F1B3RGL4SS D0N'T RVST, WH1CH S0M3...

fiberglass don't rust, which some

see as progress, but junkyards

show to be false improvement

M33T1NG Y0VR B0Y 4T TH3 B4CK...

meeting your boy at the back

door so contraband can be

slipped whichever direction

L1F3 F33L1NG M0R3 L1K3 BLVR TH4N...

life feeling more like blur than

ever before, not enough

time, not enough endorphins

SCR1PTVR3S 0F FVTVR3 C4V3M4N...

scriptures of future cavemen -

marks for cyborg-sapiens

to deduce what we're about

SONG OF THE DAY: Down Low (Chopped Not Slopped)

The process of down-lowing is either discretion or dishonesty. Sometimes discretion crosses over into dishonesty. Sometimes you’re being a dishonest asshole but think you’re just keeping it discreet. People know though. It’s not hard to be good to people, and feel good with people without traumatizing anybody. It’s really not that difficult. And yeah, you gotta be discreet, sure, because people always looking to apply their external judgments or emotional lashings on you. Fuck it though. It’s Friday, fall, feel good weather, y’all get that serotonin firing.

N4TVR4L CYCL3S 0F R1S3...

natural cycles of rise

and droop, decay but then

rebirth; you know... that real shit

SONG OF THE DAY: Mary Jane

Trying to be a little more Rick James in my life – unapologetic hedonism. The dopamine and serotonin and endorphins and all them good chemical shits just not flowing as hard as I’d want. Of course, got an addictive personality (aka genetic structure) so it might not ever be flowing as hard as I’d want. Can’t wait ‘til I’m successful and wealthy so I can destroy my life with the most expensive of poor choices, and get regrettable face tattoos.

R04DS1D3 R3CR34T10N4L...

roadside recreational

vehicles, promising quick

escape, and blown transmissions

T3N D0LL4R P3R PL4T3 F00D TRVCKS...

ten dollar per plate food trucks

lined up in a row is not

really a farmer's market

SONG OF THE DAY: Chasing Love

Love is not a permanent vacation home along the shore; instead it is the ocean’s tide. That shit rolls up quite lovely, and you can lay around on the beach, and maybe the tide is high and you get yourself a vacation home to bask in the loveliness of it, but it’s an ebb and flow, and the moon gonna pull that shit back out at some point, and that home ain’t gonna be home no more. Non-traditional relationships make more sense because nothing is permanent, and no one person can really fulfill another one person’s every emotional need from now until the end. I think the old way (which is not really traditional in “way way back” sense but traditional in the common shit since western hegemony of culture) is to just grin and bear it, or work at it, or just plain suffer, as most women did in patriarchal arrangements, and to be honest, a lot of men probably did too. It’s a one-size-fits-all that don’t fit nobody.

And yet, chasing love is so much fun, whether you’re 14 or 45… getting googly eyes and tingle belly over somebody, feeling that tide roll in, warm cleansing waters of love. It might recede twenty years from now, it might recede next Tuesday… just gotta enjoy the moment.

4T TH3 C0RN3R 0F PR0GR3SS...

at the corner of progress

and forgotten, life goes on

for all them with nowhere else

SH0VT 0VT T0 FR33D0M F1GHT3RS...

shout out to freedom fighters

liberating the global

south from northern aggression

M4K1NG 1LL3G1T1M4T3...

making illegitimate

marks while working shoot angles

at fake jobs; nothing is real

"4D10S MVTH4" D4YDR34MS...

"adios mutha" daydreams

sitting trapped in cubicle

while promised worked retirement

W3NT T0 SCH00L 4T L34ST THR33 D4YS...

went to school at least three days

most weeks, kept my grades up, and

got high as fuck a whole lot

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Fourteen: TAKANOSHO (8-6)

[MOMENT OF SUCCESS] 

