Freaky Counsel

There’s much on my mind these days. The holidays can be so stressful. In times like these, the Bibliomancy Oracle is my copilot. As always, I go with the first answer. No do-overs.

 

Will my wretched secret ever be discovered?

this is a desert of knowledge

and we thirst near the toilet

 *

from “THE PROVINCIAL LIBRARY” by Mu Cao (translated by Aaron Crippen)

 

Why won’t the voices stop?

Because to write is also to give meaning to the world

*

from “Shards” by Ponç Pons (translated by Clyde Moneyhun)

 

What is my problem?

Here it is: you do it for breathlessness and goosebumps, getting mail and remembering the steps, hearing whalesong and the dawn yaps of thrushes echoing from hollow, skyglow chests.

*

from “TWICE AS LIKELY” by Charmaine Cadeau

 

Should I be worried?

Imagine a chart of median family incomes as big as the parking lot—

use it to determine where to abandon your car.

*

from “Off Lows, Weakness Remains: Meditation #3” by Susan Briante

 

What kind of mother am I?

Now the old poet

loses his voice like a garden.

But finds it again, like a street in a garden.

*

from “The Weak Poet” by David Shapiro

 

Why did Sony pay Seth Rogen a million dollars more than poet James Franco for their work in The Interview?

No medicine man ever

told me his secret. I drew

a heart myself and licked it.

*

from “The Other Exists As A Perfect Embodiment Of Your Desire” by Melissa Broder

 

Why haven’t more people bought my book?

The fit of relief or deferment is near.

What we find next is important.

*

from “Folly Stamp” by Prageeta Sharma

 

What does Christmas hold in store for me?

Count on it could be much better than that. They told you what they’d been told what they told themselves now how does that help?

*

from “(AUTOBIO.) DISLOCATED [“CAGE OF WORDS”]” by Laura Mullen

 

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