DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE GHOSTS

FUCK THE TRUTH AND FUCK THE HELPLESS AND FUCK THE PAIN THEY'RE FORCED TO ENDURE

BITCHIN’  KITSCH.

DAMN  STRAIGHT.

https://issuu.com/chris_talbot/docs/bkvol11issue2issuu.........................................

 

these malachite days

and are you sorry you grew up
believing in someone else’s truths or
maybe just sorry you grew up at all?


are you tired of all the
less obvious reasons?


imagine it


the dogs will fuck and the
dogs will bleed and then the wolves
will come down from the hills
to eat your young


don’t waste your life
looking for someone who cares


witches are always burned by
men who proclaim themselves
                                          holy


crippled gods are always
invented by twisted minds


find yourself in this picture then
work on getting out

ALWAYS FUCKING THE WRONG GHOSTS

METONYM

https://www.metonymjournal.com/store/metonym-volume-x

Words on paper.

Who knew?

BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW WHOSE FAULT IT WAS

MARKING TIME WITH THE IDEA OF TRUTH

coward

what you want is for someone to

pay you to bleed but
                         really
             no one cares

either fake your own suicide or
go through with it
but just don’t call me to cry

just don’t forget to feed the cats,

to untie the children

set fire to your poems

for once just let them

give off a little light & warmth
before they’re gone
for good

 

TRIPPIN' BALLS

I was half-right when I decided that my most recent painting was putting me back on the right track.  A few touch-ups later, and I think I'm finally onto something...….

...THE FALSE KING, WHOSE DEATH....

NEW ADVENTURES IN EXISTENTIAL NIHILISM

FILLING IN THOSE

DARKEST CORNERS FOR

WRITERS IN

THE KNOW

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1752537

I REMEMBER ASKING IF YOU BELIEVED IN THE FUTURE

GOING

WITH

THE

FLOW

https://rajdronamraju.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/21st-century-flow-issue-7.pdf

TAKING YOUR PLACE IN THIS NEW AGE OF DYING

MY OWN BITTER INTERPRETATIONS OF THE TRUTH

SOLID STATE

TRANSCENDENCE

@ WINAMOP

http://www.winamop.com/jsw2000.htm

 

CONFESSION ISN'T ART

WHAT AM I

IF NOT A BOYSLUT?

https://boyslutmagazine.com/2020/03/17/2-poems-john-sweet/

IN PURSUIT OF A LIFE OF BOHEMIAN DECADENCE

Getting back into some painting, the first few attempts came nowhere near to cutting the mustard, now I finally think I'm starting to get on the right track.....

THE GIFT OF FEAR, WHICH IS ALL YOU EVER REALLY WANTED

THE ROPE IS TOO TIGHT, THE MOMENT IS RUINED

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

yet another oldie from

BLOGNOSTICS

https://blognostics.net/blognostics-an-innovative-experience-in-literature-poetry-and-art/2019/04/26/jesus-dying-for-yr-sins-by-john-sweet/

EVERYONE YOU LOVE BECOMES A VICTIM

My record-keeping sucks.

And blows.

One I missed from

BLOGNOSTICS

https://blognostics.net/blognostics-an-innovative-experience-in-literature-poetry-and-art/2019/04/04/aint-no-one-getting-out-of-this-life-alive-by-john-sweet/

THE FINE ART OF EXISTENTIAL PANIC

THIS LIFE OF GLAMOR CAN BE YOURS TOO!

We are grateful for your interest, and for the opportunity to read your poems. We have carefully considered your work, but unfortunately, your submission does not meet our current needs.

Best wishes,

The Editors





NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN







Thanks for letting us read your work. Unfortunately, we've decided this batch is not quite right for us. We wish you the best of luck in your continued writing.

Sincerely,



The Editors





NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN







Dear JOHN SWEET,



Thank you for submitting our journal of poetry. We enjoyed reading your work. Unfortunately, we feel we must pass at this time.



Though we are unable to comment specifically on individual pieces, the journal relies on unsolicited submissions so we take great care with the work that comes our way. We hope you will continue reading Glass and we look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.



We wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere, and with all your writing endeavors.



Sincerely,



The Editors





NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN







Dear JOHN SWEET,



Thank you for allowing us to spend time with your poems, which were among ~1300 poems we received and read for the our spring 2020. Your poems received four readings by the issue’s editors, but have not been selected. Since we’re writers ourselves, we know from experience that this is not a message that’s easy to receive.



We are honoured that you thought of us. The small journal movement can’t survive without readers and writers like you. Your submission means two things: first, you have the faith in your own work and its potential to reach all of us who read poetry; second, you believe literary culture can sustain us and make our lives more vibrant and complete.



We wish you the best of luck with your writing.



Sincerely,



The Editors







NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN









Dear John Sweet,



Hope this message finds you well. Thank you for sending us your lovely poems. After careful consideration and review, we regret that your poems will not be included in our publication at this time. Regardless, it remains an honour and a privilege to have read your work. 



We enjoy a deep respect and appreciation for you as an artist. It is our top priority to create a beautiful publication focused on value and visibility for writers. If you have another piece you would like us to consider, we welcome the opportunity to see more of your work. Please note, we only consider work from the same artist every three months.



Thank you again for your wonderful submission. We wish you much success and look forward to a lasting relationship with you.



Sincerely,



The Editors







NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN







Dear john sweet,

Thank you very much for sharing your work with us. After careful consideration, we've decided this submission isn't right for us. We appreciate your interest in the journal and wish you luck in placing your work elsewhere.

