enterprising addicts
rubio’s problem isn’t what you think it is
 
 
            3.
 
clouds of mold
flat on the ceiling
now they’re spinning
around my head
when did this
become my
bathroom when
did this become my head
 
4000 dead in tacloban
alone it’s in my head
 
 
4.
 
don’t know anyone very well
it’s impossible to think
 
then a surge of hope from where the neck angles
into the spine
coming back from the brink
 
and feeling kind of good today
a web of stars just palmed by brain
 
drink more the next about that last poem
and islands that are
only ever stationed undersea
 

 
 
 
HEADLINE NEWS
 
 
1.
 
you can be an egomaniac
but have no self confidence
 
I spent more
and took a train
that fell apart
I’m blaming communists
 
that’s not recalcitrance
just a priori awareness of
everything,
 
and our problem with it
 
            2.
 
I’m praying for rain
praying for surf
major human conflicts
are all about turf
I know I’m playing
nothing then I know
nothing is worse
nj takes 3rd place nationwide
for people who like
to curse
 
 
            3.
 
had an MRI of my brainstem
had a brainstem I didn’t build
had a building on my block that was way overpriced
had mice in my walls in my head
 
‘had my eye on his record’—shakib
don’t know for sure who Shakib is
 
it’s all a great deception
it’s all Tania Head
had a blank slate and only
one death
 
 
            4.
 
shit-talking mushrooms
scene on a plane
 
uk shows interest in buying another
c-17
 
the assembly line is closing
the royal air force is blessed
 
the moon just lightens
the specked noses of sika deer
 
each eating
edible plants
 

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​John Deming is Editor in Chief of Coldfront and Writing Center Director at LIM College. His poetry and prose have appeared in Boston Review, Salon, New Orleans Review, Fence and numerous other publications. He lives in New York City and curates the weekly KGB MondayNight Poetry Series with Matthew Yeager and Ali Power.

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