Daniel Eberle-Mayse at November Open-Mic

Daniel Eberle-Mayse was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

Daniel's rock band, Rooks, also performed.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will be the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Christopher Van Deutekom and Daniel Eberle-Mayse

Christy Callahan at November Open-Mic

Christy Callahan was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Will Kyle at November Open-Mic

Will Kyle was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

George Stair at November Open-Mic

George Stair was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will be the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Chris Parr at November Open-Mic

•chance operations• co-founder Chris Parr was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Jennifer Goldring at November Open-Mic

Jennifer Goldring was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will be the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Grady Manus at November Open-Mic

Grady Manus was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Craig Vaughn at November Open-Mic

Craig Vaughn was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will be the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Jamilah Nasheed at November Open-Mic

Jamilah Nasheed was one of the even dozen readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the November reading.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will be the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Drucilla Wall

Drucilla Wall was one of three featured readers at the November •chance operations• reading at Duff's.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Bullet Dog

My dog is not a hero.
He hasn’t tunneled 100 yards
through dirt and snow
in 40 below to drag me
firmly but gently by my hands
from certain death to the road.
He might someday bark and scramble
over the bed in spite of smoke
just in time to wake us people
to get out of there.
So far, he has never treed a bear
or run off a mountain lion,
or hauled a child out of a river,
or dialed the police all by himself.

His skull is so thick his neck gets tired.
He sheds enough to clog the hoover.
He’s good at eating, but not digesting.
His farts bubble up the paint on the wall
at the exact height of his ass.
He hasn’t yet braved a four-lane highway
to drag an injured fellow dog to safety;
never used his nose to locate someone
in the rubble; or dashed under the hooves
of a charging bull to distract it
from a man knocked to the ground.

He’s not as big as he ought to be.
One eye looks sideways all the time.
His hips aren’t right. We never knew
he could jump at all until that one time
he flew at that man kicking down
our door on a dark night in ordinary April.
The muzzle flash and the pop froze us,
as the bullet grooved his skull
right down the middle, ricocheting
into the kitchen, and, evidently,

the sight of my dog’s big head
shaking off the blood and surging
forward, with the rolling sideways eye,
and the streaming slobber
from the gap-toothed snarling maw,
determined beyond all sense
on a not-big-enough body
with its clattering paws,
was just enough
to make that gunman fall
back out the door and run.
My dog has a scar on his head
like the map of a river.

-- Drucilla Wall

"Bullet Dog" appears in Drucilla Walls' book The Geese at the Gates from Salmon Poetry.

Julia Gordon-Bramer

Julia Gordon-Bramer was one of three featured readers at the November •chance operations• reading at Duff's.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will be the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Chris King & Fred Friction Performing at Duff's

Chris King and Fred Friction
Chris King was one of three featured readers at the November •chance operations• reading at Duff's.

Chris was variously accompanied by the lovely and talented Fred Friction on the spoons and Roy Grokenback on guitar.

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, December 5, will shine the spotlight on JKPublishing's Saint Louis Projects, including all the ladies and gents of Bad Shoe, along with their individual chapbook authors.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free for this special evening!

Scheduled to read are: Kelli Allen, Michael Castro, Maria Balogh, Phil Gounis, Jen Tappenden, Dena Molen, Christy Callahan, Julia Gordon-Bramer, Daniel Eberle-Mayse, and Lisa Ebert.

Also on hand will the publisher and editors of JKPublishing and Saint Louis Projects, Elly Herget, CJ Smith, & Erin Wiles.

Fred Friction also performed a spoken word piece all by his lonesome.

Roy Gokenback

Drucilla Wall Featured Reader at Duff's on Monday, November 28

Drucilla Wall will be one of three featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

The other featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer and Chris King.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Musical guests will be Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group, and Fred Friction, host of FM 88.1's "Fishing With Dynamite, accompanying Chris King. Finishing out the evening with a short set will be Rooks, featuring Daniel Eberle-Mayse, Chris Deutekom, and Eric Mueller. Rooks are "three boys making 'indie' music trying not to sound dumb."

Drucilla Wall's collection of poetry, The Geese at the Gates, was published by Salmon Poetry earlier this year to positive reviews in The Irish Times and elsewhere in Ireland and America.

Drucilla received her B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin, her M.A. from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She teaches poetry and essay writing, and Native American literature, at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Her essays appear in journals and anthologies.