Sincerely,



The Editors





NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN









I actually got a rejection from some dude last year who said “Oh my god, I have read already read these exact poems a thousand times this week!  Don’t you have anything original to say?!  Seriously, where are the real writers these days?”



I actually thought my work was a little heavier than the white rice & tapwater mush he was currently publishing, so I felt it only fair to tell him that.  I might have called him a pretentious cocksucker, too.  My memory isn’t what it used to be.  All in all, it was a very brief but wholly satisfying relationship.

 

NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET IN A NATION OF COWARDS

always arriving back at

BLOGNOSTICS

https://blognostics.net/blognostics-an-innovative-experience-in-literature-poetry-and-art/2020/03/06/the-heart-scraped-bare-by-john-sweet/

SERIOUSLY - LET'S CALL A BRAINDEAD FUCKHOLE A BRAINDEAD FUCKHOLE

It is clear the United States is going to suffer a full-blown epidemic of novel coronavirus, and quite possibly a financial crisis and recession as a result. The disease is spreading fast in multiple states, and the government's response has fallen far short of the efforts even in much smaller countries like the U.K. or South Korea.

It would have been quite difficult to stop this from happening — but not impossible. President Trump is responsible for the agencies in charge of disease control in this country, and he has utterly botched it.

To contain a viral outbreak, speed and precision are very important. When any new disease appears, there are of course only a few cases. Identifying, isolating, and treating infected people can halt the disease before it gets out into the wild and starts spreading on its own — but on the other hand, even a single infected person out in public can cause dozens of new cases, so authorities must also be ready to identify anyone who gets through the quarantine net and track anyone they contacted, as fast as possible.

Vietnam managed to contain its coronavirus outbreaks with exactly these tactics, despite bordering China, where the virus originated. As soon as the first handful of cases were reported, the Vietnamese authorities declared an epidemic emergency. They quarantined all the infected cases, rigorously tracked anyone who had come in contact with them, and started mass testing travelers and citizens. In affected areas, schools were shut down, and whole cities were placed on temporary lockdown. Planes and classrooms were regularly disinfected. The government even produced a snappy pop song about avoiding contamination.

It worked — by late February Vietnam had kept its cases to just 16, and no further spread was noted. Of course, they are not remotely out of the woods yet, given how the disease is spreading elsewhere. One single person who was traveling in Europe and didn't tell border officials apparently re-introduced the virus to Vietnam recently, and clampdown measures are back in effect.

At any rate, by December at the latest it was clear that there was a major danger that novel coronavirus was going to get out of China. Sensible countries by this point started mass-producing testing kits, instructing border officials to take hygiene precautions and prepare to test travelers coming from affected countries, educating the public about ways to avoid infecting themselves and others, securing stockpiles of key medical supplies, readying the medical system to quarantine infected people, and setting up contact-tracking systems.

In the United States, the president is the only person who could have set this process in motion. But Trump did nothing. He had spent the previous several years hacking away at the government's pandemic response capacity, including firing "the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure," but he did not reverse those cuts. Nor did he provide any pre-emptive funding to cash-strapped public health departments across the country who would be the first line of defense. Nor did he instruct the Centers for Disease Control or border officials to start gearing up in a serious way. Nor did he try to arrange health coverage for anyone caught in quarantine, which he could do via executive order.

Instead, he mostly did the only things Trump knows how to do: angrily blame Democrats and the media, lie about what was happening, and live-tweet Fox News. The fragments of the CDC that still exist were caught flat-footed and did not have even close to enough testing capacity — which explains why there have been so few confirmed cases but so many deaths. A nurse under quarantine reported Kafkaesque dysfunction at the agency last week. Federal health workers were sent to deal with infected patients without proper equipment or training, possibly spreading the virus, according to a whistleblower.

About the only thing the administration did do was belatedly close off travel from China and other countries — but by then it was far too late, with the virus already spreading in Washington and elsewhere. There was even reportedly a live case at the recent CPAC conference, which Trump attended.

Overall, the U.S. response looks much more like Iran's than it does Vietnam. It has fallen to states and city governments to carry out responses of their own in piecemeal fashion. Washington state has reportedly finally brought a big bunch of new testing capacity online — which will surely cause diagnosed case numbers to skyrocket. New York is following in its footsteps.

To be sure, the United States has severe defects that make it unusually vulnerable to a pandemic. Our lousy health-care system leaves tens of millions uninsured — meaning a trip to the doctor risks bankruptcy for them. We also have no national sick leave, so many will probably go to work sick and infect others because they simply cannot afford to take time off.

On the other hand, novel coronavirus is far from the most contagious virus in history. Unlike measles, it cannot spread simply through the air — it requires droplets. The U.S. should have been able to stop the disease before it got out, in which case the crumbling health care system and lack of paid leave would have been irrelevant.

Furthermore, the U.S. has greater ability to coordinate an international response than any other country. Vietnam could not round up all the major countries of the world and pressure them to adopt best practices, much less drop billions of dollars helping those that might struggle to do so — but America could. Indeed, President Obama did exactly this with the response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014, with great success. Nobody else has stepped into that leadership role, either; Trump's fecklessness may be part of the reason the outbreak has gotten so bad in poorer-governed European countries like Italy.

Donald Trump is the most incompetent president in history. For three years America dodged any major catastrophes because of it by pure luck (except for Puerto Rico). But today our number is up.

   -  Ryan Cooper

(the face of a man shitting his pants and enjoying it immensely)