THE GORKO’S WHOOPS SELECTION FOR July 22 – 28
Doody and Memory
in a world ruled by chance
there are infinite abnormal ways
to cash in your chips like getting high
and drowning
or being devoured by pack
animals being thrown out of a 12-story window
being squashed in a human stampede anyhow
today I read in the news that two young men
from new york have just expired after falling
into a large tank of hogshit
well, I thought, that’s certainly not a romantic
way to go it’s certainly not jim morrison
in a parisian bathtub or cleopatra
with the egyptian cobra
the surnames of the two men were doody
and memory
they could’ve been a famous comedy
duo with names like those but they weren’t
unfortunately they were only cattle farm
employees with that one act.
the parrot motel
it was an accident how I got there,
he said. I’d been drinking
at the cane toad’s tongue
and waited till the last minute and forgot
to read the reviews.
I just saw a parrot
and the neon vacancy sign with $49 a night
so I went into the office paid
the little cuban
man.
my room was on the second floor
and it smelled of old smoke
and the doors were loose-fitting
and the blinds were broken
so anyone could look through
and there was a brown waterspot
on the ceiling
and the temperature of the
shower depended on who in the building
was flushing their crapper
and there was a dead
cockroach lying face-up in the corner
and there was a punchhole LED
thing for a light
and there was a small flat screen tv
with parrot switchbladed into it by
a maintenance
man with the DTs.
I didn’t turn it on I just sat on a chair
in the dark with my flask and thought this
is the place you go if you want to hang
yourself
but don’t have the guts
this is the kind
of place you go if you want to
plan a crime or start a religion.
I only stayed there one night
but on that night
got into a fight with the preacher in room
#301 and a dead body
was found in the bushes.
it’s that kind of place good luck.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
M.P. Powers is a Floridian who works as a forklift driver in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of The Initiate (Anxiety Press, Fall, 2023) and Strange Instruments (Forthcoming ’25). Recent publications include the Columbia Review, Black Stone/White Stone, Stone Circle Review, miniMag, and others. His artwork can be found on Twitter and Instagram @mppowers1132
Images generated on Magic Studio, collage by Raddy
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