Saturday, October 25, 2025

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

 


Saturday, October 18, 2025

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

 


Saturday, October 11, 2025

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

 


Saturday, October 4, 2025

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

Saturday, September 27, 2025

The Portal is Ajar (dress rehearsal)

A cross-cultural consortium
Aunties and uncles in zero gravity scoop chairs 
Solipsists and hospitalists and 
Artists drawn to things
Philosophical philanderers cum philanthropists
Imagists, aesthetes, penitents, polyglots
Nutcases, outcasts
Geodesists and bioinformatic racketeers 
Overton window glaziers
Hikikomori probate lawyers
A couple of crusaders and their exes
The dude who coined the phrase
It’s dope to go to church
Fertility industry execs grinding rails
Boi and Grrrl Scouts going hard
Crypto divinities with a ferocious work ethic
Spanking their avatars
Scary, but not that scary
Music by Bohuslav Martinu
With notes of plum and cherry.



Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

 



Saturday, September 20, 2025

The Influencer Reported on X

My social media has exploded.
From snippets to billboards
Booked full throttle 
Charting everywhere 
A thick lush forest 
Of reveals and release dates 
A cool, deep house
Now with speed pro and ultra kick 
Gluten free and vegan upon request
My brand right now?
An absolute A-blast!

But it’s funny because people always ask
Are you satisfied with your feed?
And I always respond with yeah/but 
Yeah there's a ton of money to be found 
But it’s tricky, being as how infinite a number of
Realities there are in this unscripted universe.
Those who profess to need nothing lack everything.
Including a handsome king.
But no, um, yeah
I feel like an Emmy nod is due me.
Outstanding sumpin sumpin series.

On the flip I hooked a podcast deal,
I’m releasing my third pro shoe,
My mouse and my shapewear 
Are the same Prussian shade of blue
As the rizzy new pitch deck you’re reading, 
I’ve partnered with (can’t say who!),
My TikToks do Best Numbers
And my decision to play arenas instead of stadiums
Is an artistic one,
Existential and exponential,
And platformed as such.

I launched 
Kind of indie.
I dropt
An exercise in sinking up.
Kind of 
Yeah
Minimalism to the max,
To the point of almost no return.
Full disclosure: I’ve only been once.
I remain in not that big of a rush.


Copyright 2025 Randy Stark

 


Thursday, September 18, 2025

Production by Neil Novello

 

For video interpretations of some of my earlier poems please visit Production by Neil Novello

In addition, you’ll find a collection of Mr. Novello’s video artistry in a wide range of topics from locales around the globe.