2026

 I hope to have a new book out in March.

www.randystark.com

Performativity

Brands extending from banned to 

Once again now arriving

And clockwise from 

Fashion, style, food, and drink

To total skin and wellness.

Autoplay stays stuck on taciturn

And comes with a side of sticky rice.

The perfect hail Mary

Blush cheeks, dark red lips, pale skin

Eco-effervescent and probiotic.

Scraping data from websites

With dual extended playlists and 

Spun up by self-curators 

Flexing flux-dripping platforms

Heat maps for drilling.

Some white girl, pretty

Future focused

Taking it in the app

To maximize her engagements

Shaping my world in real time.

Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

www.randystark.com

Tatjana

Tousled thunderous mischief-making clouds

A double rainbow to the west 

Like kids kissing in the crosswalk

Mouths dealing with big new teeth

The barista provided oxygen to me

Says she saw lightning, “Two of them!”

Tatjana, she’s pretty

With daddy’s valet’s nose

And mommy’s interdisciplinarity 

Her arc is on shuffle

Brisk, golden muscles

Smoking hot thighs.

Later that night

All alerts high

All responses elevated

She’s like 

I’m like 

Viewer discretion advised. 

Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

www.randystark.com

Live Traffic Update

Stay clear of disabling fire

Make plans for safe shelter

Clemency is out of the question.

Forget famine, slave trade, wars and genocides.

The greatest human upheaval in history occurred

When hundreds of millions of people migrated

From movie theaters to on-demand internet.

Healthy spending is good for you.

And with digital coupons at our fingertips

And deep space preinstalled

The kiosk cannot be ignored.

A life unmonetized is not worth living.

Poetry is just so many words

One-trick-ponypersonship

On any one-horse slaying day.

Not everybody looks like their name.

Ask your personal wealth partner

Ask your doctor

Ask your rabbi or priest.

Saviors playing straight man.

Nature may be timeless but the size of the

Drunken wolfpack in ill-fitting sheep's garb

Has almost nearly doubled.

Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

www.randystark.com

 

Beyond the Pale of Stray and Distant Skies

Highest payouts for your scrap

Ferrous and non-ferrous

10 public scales

Xperienced metal sorters

Zero waiting around

Half phlebotomist, half curandero 

She said she was born in Roswell, New Mexico

(Before the aliens came)

And she could tell you 

All the wrong places to start over.

It wasn’t the worst thing ever

When he beat the shit out of her, she said.

It wasn’t like the love of her life

She was devastated type of thing.

Dude he literally like was addicted to glue.

You look like a nice guy, she said 

You look like the kind of guy

If he had money in his wallet 

He’d buy a person a meal.

Looks can be deceiving, I said. 

My oxidative stress is through the roof,

My failure to file a flight plan has impacted

My nonlinear consumer journeys,

My credit score is on the chopping block,

My agency hangs in the imbalance.

I guess that’s why we’re both here, she said.

Domiciled trackside in the maze

Of Cartesian epidemiology,

United in solitude and partnership 

Under pale, stray and distant skies.

Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

www.randystark.com

 

For Me What Works

I am a little camera

Attached to a gondola

Poled through a data moat.

My personal factory setting aesthetic: 

All twists peppermint, 

All posts true.

A caring professional

Interrogating fairy tale endings

Vortices aswirl.

Trend lines doglegging

Now swept out to sea

Now de rigueur.

Naivete is not what it used to be.

The spend is different.

I will not rest until I am no more.

And there’s no reason for you not to

Make what you have done 

The basis for everything you do, too.

Of course.

No worries.

Perfect.

Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

www.randystark.com

 

I Got the Go-Ahead

So I went ahead and I

Grabbed

Slammed

Scrambled

Swished

Scraped

Passed

Spawned

Found

Visted

Connected

Read

Searched

Contacted

Discovered

Cleansed

Assessed

Consulted

Tracked

Adjusted

Joined

Rejuvenated

Revitalized.

Late stage capitalism

Had me feeling positively

Riding down the constellation transfer trail 

Yet passively Jurassic

I designed 

I surfed

I bought and sold

I resident managed

I sharpshot

I surveyed

I savored responsibly

I haberdashed and door dashed

I registered, planned, subscribed, attended

I filed an amended petition

I glam rocked

I pet groomed

I concrete cut

I party supplied

I money treed

I can collected

I skydove

I tamale vended

I fished from shore 

I acted

I farmed

I supported

I reported

I resorted

I chatted

I messaged

I specialized

I wondered

I danced

I glanced.

And dennon toppa dat

Like safari fencing with razor wire tonsure  

I studied feasibility

I showed and shared

I carried a populated field

I enhanced the display

I racial profiled

I captive bred

I banned, I barred, I blocked

I turned and I looked

I squinted

I peered

I dropped

I shot

I found

I downloaded 

I purchased

I chill-pilled

I dried before crushing

I managed anger

I wrecked taboos

I scurried

I flurried

I liberated

I masturbated

I juggled

I posted up

I transferred out

I crossed over

I catered to

I flew in

I spent time

I filtered

I slathered

I roasted

I pressed

I tagged

I swiped, I sifted, I competed.

And like all Americans my age

It got to where 

I felt, I believed, I thought 

I charted an etiology of biogenetic cake

I gave up dreaming at night

I accepted notions

Kept text only

Served and redeemed

Trucked

Fucked

Ducked

Duckwalked

Jetskied 

Mumbled

Crouched

Stood

Flipped

Pawed

Pulled

Plugged

Mugged

Dug

In that order.

My only thing though is

I didn’t have enough sense to leave wellness fairs alone

I accepted notions

I kept text only

I traced

I funded

I smoked

I waded, boated, fished

I even said to Julie

I said Julie I said

Girl I tried so very hard

I showed

I showered

I explained

I glowered

I bled

But I never took root

I reached out but I never heard back

Consumed a ton of culture

But there was no future in it.

I skipped

I leashed

I stopped

I swept

I redacted

I scrambled

Snaked

Raced

Squealed

Leaned

Walked

Sped

I was gonna do a honey latte

But I timed myself out instead.

Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

www.randystark.com