Monday, July 2, 2012

Secret Brush Strokes

by Marcus Speh


Jungle beans. Arctic 
badgers. Green steaks. 
Following clouds. Tarnished 
vagabonds. Ludicrous 
fingers. Fantastic booleans. 

Waxing lyrically. Must stop. Back 
to basics. Verbs. Nouns. Places. 
Placemats. Cutlery. Action. Plot.
Poop.

I’m a gentle dragon’s fierce egg. 
Not quite clear who I’m going to be 
once I hatch, not even to me.

My heart’s got a spout 
and some red thing 
comes out of it. It 
walks next to me, 
talks reason, makes me 
fall in love.

(Witty writing tends to 
wilt unless it’s Wilde.)

At the harbor, he could
hear the muffled sounds
of a fog horn calling lost 
mermaids and footloose 
lovers by their true names.



Writing at home while rain fingers
sing Chorals on the window sill.

A young man madly in pursuit 
of sound, milking rather than 
playing the keyboard, shouts 
at invisible musical ghosts.

One day a girl almost
destroyed the world by
making a single secret
brush stroke.

Her lids fluttered uncontrollably 
as she struggled to leave 
the cocoon. The butterfly 
catcher put his finger on her 
tiny head and squished it. 
He had no need for fairies.

Stay with us or if you can’t, 
don’t, but then go where we 
can’t see you and if you can’t
do that, then don’t go, please.



MARCUS SPEH is a German writer who lives in Berlin and writes in English. His short fiction has been published in elimae, kill author, PANK and elsewhere. First published in 2009 at Metazen, his work has been nominated for a Micro Award, two Pushcart Prizes, two Best of the Net awards and two Million Writers Awards, and was longlisted for the Paris Literary Prize. Known as a staunch supporter of penguin rights and maitre d' of the legendary DADA venue Kaffe in Katmandu, he blogs in English at marcusspeh.com and in German at marcusspeh.de. MadHat Press will release Marcus' collection of short fiction, Thank You For Your Sperm, later this year.

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