She has earned awards and fellowships for her work, including the Mari Sandoz Prairie Schooner Short Story Award and the Western Literature Association Willa Pilla Prize for Humor in Writing.

She has spent summers with family and friends in Wexford and Galway, Ireland, since 1985.

Hannibal, Missouri

Someone cracked this café window,
and no one really cares anymore.
You can get six kinds of burgers,
but they don’t serve french fries here.

Tom Sawyer tips his cap, trotting by,
on his way back down to 1844.
Hannibal, Missouri, has more cars than people,
even counting tourists rolling in on Highway 61.

Becky Thatcher strolls down Main Street
with a smile and a pistol in her hand.
She turns in at the river where the setting sun
makes halos on her white lace parasol.

And the purple martins scatter,
knowing better than to ever hang around,
while the eagles claw the fish up from the water
just to pierce their silver skins here on the sand.

They put locks on the river, and they’ve run
the flooding streams all underground
through sewer pipes big as freight trains
where the lilies and hellbenders never found

a home among those waters that used to feel
the wind and rain quick marching over stones.
Finn came home today, his second tour of duty done,
after leaving both his legs on a road back in east Afganistan.

Beulah looks around the town from her grave stone
up on Calvary Hill. Ten more houses dark for dinner
with for-sale signs from the bank by every porch,
but the ghost tour never tells you how the living

are much better for a haunt, while the kids out
by the Dairy Queen prefer their cherry vodka
mixed with ice cream in the blizzard of the month,
and the lovers hope for jobs at the Walmart Superstore.

I’m going to get my friends together and roll down to the sea
on a paddle boat lit for Christmas just the way we wish
it used to be, and we’ll slide past St. Louis, with its car parks
and monuments, all the way to New Orleans, where the dead

know how play those old time tunes. Big Jim’s bar
is open with the flood stains high on the walls.
We can dance under the water with all the folks
wh ever passed away, and by the parish levee,

I can finally get up off my knees.

-- Drucilla Wall

Chris King Featured Reader at Duff's on Monday, November 28

Chris King reading in Noah Kirby's sculpture "With Solid Stance and Stable Sound" at Laumeier Sculpture Park's "Poetry in Place: Platforms" (October 2011). Photo by Sean Collins.

Chris King will be one of three featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

The other featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Musical guests will be Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group, and Fred Friction, host of FM 88.1's "Fishing With Dynamite, accompanying Chris King. Finishing out the evening with a short set will be Rooks, featuring Daniel Eberle-Mayse, Chris Deutekom, and Eric Mueller. Rooks are "three boys making 'indie' music trying not to sound dumb."

Chris King is a multi-media artist and producer based in St. Louis who earns a living as a journalist. He co-founded Poetry Scores, which translates poetry into other media, and serves as its creative director. As a poet, he works in the 7/11 form innovated by St. Louis poet Quincy Troupe.

Chris says:

These poems are cast as 7/11s, a poetic form innovated by the St. Louis poet Quincy Troupe. Troupe’s form calls for alternating lines of 7 and 11 syllables, with 7-line stanzas when the first line has 7 beats and 11-line stanzas when the first line has 11 syllables. My 7/11s start with 7-syllable lines and then alternate stanzas of 7 and 11 lines, starting with 7; though I break all of these rules whenever the poem asks for it.

Happier Days Ahead

Music was sarcastic, and
nasty. It wore pink shoes. It was a bear on
a bicycle on its way
back to New Mexico. It made comfortably
sweet just one girl, with sagging,
cuffed pants. The banjo, actually, was the bear,
the bear in the pink shoes, pink

sneakers, as a fact, daintily laced and tied
with meticulous care as
a child unravels a lollypop. It’s sad
to say, but the people were
anything but equal to the music. They played
bartop card tricks, fed cigars
to their beloveds. Was one lad, danced, badly,
loudly, with all that bloody
bellowing from your man in the treble clef
hockey jersey. The barman,
only a boy, dispensed his abundant youth

to regulars, strangers,
snorted a wee bit of coke on the breaks with
the bands. --John’s got a new shirt
for Christmas. --Actually, I’ve had this awhile.
--But you’ve washed it! Music raised
a toast: Coal slaw! that’s happier days ahead,
and music really meant it,

happier days ahead, for you and for me.
For music was far from home,
again, on a cold night after Christmas, in
a bar and working, again.
Once more, lads, to the whiskey, and then attack,
again, the enemy in
your hands your instrument has become. Music
commits suicide early
every morning at the proper, appointed
hour, adjusted, of course, for
bar time.

