Nicky Rainey to Read at Duff's in the C.W.E. on Monday, November 22

Nicky Rainey will be one of the featured readers at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, on Monday, November 22, when Chance Operations turns the reigns of control over to CJ Smith of JKPublishing.

The reading will also feature Sean Arnold, Michael Castro, Ellen Herget, and Philip Gounis, and Colleen McKee. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the cover is $3.

Nicky Rainey makes zines, writes grants, stories and letters to her pen-pals. A loud talker since childhood, she represented St. Louis in the National Poetry Slam 2009 (and Madison, Wisconsin, in the Rustbelt Regional slam in 2007). Nicky earned a hearty "BA!" from Truman State in English, and also studied social justice and how to make elaborate omelets. Nicky has a new zine made out of envelopes called Let’s Talk about People. Write her for a copy at n.k.rainey@gmail.com.

Watching TV & Playing World of Warcraft with Angelito88

On Day 57 of the BP spill, I watched MSNBC & traipsed
through dungeons with Angelito88, Christopher's cousin or maybe
               nephew,
studies petroleo engineering at University & needs breaks so we
               chase gryphons.

At 22 and 27, this game is our generation's golf, refined.
We're humans and dwarves, not fucking Orcs. We drink coffee,
type about family & politics across sea and shimmering flats --

I say:
               the dolphins are blowing oil out of their blowholes
               the dolphins are acting drunk

Angelito88's newspapers put the spill on page five next to the story about the drug cartels creating alliances with Hezbollah, can you imagine how those intermarriages will go over with the grandmothers. In his state, people have oil-wells in the backyard, owned by the government.
Angel's glad BP didn't bust a valve on an entire city.

We clear the iron forge & he changes the subject:

               you know, when they play Warcaft in China,
               there's flesh on the skeletons
               and the dead are in tidy graves

Inside my house, I see a waning crimson gryphon on one screen and blowout preventer valves on another. Two blocks away --on North and South-- sits an old Jewish cemetery where the graves look tidy, but are truly filled with swarms of little angels, myriad dungeons, our ancestors & friends wearing crowns of oil and water.

-- Nicky Rainey