New Release: John Grochalski American Alien Invasion

This is the latest chapbook published by Holy & intoxicated Publications. Here is a sample of two poems from the collection:

dog eat dog world

the poetry books

have failed me

the poets and their little mundane yarns

i look into the mirror

hungover again

and see that my face has failed me

while outside 

the pigeons make death curdles

fighting each other

over buffalo chicken bones

in the endless summer heat

dodging the mounds of dog shit

and summer flies

dog shit left by people

who abuse their dogs

who pull and scream and yell

about time and money

as their pets

race to defecate 

people for whom life has been a failure

disguised by small moments of joy

ugly people

dreaming ugly dreams

living ugly mundane lives

people so shallow

that they have to own

something small and anxious and dumb

forced into loving them

for its very survival.

apartment building saturday morning (6:10 a.m.)

drunken dude-bros

loiter outside my bedroom window

playing on cell phones and having a last warm beer

as they wait on cabs to take them away

i shake off the night’s tango of vodka and wine

trying to remember the plot of some show

that i’ll have to re-watch 

taking a long morning piss

i wonder if it’s the booze or the age

that’s making me so forgetful these days

i’m always re-watching shows

or re-reading chapters of books, i think

as one dude-bro says, nah, dude….and they all laugh at nothing

looking outside my window at them

i wonder how many books they’ve read collectively this year

i think they’ve all probably had more ass in a month

then i’ve had in a lifetime

and ass beats books any day of the week on this side of the ocean

for sport i think maybe i’ll call the cops on them

just to see what that experience feels like

but before i can grab the phone the police show up

two vans full of cops

with their blue uniforms their blue helmets their blue guns

they come out of the vans with stone faces and shields 

as the dude-bros say, we didn’t do nothing officer

and i get excited thinking now we’ll see 

the brutal power of punitive america in action

the cops don’t even pay the dude-bros any mind

but come charging into the building instead

i open my door to take a look

but not much more than a crack 

because i say a lot of shit 

about the president and the government online

and people misunderstand patriotism all of the time

the cops are all walking around

making confused cop faces

slamming doors and casing the foyer

going up and down on the shitty elevator

all like it’s part of the plot of a bad orwellian movie

while outside my window the dude-bros are laughing 

and taking selfies with the whirling lights of cop vans

they are white (mostly) and well dressed

and never really had anything to worry about

they spit beer onto the pavement 

as ambulances and firetrucks and cabs joust for parking spaces

and all i can really do is shut the door

sit on the couch hungover and confused as fuck

look at the clock flashing 6:10 a.m. in red devil lights

remember that today hasn’t even begun

that it’s a work day

and it’ll be at least twelve more hours 

before i can even think

about sitting back down

and having myself a goddamned beer.

Also note that editor John D. Robinson of Holy & intoxicated Publications has yet another chapbook out through PaperAndInkZine entitled “Too Many Drinks Ago”: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/634587274/too-many-drinks-ago-by-john-d-robinson?ref=shop_home_active_1 Not only do you get 25 pages of riveting poetry but also a bonus beermat featuring one of Robinson’s poems together with a hand-made collage and all for only 5 quid.