-- John D. McGurk's Pub, St. Louis, Missouri

December 27, 2007

-- Chris King

Julia Gordon-Bramer Featured Reader at Duff's on Monday, November 28

Julia Gordon-Bramer reading at the Firecracker Press (November 2011). Photo by Ellen Herget.

Julia Gordon-Bramer will be one of three featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

The other featured readers will be Chris King and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Musical guests will be Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group, and Fred Friction, host of FM 88.1's "Fishing With Dynamite, accompanying Chris King. Finishing out the evening with a short set will be Rooks, featuring Daniel Eberle-Mayse, Chris Deutekom, and Eric Mueller. Rooks are "three boys making 'indie' music trying not to sound dumb."

When Julia Gordon-Bramer reads next for •chance operations•, she will have just stepped off a plane after a two hour flight, had a three-hour drive before that, and God knows how long in airport security.

Here's what her Playboy Playmate bio would be:

Occupation: writer, Plath scholar, tarot card reader. She also teaches English at St. Louis Community College and Humanities at Lindenwood University.

Turn-ons: Sylvia Plath; cats; Kabbalah; the Buddha; correct use of subjunctive form

Turn-offs: Fascist dictatorships; airport security (same difference); winter
Guilty pleasures: satellite radio (XMU, Lithium, and AltNation)

Achievements in the last month: reading tarot cards on Great Day St. Louis; reading at the Firecracker Press, with a print run of her poem, "Airplane Rules"; turning another year older

Latest passion: weighing the evidence as to whether William Shakespeare was really Francis Bacon

Anti-Gravity

The stars have learned to trust us
moving warily on their course
counting on the last astral
status quo.
But what if we decide
one day to just let go-- Release!
the beat of twenty-one guns!
What if we revolt and explode; blast
raining into space, flak
speeding from every snowy peak,
every curve of the greened
empty Earth?
A great loosening of shoes, doors,
hard cars, flowerpots, lions and keys.
Everything
that wasn’t attached
banded in the red
tie of gravity?
Pennies rushing like the bullety drop
off of the Empire State
Building. Our bodies becoming
missiles – all failing
to do the job of staying put.
Smiles into shrapnel hurtling
through space to puncture the dead
peace; to litter the cosmic clean
with debris. We’d fire and drill
holes of light in whatever we hit,
shooting into that solid, soft dark.
A pom-pom pummel
proving our existence;
An ack-ack-ack of final flash, leaving
trillions of celestial wounds
against a silk purple sash.
The steady nova tread with dread.
They fear us, you know. These souls.
Those holes. We are
full of them.

-- Julia Gordon-Bramer

Electric Garden Musical Guest at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration

Dino Spumoni, Brandon Creath, Peter Noire
Electric Garden were the musical guests at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration.

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

Dino Spumoni at "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration Open-Mic

Dino Spumoni not only stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic on "Howl"-O-Ween to read his poetry but also to sing a song.

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

Basmin, the original Queen B, at the"Howl"-O-Ween Open-Mic

Basmin, the Queen B, stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic on "Howl"-O-Ween as her own bad self!

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

Chris Parr as "The Rogue" at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration

Chris Parr, co-founder of •chance operations•, stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic on "Howl"-O-Ween as "the Rogue."
The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

Elizabeth Trevor as Sara Teasdale at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration

Elizabeth Trevor stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic on "Howl"-O-Ween as Sara Teasdale.

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

Erin Goss at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration

Erin Goss stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic on "Howl"-O-Ween to share several poems by Cesar Vallejo.

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

George Stair at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration

George Stair stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic on "Howl"-O-Ween to share a poem by X.J. Kennedy and several short pieces about his time as a cab driver.

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

African Woman

Newly transferred from Atlanta, she was going from a North County restaurant to her motel. I flirted, "You didn't learn to talk like that in Atlanta."

"I'm from Nigeria."

We chatted, normally, I thought.

At the motel: "Why don't you come see me on Saturday. We could have a good time." She gave me the room and phone numbers.

Finally, a line I've never heard from an American woman: "I don't want to have to masturbate myself."

-- George Stair

Tony Renner as Stephen Crane at the "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration

Tony Renner, co-founder of •chance operations•, stepped up to the "Howl"-O-Ween open-mic as Stephen Crane.

