He sits naked in the corner of the basement
scribbling at white heat into a ledger
venting his wrath via the medium of a ballpen
letters and words spilling like septic sewage
distancing himself from one personal flaw after the other
laying blame elsewhere
everyone in the world but him
the fucking incompetent builder he partnered with
the fucking filthy pigs that were his mother, father and family
the fucking hole he thought was his girlfriend, fucking dyke
soaking and bloating the sheets with anger
his eyes rolling up into a trance
only the whites showing
and the tattoos on his torso—sharks
starting to circulate fluidly
tensing into circular formation
moving in for the kill . . . 

Celluloid Desserts

Alec Kowalczyk

you know the silent picture where the mustachioed villain ties the heroine to the railroad tracks? well, in an early avant-garde production, the hero arrives too late. the villain is apprehended, tried and convicted. he is given the death sentence. but not before he spends considerable time in a hard-core penitentiary. where he is routinely gang-banged by prison guards and convicts alike (including the warden on one occasion to show who was boss). until he is screaming to be allowed to die. at which point the prison system grants his wish. and he is immediately dispatched to a railroad siding. where he is tied securely to the metal rails . . .

long before the train appeared as a spot at the end of the converging tracks. he felt its approach in the gauge of the rails. the speeding locomotive increasing to monstrous proportions as it highballed closer. suddenly switched at the last moment to a parallel siding. coupled to that . . .

the trains were running exceedingly slow that day . . .

Alec Kowalcyzk is a native of South Troy, New York. Civil engineer by day with an interest in the mechanics of poetry. Published in PIF, Red River Review, CHIZINE,  and other sites listed on the Internet.