Takanosho got 

kachikoshi in his first 

top level basho 

this means more wins than losses, 

if you’re a sumo novice 

the opposite is 

makekoshi, and either 

means rankings movements 

up or down the overall 

rankings, released each basho 

there’s a banzuke 

scroll, where every rikishi 

is written in ink 

at the top, largest letters, 

are current yokozuna 

the names get smaller 

the further down banzuke 

scroll, to the bottom 

at the very bottom are 

those young men new to sumo 

thus, Takanosho, 

in first basho at sumo’s 

top level, did well 

promising young rikishi, 

increasing their scroll ink size 

personally, I 

find this so fascinating - 

worth displayed by size 

if there was an all-time scroll, 

Hakuho’s name’d be biggest 

day fourteen, he locked 

down another yusho win - 

his forty-first one 

no rikishi - or even 

yokozuna - matches that 

the young and the old, 

and how their trajectories 

intersect - sumo 

daily bouts for fifteen days, 

six bashos a year - sumo 

a sporting culture 

thick with ceremony, and 

corruption - sumo 

stories unfolding slowly 

like nature itself - sumo 

S1GNS W3 C4N'T 4FF0RD T0 K33P...

signs we can't afford to keep

up no more, in places we

still live since nowhere to go

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Thirteen: HOKUTOFUJI (8-5)

[ee see dubyoo! ee see dubyoo!] 

after seven days, 

Hokutofuji was tied 

with the unbeatens 

since that day, he’s struggled to 

maintain that unblemished pace 

after couple days 

of losses, he finally 

got kachikoshi 

he’s struggled to get further 

into the winning column 

Nishikigi and 

he had a stubborn battle, 

with a trick ending 

Hokutofuji tried to 

twist at dohyo’s edge for win 

gyoji pointed 

his way at first - monoii 

called by ringside crew 

Nishikigi pretty slow 

to get up, arm dangling limp 

four feet clinging to 

permitted area, two 

bodies crush sideways 

original decision 

reversed with further review 

Hokutofuji’s 

first seven bouts fought perfect; 

momentum shifts quick 

and yet Hokutofuji 

fights with every last step 

sumo continues 

to be an unforgiving sport 

for these rikishi 

trajectories dissipate 

before one has chance to think 

(later day thirteen, 

battle of yokozunas 

got the crowd hyped up) 

(Hakuho easily beat 

Kisenosato, with flair) 

(Hakuho’s lock on 

winning this basho appears 

unavoidable) 

(two ozeki two losses 

back with only two days left) 

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Twelve: GOIEDO (10-2)

[rookie mistake charge] 

ozeki master 

busting out psychology 

to psyche out Abi 

young Abi never even 

got his hands down it felt like 

multiple matta, 

couple stand-back-up stare downs, 

got Abi back heeled 

when they finally started, 

Goiedo got him on jump 

Abi's energy 

burst pushed back, but Goiedo 

stepped aside to left 

helpful swat, and Abi's down; 

Goiedo remains top-notch 

W0RK1NG CL4SS M4SS3S CH4S1NG...

working class masses chasing

weekend trophy achievements

where no permission's needed

M4NH0L3 C0V3RS R4R3LY G0N3...

manhole covers rarely gone

into by actual mens;

we've lost our ways us people

H4LL0W33N'S CR33P1N' 0N 4...

halloween's creepin' on a

come up; dollar store's full of

demon paraphernalia

S1MPL3 BRVSH STR0K3S 0N V3LV3T...

simple brush strokes on velvet

make immaculate aura

accessible by all us

SONG OF THE DAY: It's All Bad

Never really listened to a bunch of E-40, because he’s always come across as one of those “slang for slang’s sake” people, where you pretend everybody on Earth is saying some crazy shit you just thought up while walking to the bus stop. While I respect such ambition in destroying conventional linguistics, it gets annoying when you overdo it. That sort of became E-40’s thing. But DJ Screw subconsciously poisoned me into E-40 tolerance, so lately I revisited some of that classic ‘90s era Charlie Hustle, and it’s hard as fuck not to relate to this song, given current personal life conditions. It is all bad. People will be like “it’s going to get better” or “keep going” but honestly, sometimes shit doesn’t get better. Doesn’t mean you give up, because it only gets worse if you do, but instead of lying to people and continually saying “oh, it’s gonna get better, keep trying,” you should just go “yeah everything is fucked, but it’ll be even more fucked if you stop.” It’s like riptide, and culturally we live in a shit storm of a riptide as American empire crumbles while simultaneously everybody comfortable keeps telling you “hey, it’s not falling apart, it’s just a little blip in the exceptional ride.” Like with riptides, you’re doomed perhaps, but have to keep fighting sideways, to keep the shore in sight. Stop fighting, you’re definitely fucked; keep fighting, you’re only about 50% fucked. I guess I’ll accept those odds. (But y’all fuckers on the shore who keep saying everything’s alright better hope we the rest of us don’t have much energy left by the time we got to the shore, if we do, because we gonna stomp y’all one day.)