The next •chance operations• reading will be held at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, November 28.

Featured readers will be Julia Gordon-Bramer, Chris King, and Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $3 admission.

Musical guest Roy Gokenbach, guitar, formerly of Erin Bode Group; played LeRoy in indie movie classic A: Anonymous.

"Howl"-O-Ween Celebration, Monday, October 31 at Duff's

The next •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Will Kyle at September Open-Mic

Will Kyle stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Christy Callahan at September Open-Mic

Christy Callahan stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Jim Markowski at September Open-Mic

Jim Markowski stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Julia Gordon-Bramer "Anti-Gravity"

Julia Gordon-Bramer stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the September reading.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Julia will be one of three featured readers at the Monday, November 28, reading at Duff's. Also reading will be Chris King and Drucilla Wall.

Anti-Gravity

The stars have learned to trust us
moving warily on their course
counting on the last astral
status quo.
But what if we decide
one day to just let go-- Release!
the beat of twenty-one guns!
What if we revolt and explode; blast
raining into space, flak
speeding from every snowy peak,
every curve of the greened
empty Earth?
A great loosening of shoes, doors,
hard cars, flowerpots, lions and keys.
Everything
that wasn’t attached
banded in the red
tie of gravity?
Pennies rushing like the bullety drop
off of the Empire State
Building. Our bodies becoming
missiles – all failing
to do the job of staying put.
Smiles into shrapnel hurtling
through space to puncture the dead
peace; to litter the cosmic clean
with debris. We’d fire and drill
holes of light in whatever we hit,
shooting into that solid, soft dark.
A pom-pom pummel
proving our existence;
An ack-ack-ack of final flash, leaving
trillions of celestial wounds
against a silk purple sash.
The steady nova tread with dread.
They fear us, you know. These souls.
Those holes. We are
full of them.

-- Julia Gordon-Bramer

Drew Moravec Performing "I Can't Be Satisfied"

Drew Moravec provided the musical entertainment at the September 26 reading at Duff's.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Here's Drew performing Muddy Water's "I Can't Be Satisfied."

Drew Moravec "I Can't Be Satisfied" by Chance Operations

Ellen Herget Featured Reader at September 26 Reading

Ellen Herget was one of three featured readers at Duff's on September 26.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

"Feet" by Katerina Canyon

Katerina Canyon was one of three featured readers at Duff's on September 26.

The next reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, on Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Feet

I cleaned my daughter’s feet.
I swept the warm cloth along
her soft, Earth toned skin––she grinned
and said, “Mom, that feels Heavenly.”

Yes, I remember.

Lying on the bed like a doll filled with sand
too fatigued to move––I played hard that day.
Slightly waking to feel the warm cloth on my feet.
Mother washing the day’s dirt away.

Yes, that felt Heavenly.

My friends told me their mothers would say
we should always take care
to wear clean underwear
in case we came upon disaster.

“Clean feet are most important”, my mother said.

She explained that a woman’s feet
told the story of her life.
That on her soles you could see
the roads she traveled.

She would say, “You can measure her resilience in a woman’s ankles”

I was told that if I were to get into an accident,
dressed like a bum,
and the doctors saw I had clean feet,
they would take good care of me.

“I know that may sound silly to you”, she’d say

She explained they would know that I tried
my best to take care of myself
and that my dress was more
a matter of circumstance than of desire.

When I was too tired for an evening bath, she washed my feet.
When I was sick in bed, she washed my feet.
When we were homeless, she washed my feet.
When she felt there was nothing else to do, she washed my feet.

Yes, it felt Heavenly.

I tried out for the high school track team.
I went in for a physical.
The doctor examined my feet
and said, “Nice feet.” and approved me as healthy.

He never asked me if I had on clean underwear.

I wondered how many kids
would miss out on running track
because their feet weren’t as clean as mine?
And I thought she was being silly.

She was right.

I finally saw her.
And there she was.
Too tired to move.
Dying.

I filled the bowl with warm water.
I found a soft cloth.
Picked up the soap. Ivory pure.
The only type she would use.

I looked at her feet––so long and thin.
Dark as Louisiana clay.
Her veins stuck up like river lines.
A road map to the Bayou.

I washed her feet.
Her feet carried heavy burdens.
She walked many miles for many years.
She said, “That feels Heavenly.”

I replied, “Yes, I remember.”

