The scattered season
Has arrived I realize
As I lose pieces
-a.r.
Artwork: Scattered by loccus on deviantart.com

How does one choose
When and where
To let a stranger draw blood
To leave their mark
How does one choose
Which creator
Is experienced, qualified
To balance care with skillful harm
How does one choose
Based on previous work
Proudly displayed
When this could be the carving
That never makes it to their wall
How does one choose
To take a risk
Say yes to pain, a scar
Expression
Rebellion
Or simply sake of art?
-a.r.
Artwork: Tattoo by Mike Welch
This week has toyed with me
So I decided to play back
I ripped the curtain open
Not content with just a crack
Magic mumbling in the air
Greedy grumbling from beyond
I could not handle only hints of rain
At least not for very long
Drapery drowning at my feet
Shards of window shattered wide
I stepped into the world’s downpour
No drop of will to stay inside
I looked up and let it pelt me
Saturate my dusty clothes
Another animal inside a storm
I became wild and one of those
Let’s run and hunt, forage and fuck
To spite the cracking of the sky
Just another evolution
Shedding “should be” skin am I
-a.r.
Artwork: Becoming Animal by Antony Micallef
As my birthday nears
I notice newly formed skin
Layers of fuck you
And it feels just fine
-a.r.
Painting: Fuck you by Marion Peck
Is it age, maturity, meditation, or simply filling out my own skin that makes me more and more comfortable telling those who expressly don’t like me, but choose to still hang around and judge me, to fuck off? Well…
Happy Birthday to me, and…
Perfect permanent balance
Does not exist
Do not wish
It is simply the midpoint
Of our own pointy pendulum
While we find our swing
To the next extreme
A talent perfected
Only in death
– a.r.
Painting: Well Deserved Respite After a Particularly Brutal Goring by Bill Carman
Part of his Unbalanced series.