A fool's bargain

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[EDITOR'S NOTE: The following three-poem movement was originally published in the Zurich based Journal for Medicinal and Literative Endeavors in January 1919 and was unattributed to Spinke, who usually wrote under the less-Jewish-sounding pseudonym, Wilhelm Ganswrangler. In this journal, however, Spinke generally published anonymously, as is the case with this contribution.]


I. “Summer”

Whoops! I killed everybody in the pool
or spa water
The corrosive became eyes
For the child by The Man,
and breathed up cucumber martinis—

Don’t drink out of the toilet and the flange
Could be made in the currency of the country
where the child is in the hospital.

The deep end of the world?
Items should be placed in
a Vacuum,
Created in the image of the Day is Done,
And the darkness is a novella that is a long time ago...

A spotted bikini top
Wades over and bares
Jacob a second son.
And his family,
Paper Dolls in Full Color
on both sides of the brain and nervous system.
Brain and spinal cord.
Injury and disease.

An accident always waits
until the summer of love is in the devil’s dictionary.


II. “Autumn”

Crushed dry leaves and flowers
In the attic is a better way:
to value a business.
By name? or by asking the Right questions
In your own Backyard.

The Steelers tromp the Jets!
Oh, But they’re not Telling you about
The Election of the President of the Republic of the Congo.

Amber sandwiches and shallow water processes
The United Nations Children’s Fund
is a fund that invests in a mix of Sun and Moon,
and the Sun’s Joules:

“Bring all canned food to worldwide markets”
“The World’s Ugliest Dog contest”
A musky breeze breathes faded jeans and music,

Charlie Brown stops him, and says he is not A Loaf of Bread
and Other Bakery Products are forecast
at million compared with million.
In the first World War, the Western Front is a boundary survey?
a way of life
a Miracle that we are not Afraid.
a civil right by the number of the Beast,

And soon it will be Halloween


III. “Winter”

Double knit sweaters have gone out of fashion for the whole family;
Melting icicles drip down
the sides of fresh salmon and avocado brain—
Vegetable aisle, missed

“Eaten by crocodiles and you do not have a will?”
Insurance ended at the Florida state line,
But on they roam:
Up the purple foothills and hunting
through waving wheat.

Arctic fishermen and scientists to track
Thermometer migration patterns over the next years to come,
—of the Indestructible Man—
“Try the frozen food section,”
Warns leading climate expert Jeremy Akkad.

The crowds of teenagers
With permafrosted tips,
the season’s hottest hairdo,
Cheer as everyone, of all races and creeds,
Gets coal in his stocking.

War was the first to know about Mercury
in fish, and shellfish. From the North Pole,
The point of No Return:
The roadside diners outside of town
may or may not have the shaved ice you wanted.

Snowmen and women pack their belongings,
Sell their fourteen carat nose rings:

They are moving to the mountains
And converting to Buddhism.