-- Katerina Canyon

"When We Blinked Ourselves Into Existence" by Mathieu Paul

Mathieu Paul was one of three featured readers at Duff's on September 26.

The next reading, Monday, October 31, will be a very special "Howl"-O-Ween Celebration." Admission is free, and the •chance operations• microphone is open to all attendees. We invite you to come in literal and or figurative costume as your favorite poet or poetic character.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is FREE.

When We Blinked Ourselves Into Existence

Then it was, and we stopped to stare at our hand. Not a goddamn thing's been working, 'cept I have been, too long hours cutting up my fingers stinging with salt or solvent, all of it covered in spiders and the such, but alls I am thinking about is love and lust and lunch. So I sit to have a smoke and stare at my hands again. Then I am thinking about God. Goddamn. What next? Do I have to hole up in some hostel or heaven forbid a fucking hospital holding nothing but a Bible? I will spread the gospel standing in Times Square, speaking only ever with strangers in the dark of night, seeking to be saved, I swear, I just need to know if that is the direction I should follow….

But then I found God at the bottom of the bottle and I awoke wearing a collar, so now on the darkest of nights down the darkest alleys you can hear me holler:
"Onward with our journey!"

That is the cry of a man devout in his destiny pressing on arrogantly, knowing nothing but love. I would trade it all, 'twas only ever for her anyway, eternally, and the Buddha bit his lip.

-- Mathieu Paul

Mathieu Paul Featured Reader on Monday, September 26, at Duff's

Mathieu Paul will be one of three featured readers on Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Other featured readers will be Ellen Herget and Katerina Canyon.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Musical guest will be Drew Moravec.

Mathieu Paul is a musician (with gypsy-punk band O Fool), photographer, and poet known for spilling his guts figuratively and literally. Mathieu was one of the founding members of Get Born. Mathieu says that he "was the victim of a series of accidents, as are we all," and adds, "'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds."

In lieu of a poem, Mathieu shares a quote from Lenny Bruce:

In a crowded arena, the cliché,
"It takes one to know one"
is actually a profound philosophy.

O Fool featuring Matthieu Paul and Ellen Herget

Katerina Canyon Featured Reader at Duff's on Monday, September 26

Katerina Canyon will be one of three featured readers on Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Other featured readers will be Ellen Herget and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Musical guest will be Drew Moravec.

Katerina Canyon, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She was the Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga from 2001 to 2003. She has published in over 20 publications internationally, including, Sepia Poetry Magazine, Lucid Moon Magazine, Newsletter Inago, and Open Wide Magazine. In 2002 Katerina received the award of 2002 Virginia Allan National Young Careerist from Business and Professional Women/USA for her work with poetry in the community. She founded the Shouting Coyote Poetry Festival and hosted the Eccentric Moon Poetry Reading for two years. She currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.

In the Company of Outcasts

At the farmers’ market
I am drawn to Romanesco cauliflowers

They exist among other vegetables
defying conformity

Starshell florets burst from
undetermined centers

Refusing to lie side by side

making their own space in nature

Darwin, Fibonacci or God
predicted their fate

These creatures move in my mind:

creating communities
where there are no houses,
roadways without cars,
ways to live
with no love

They do not fit
in egg crate boxes

Nor do they
wrap cleanly in cellophane

Green sparks in an overflowing
hill discomfiting the yellow onions
on one side and heirloom tomatoes
on the other

I stand in front of them – staring
mouth agape
receiving a surprising answer
to a question
I never asked

-- Katerina Canyon

Ellen Herget To Be Featured Reader on Monday, September 26, at Duff's

Ellen Herget will be one of three featured readers on Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Other featured readers will be Katerina Canyon and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Musical guest will be Drew Moravec.

Ellen Herget graduated from UMSL with a Bachelor's in Anthropology in 2008. Since then, she has put her degree to good use through nannying and local endeavors. She plays in a two piece folk duo called the Skekses, and is a founding editor (with Erin Wiles) of Bad Shoe, St. Louis's regional lit mag for women.

Errant Curls

I don’t care if you care that I smoke.
If my voice wiggles through your ears and agitates the inside of your skull.
If my tit-to-waist ratio seems profane.
If my eyes graze over yours and you see what I’m thinking.
Maybe I’ll slip my arm into the crook of your elbow; I do that, sometimes.
I may even touch your hair.
Maybe I’ll buy you a beer if you look thirsty enough,
and I got an extra four bucks in my wallet,
oh my darling oh my love I am such a wild card that way.