C0VNTRY ST0R3 D1SPL4Y C4S3S...

country store display cases

left to fade into past times

for future kids to picture

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Eleven: TOCHINOSHIN (7-4)

[sometimes Tochinoshin's technique is "fuck you"] 

this basho's third act 

begins with two unbeaten 

yokozuna left 

below that, many stories 

still unfold with fine texture 

one such story has 

been our man Tochinoshin, 

the Bulgarian 

the past year has seen no one 

else be quite as dominant 

our Bulgarian 

hero was makekoshi 

last basho, injured 

with Mitakeumi breathing 

down his neck, he needs eight wins 

bull Tochinoshin's 

(he who lifts ev'rything and 

throws it) been missing 

and facing undefeated 

yokozuna's always tough 

Kakuryu's wiley 

grace as yokozuna has 

been underrated 

I say this as casual 

dude who has overlooked him 

he seemed to be the 

third Mongolian before 

sumo scandals broke 

with Harumafuji gone, 

Kakuryu stood out stronger 

he and Hakuho 

were the lone unbeaten men 

left when day started 

Tochinoshin was fighting 

to keep ozeki status 

he hadn't been straight 

up lifting fools this basho, 

until yesterday 

against yokozuna though? 

surely, he'd become humbled 

nah, fam… the brutal 

beast from Bulgaria was 

full of spirit war 

Kakuryu's master tactics 

meant nothing lifted off ground 

he literally 

got carried the fuck away 

by Tochinoshin 

our Bulgarian hero 

one win away from safety 

"Tochi" shikona 

remains most honorable - 

three yokozunas 

Tochinoshin continues 

their tradition, with brute strength 

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Ten: KISENOSATO (8-2)

[ya boy dirtgod needs a fat stack of them envelopes like that] 

Kisenosato's 

return as yokozuna 

has been eventful 

he's hardly looked dominant, 

but he made kachikoshi 

it's been a year since 

he's accomplished such a feat - 

bad look for sumo 

gyoji called multple 

mattas (false starts) on Endo 

poor sad Endo - he's 

having an ugly basho, 

struggling entirely 

still a threat though, except when 

matta policing happens 

few bouts have true two 

hands down - it's performative 

motion in action 

but Kisenosato shall 

get all the help he can get 

official sumo 

federation wants their star 

to shine (for money) 

sumo federation wants 

Japanese yokozuna 

Kisenosato 

brings about a fat stack of 

sponsor envelopes 

thus after three false starts, we 

finally have some sumo 

Endo easily 

pushed backwards out the ring, 

a potential "work" 

"was Endo working hard, or 

hardly working?" as they say 

Kisenosato 

got his kachikoshi, and 

still only two back 

but let's be real - this is not 

the same Kisenosato 

B4L4NC3 B3TW33N L1GHT 4ND D4RK...

balance between light and dark

in times which feel too much like

twilight of humanity

TRY T0 K33P MY H34D 1N CL0VDS...

try to keep my head in clouds,

but life keeps redirecting

me in doors all the damn time

L4Y3RS 0F V4ND4L1SM...

layers of vandalism

creating sedimented

messages on city streets

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Nine: HAKUHO (9-0)

[Hakuho manhandling last basho champion] 

had a nice tanka 

about Hakuho's return, 

but lost that shit 

fuck it though, suffice to to 

say Hakuho's the greatest 

Mitakeumi may 

win basho when the bigger 

stars are laying out 

but Hakuho proved he's still 

the fucking man when healthy 

stood patiently as 

Mitakeumi thought about 

how to finish this 

but ultimately for naught, 

since Hakuho's the greatest