Liam Burke

MY BUTTHOLE IS AN ASSHOLE


A REAL JERK A TOTAL DICKWAD
LIKE A CAT UNFED AND HOWLING LIKE
A BABY BELLY GROWLING MY BUTT
HOLE IS AN ASSHOLE AN INCONSIDERATE
DINK A BLEEDER A COCKBAG A RIGHT FUCK
ER MY BUTTHOLE IS AN ASSHOLE I WISH
HE WOULD SAY SORRY LIKE EVEN JUST
ONCE AND THE JUDGE SAID HE NEEDS TO 
ATTEND THERAPY WITH ME AND BE HELD ACC
OUNTABLE AND HE ALSO OWES ME
DAMAGES AS YET TO BE DETERMINED MY BU
TTHOLE IS AN ASSHOLE AND HOLDS HOSTAGE
JEJUNUM THRU COLON AS OBSTINATELY AS
THE OTTOMANS ONCE HELD THE BOSPHORUS
AND HE IS SORE AND CHAPPED EVEN NOW AND
NEEDS CONSTANT ASSUAGING LIKE A GUILTY
TODDLER LIKE A FUCKING INCEL AND YET
TOO MUCH CONTACT MAKES HIM WORSE
SOMEHOW HE IS NOT TO BE CODDLED MY
BUTTHOLE WHO BTW IS A TOTAL ASSHOLE
AND FOR THE ELEVENTH TIME NOW HE IS
SPOTTING HE IS WEEPING AND THE WITCH
HAZEL ISNT HELPING NOR THE PREP H NOR
THE FUCKING DIAPER RASH CREAM AND
I AM AT MY WITS END CONSIDERING GETTING
MY PARENTS INVOLVED MAYBE CALL
ING THE SCHOOL BUT MY BUTTHOLE
IS SUCH AN ASSHOLE SUCH A SPIDERFUCKER
SUCH A BLACK HOLE OF A FUN SUCKER THAT
I DONT KNOW EVEN THAT WILL GET THE RUSTY
NAILS OUT OF ME AND MY BUTTHOLE
THE COMPLETE AND UTTER ASSHOLE

brain pome draft 2

“Neurons that fire together wire together”
-
Hippocrates

“Some day the path becomes a roller coaster
and you traverse the same, stuck to the path
no matter what strategies you’ve learned, what items
you brought this time.”
-
brain pome draft 1

today i talked myself down again im getting better
at piloting this thing i can press the right
switches in the right order can even perform basic
maintenance resolder the odd synapse fire the right
chemicals to reboot the connection even remember
to do some of it sometimes ¹²³

____________________

¹ every day is a roguelike if you think about it
you wake up a little wiser to the game’s bullshit
+ past playthrus will allow some of that wisdom² to come thru
but not all of it and certainly not all at once

² i would like to know where wisdom is held
in the body because it is surely
not held in the brain and if indeed not
held in the brain then nor the head³ and
nor is it held in the neck and nor is it held
in the shoulders perhaps the appendix
or the jejunum or the left little toe

³ all i want to know is
when id bash my head
on the stairs til i saw stars
as a kid was i sending
some doom counter ticking
down some unhallowed howling
track

Liam Burke (he/him/himbo) lives in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe land. He is most recently the co-author of ‘Orbital Cultivation’ with Manahil Bandukwala (Collusion, 2021) and 'machine dreams' with natalie hanna (Collusion, 2021) which was shortlisted for the 2022 bpNichol Chapbook Award. His poem “Can we locate souls in space? The pairing problem, solved”, co-written with Manahil Bandukwala, was shortlisted for the 2022 Austin Clarke Award.