My sternum is a studio apartment where a Buddha and an ego fight over the only bed.
My sternum is a wee factory where the production specialty is consistently recycling self-motivation; raw materials run rare in that department.
My sternum is a cracked leaking engine though I’m pretty sure the duct-tape will hold and we are bound to get new parts in sometime.

But back to touching your hair, dear;
I know that can be an issue.
It is callous for me to penetrate the barrier where your skin
meets peripheral air and warms it.
I am untethered, I know, noisy smoke-scented wind that is here and gone again;
this makes me strange. I cannot be quartered.
I cannot be convinced. I can hardly be reckoned with.

Would you believe me if I told you that I am harmless, that I am soft?
That I am capable of silence, when the air is dark and warm?
Would you believe me if I told you that once, I bore manacles--pinned my arms to my curvy sides, denied my fingers the right to wander and ply and stroke errant curls?
(And the days were an endless chain of empty meals and blue-screened emotion; the days were a flurry of tiny finch-like thoughts that twittered and sputtered and smacked windows and died; the days were a myriad of protein and mileage reimbursement.)
Oh yes dear heart, I wore manacles. And I hammered the pins out myself.

I’m tired now; I do that, sometimes.
Spout and spout and spout til I run dry.
I will go home soon, my orange-and-burgundy cavern,
and pump for another few quarts of diesel.
I will do this alone, of course; I can’t imagine you with me.
I’ll take my leave when the clock turns westward. Til then,

You look thirsty, honey.
And your hair has fallen in your eyes again.

-- Ellen Herget

Poster for Monday, September 26, Reading at Duff's

Sarah Rajchart at August Open-Mic

Sarah Rajchart was one of five readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the August reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Chris Parr at August Open-Mic

•chance operations• co-founder Chris Parr was one of five readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at the August reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Will Kyle at August Open-Mic

Will Kyle was one of five readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at August reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Randi Whitaker at August Open-Mic

Randi Whitaker was one of five readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at August reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Amy Genova at August Open-Mic

Amy Genova was one of five readers who stepped up to the •chance operations• open-mic at August reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Daniel Eberle-Mayse Featured Reader in August

Daniel Eberle-Mayse was one of three featured readers at the August •chance operations• reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Erin Wiles Featured Reader in August

Erin Wiles was one of three featured readers at the August 22 •chance operations• reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Shane Signorino Featured Reader in August

Shane Signorino was one of three featured readers at the August 22 •chance operations• reading at Duff's.

The next reading will be Monday, September 26, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Katerina Canyon, Elly Herget, and Matt Paul.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Daniel Eberle-Mayse Featured Reader on Monday, August 22, at Duff's in the C.W.E.

Daniel Eberle-Mayse will be one of three featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading on Monday, August 22, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

The other featured readers will be Erin Wiles and Shane Signorino.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Julia Gordon-Bramer says:

Daniel Eberle-Mayse's greatest career obstacle may not be his prison record, tendencies to hang with ne'er-do-wells, or the fact that Facebook has tagged pictures of him drunken and unconscious under a coffee table. No, his big challenge is probably going to be surmounting his ridiculous cuteness, kind of in the way that David Cassidy, a pop star well before Daniel's time, would never be taken seriously as a musician. The fact is that this young man's scarily good poetry and prose will likely hold its own with any ugly and respected writer long after he is gone.

It's an easy connection to relate Eberle-Mayse to the beat poets like Ginsberg and Kerouac. With a closer read, however, one can glean that this boy's got about five decades of reading, writing and life experience packed into his slim emo jeans and mere 22 years. Read Daniel Eberle-Mayse and you'll find the dark weirdness of Kafka, the humorous watchfulness of Vonnegut, the confessional tones of Lowell or Sexton, and the smart word-play of Plath. Right now, Daniel is a student at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, where he is studying writing, acting, and life.

Bedroom Window

Ghost-crows play on powerlines. Shoulders
smooth sparkle planes, charcoal wings,
undulate on the edge of half-sleep
like a sick child's tummy as he heaves
but still soft.
Platitudes we can't recall.
Breathe in night wind.
It's poison like no other nostalgia.
Gliding backwards,
the breeze doesn’t go clockwise,
and the current runs both ways

-- Daniel Eberle-Mayse

Erin Wiles Featured Reader on Monday, August 22, at Duff's in the C.W.E.

