SACRIFICE THE SATELLITE

b/w

MILKY SKIES
by

RICHARD MILLETT
“Sacrifice The Satellite” and “Milky Skies”
written by Richard Millett © 2018
Published by Fluxlife Inc.
Photography, Layout & Design- Earl Todteman
Conceptual Continuity- Earl Todteman

fluxlifeinc@yahoo.com makethingseasy.blogspot.com scribd.com/Fluxlifeinc youtube.com/user/Fluxlifeinc

Other titles in this series:

Radar/Grain- Tracing The Dim Signal- Water b/w Fingernail In My Salad- Scatter- Scatter/Mild Life/T. & W.- Life
Isn't Hard b/w Mild Life- The Aluminum Farm- The Zen Transference Manual- It Went Red- The First Four Years-
Splish!- The Splish! Supplement- Splish Reconsidered- Swim To The Center- Oranges- Present- Communism Is
Grand- The Sampler- Statements Anti Statements- Sunrise On The Caina Islands- Remember b/w Thank You-
Your Future Your Freedom- This Is What Freedom Looks Like- God Bless The Guests At The Banquet- Salt Or
Light- Laughter At The Wake b/w 49 Day Process- Always, All The Time b/w Miss You In The Morning

RMIII
Moments before dawn If it was happening While lights flicked on
phone ringing from impressions borne in neighbors’ windows
unable to suss in shallow sleep
- -
Or as the drift seized me back in Threatened by rivals Where I was supposed
we were gun runners but I was able to to summon assistance
trapped in a house slither out a side door but decided instead
detained by police and snuck away to a café “the hell with them”
- -
I was called to a room There they sat From their mouths
the walls of the hallway were blue looking exactly as they did in 1984 but the words
and when I entered when one spoke there was no sound synced loudly in my skull

Crushed flowers float downstream

in the rainwater
and handmade smokestacks
drip steam
on half awake
blades of grass
new nuns
count the grey hairs
of their predecessors
as they scan old photographs
will they question
who’s alive in heaven?
are their words
papering a mountain?
They will have a moment
where they behold the
beauty of an empty screen
or unplowed snow covered street

Lost in a world between

Are the souls who only dream
when looking up
Thick shimmering
splotches of gray grease
liquify and start to drip down
rust colored walls of skins
watched by a babe with a
flashbulb embedded in their wrist
who sits on
gouged black and gold tiles
in the center of a
disused ballroom dancefloor
among carelessly flung piles
of metal pronged monitors, cords, discs
spilled coffee grounds,
broken vodka bottles, and
asymmetrical platinum wigs
every year there’s a whisper
the inventory will
get a clean transfer
Winston DuBois knew The younger Best brother thinks-
the recovered money was if only I were CEO
wrapped in a mosquito net buying companies whose
and secured in the back of a carriage names I don’t know
the horse stopped in front of an airforce base and could leverage my credibility
which got inadvertently captured on videotape to simultaneously flaunt
with the footage dissected by theorists for decades my status and champion myself as an obscurity

Desmond Hampton learned The older Best brother thinks-

Tony Chamberlain had double crossed him if only I were an oligarch
as he drank milk and and had a tapestry of machinery
clapped erasers together outside to do what I want
his classroom live in seclusion
his signature had been forged invest in rare art
and hidden throughout the system and pay for a hooker who looks like my daughter
- -

Lost in a world between

Are the souls who only dream
when looking up
The beams of starshine light land everywhere and
leave valley wide fingerprints for seven years
Minute glass tubes can shiver w/o bursting squid ink
on glistening diamonds laid out on linens
Spirals scrawled on maps w/ the location leading
inside a puzzle box while fungus slides up to a
microscope and mixes with vinegar and bleach
Circles of sapphires line the linoleum tile with a
surface so improbably clear it mimics a screen
IIIIIIIVVVIVIIVIIIIX
Lost in a world between
Are the souls who only dream
when looking up
XIIIIVIIVIVVVIIIIIII
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Ocqi onwa owom Ocqi onwa owom Ocqi onwa owom

cvv
Without forethought
I was in a state of unstable concentration
With my sense of decency tested
I stared at celeste colored veins
And remembered how they were made
I was reminded
Of the worm, thankful to be placed
Back in the dirt, after
suffering a two inch
gash on its side, from careless shoveling
The youngest lady
Stops weeping and waiting and
Steps into invisibility
Her velvet lined pockets
Filled with small wreaths
Of braided bluestems
While embarrassed at
How much she once
admired her mother’s
broaches, she now fully
blushes at her wish to
own an ocean full of stone
Her friends repeatedly
Requested questions
Only furthers her hesitation
So she leaves a small
note of explanation
“Life is grossly inelegant
in its demands that one
must impatiently forget
chores performed with red
impressions left intact from
knots affixed to ankles & wrists
as if the sores never existed”

Shock of copper curls

Cerulean halos in his eyes
considers his environment and
with his shoulders pinned back
adjusts his balance
and stands straight up in his raft
the one idea that
has possessed him so
vanishes out from his mind
pierces the sea, then its
velocity escapes gravity
and reaches away past the sky
but he fears no lack of purpose
or whether this time has been meaningless
he has total devotion to
the base truth of his vocation
his ankles give way
and he falls back gently
lands on his hands
while some water splashes in
he considers those who would
deride his actions and thinks
“I don’t require any clothes
I’d rather remain naked for everyone”
I felt watched when
I first voluntarily
gave away confidential information
then tried to explain
the layout of San Antonio
to a stranger who never knew
I’d never been there before
And now, as minutes become limitless
Any vows I made always sustained me
I felt watched when
My thinking was clean
and capable of strict
reasoning, and I rode along
freshly painted runways,
left notes on license plates,
brambles, and high chairs
And now, as lassitude disintegrates
Any vows I made remain unchanged
I felt watched when
my legs were
bathed in a heat
as persistent and unruly
as a bat taunting a seal
repeatedly landing on its
shoulder and squealing
And now, as fury impassively fades
Any vows I made could never break
I felt watched when
I attended ten
drawing classes and
attempted to finish
a full circle, freehand
without interference between
thought and motion
And now, that my hands are patient
Any vows I made are everything
Here she flies, Here she flies
and now we know
if the promises
made more than
ten years ago
have been kept
Here she flies, Here she flies
with two pens,
rosary, brass paper weight
earrings, locket,
and measurements
written on a business card
Here she flies, Here she flies
gums and hair receded
a miniature
brace for a baby
wrapped in greyed,
hardened plastic
Here she flies, Here she flies
with an oxygen tank
bubbling ceaselessly
a uhf channel
on the television showing
an old western silently
Here she flies, Here she flies
while I stand
with tentative confirmation
a glass of thickened water
and three
empty white boxes
Here she flies, Here she flies
with skin like marble
over winding staircases
and rooms with
sea foam colored walls
and intimidating machinery