Erin Wiles will be one of three featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading on Monday, August 22, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

The other featured readers will be Daniel Eberle-Mayse and Shane Signorino.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Erin Wiles hails from Ohio, where she got useless degrees in English and French while helping JKPublishing -- a homegrown, independent publisher of handmade books -- get on its feet and prosper. In 2006 she moved to Saint Louis, where she became marginally employed, started her own publishing division of JKP called the Saint Louis Projects, and had the pleasure to meet and perform with STL’s finest spoken word artists. She is co-editor of Bad Shoe, STL's only lit mag dedicated to the work of local women. She has written 2 chapbooks: Fractals (2008) and I & Apocalypse (2006), both available from JKPublishing.

10,000 Best Baby Names

Glancing at the bedside
stack of books he said he didn't know
any other girls who dug
on Rimbaud while researching
baby names. I thought there
was a good chance he hadn't ever known
any other pregnant girls at all
cuz if he had

he'd have seen the quiet hopscotch
between mortal options when one young
breeds young alone. And now that you've done
come here, baby, on your trip made so
frightfully alone, I can't say I did
quite the best thing, baby, in leaving
you live in a world that will forever leave
you, it will slip from your grasp
as easily as that first time

you will lose a helium balloon
to the shifting sky, baby. The world becomes
a pinprick that ellipses
so quickly you can never
be sure you saw it at all. People, too,
will leave you, baby, I won't wool your eyes

to say you will be all
she ever wanted, some one thing is always
wanted, and, like caught fireflies,
beauty flickers and dies
in possession. I read you
Rimbaud in utero, baby, maybe
in forewarning or bad taste, or

lack of anything else to say
but this: it will matter less
the choices you make than how
you make them, baby, and shame
is uglier than any nightmare
or four-lettered word. I can only
name you, baby, and spin this pinwheel
for you, baby, and maybe someday
I'll buy you a looking glass
and a mockingbird. Just be sure
to smash the glass,
baby, and let that bird fly free.

-- Erin Wiles

Shane Signorino Featured Reader on Monday, August 22, at Duff's in the C.W.E.

Shane Signorino will be one of three featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading on Monday, August 22, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

The other featured readers will be Daniel Eberle-Mayse and Erin Wiles.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Shane Signorino is a poet/spoken-word artist/actor/director who is currently enrolled at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville's M.A. Poetry-Writing program where he also teaches ENG 101/102. He has won numerous slam competitions in the St. Louis area, has performed with many professional theatre companies, and is working on completing his first book of poetry entitled Bughouse Bound. He dedicates this poem to his passed-on mother who continues to inform his passion for the printed word.

XIII

There are coincidences and chances from which you die laughing, and there are coincidences and chances from which you die. -- Enrique Vila-Matas

I
gotta bad luck burn needled in black on my neck's back in one forgotten roadstop shop. three-toothed tattoo artist with rough workman's hands and spaghetti western fuman moustache, dressed like a west texas cowboy who'd done his share of cattle-herding long ago, laughs: you ready to be branded, boy? boy, oh boy, am i. tilt cranking the hi-fi stereo to johnny cash moanin' through his rendition of thirteen, singin' slowly bad luck winds been blowin' at my back, i was born to bring trouble to wherever i'm at.

II
mama held midwife’s marbles and sioux indian superstitions, once handing me one silver ball medallion, first shaking it in front of my ear so i could hear the jingle jangle of tiny stars called headache charms. mama said i was cursed from birth, wrong place wrong time nursery rhyme, but this talisman could save you, son. it holds all your evil thoughts inside, chiming demons reminding you to watch your step, beware the cardinal, beware the venial, beware little white lie sins. mixing catholic, native magic, and gypsy myth.

III
stamped the bad luck familia syndrome by mama, years spent playin' endless games
of grabass with this omen monkey on my hunched over back, i quickly came to believe
mama had been onto somethin' when she warned me of crossing paths with black cats
or when she spanked me thrice for shattering her makeup mirror, or when i stumbled on my old as the hills parents mid concourse. time to walk the believer's walk straight into high-noon sun, black XIII tattoo seared into my neck flesh, leaving forever-curses behind.

IV
be careful, my boy, keep watch on that first stepping away, mama karma-whirl whispers

-- Shane Signorino

Click here to hear Shane reading XIII on Soundzine.