The Art of Tetman Callis

monday morning elevator ride up to the officeriding with a slender young woman whose long copper hairlooks wet and is parted all awry she yawns and groanssays, excuse me i straighten my tie in the elevator’s mirrored wall the yawning copper-haired woman looks at the elevator’s floorlooks at the elevator’s ceilingwhispers, whisper the elevator’s bell […]

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it has been quiet since your last call.no faxes.no visitors.nothing of note in the mail. still at my desk i sit, still.the sun slips free of its bank of low clouds,dropping slowly to its january horizon. the branches of the grey trees are yellow.i will go home now. (Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.) Share this… […]

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it’s almost time for me to go to the office,to see my smiling, sober, successful boss,do some work for him and keep him fromknowing that his assistant (me)is this morning ever so somewhat intoxicated(stoned) and contemplating how it is my lifehas turned out to be not quite the life i wanted (Copyright 2023 by Tetman […]

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skinny junkies drag their squalling childrenby their wrists through parking lots at discount chains. rusting junkers’ ancient engines idle in the artificial light. skinny junkies in hip-hugging pantsentice odd bookish lads who ought to be at home. tattooed hate boys wearing women-beatersrule the restless night, scrapping over scraps. cops cruise whores who cruise for copless […]

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frightened girls who want to be loved take whatever they’re givenconvincing themselves that lies are truethat being robbed is the same as freely giving frightened girls who want to be loved are blessings to the vaincursings to themselvessubject at any time of night or day to random boot and slamming fist frightened girls who want […]

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god’s covenant expired in the year of our lord the zinc penny,impaled on the axis running from the berlin of the wannsee conferenceto the chicago of the fermic pile we live now as debtorsowing borrowed time greatly in excess of annual income the animal smarter than wise,cursed fat-head with opposable thumbs,the show-stopping act of the […]

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my daddy isso cool he speaksgerman and smokespot flirts with girlshalf his age drivesat twice the limiton the wrongside of the roadeats the candies hefinds on the floortakes me forwalks in roughneighborhoods looksevil in the eyebelieves there isnothing about himselfor his life thatisn’t a waste (Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter […]

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twice in ten days, in neighborhoods five milesapart, the same woman has approached meon the streets. frantic, animated, hell-benton death, her cheeks ravaged, her breasts high and firmunderneath her nondescript shirts, her entirebeing a suppressed scream of junkie and whore,i paid no attention to the detailsof her story. it’s always the same story.i’ve flirted with […]

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we woke up, wearing clothes and carrying weaponswe woke up, our women carrying babies on their hipsas we wandered the dry, sun-drenched plains we woke up to find ourselves living in crowded citiesdrinking beer in the cool, dark shopsgrinding grain and gossiping by the city wallswatching the seasons and marking the starscalculating when to plant […]

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the latest true messiah has arrived in townhe’s wearing sunglasseshe’s here to dedicate the new power plant he has a winning smilehe wears a fine blue shirt and points this way and thathe says he’d love to stay a while longer and talk some more with us if only he couldbut he has so very […]

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he holds me downhe says, widerhe says, deeperhe says, you shall have no other before mehe says, you shall learn to love me for this he fills me up, it hurts every timehe waits in the morning for mehe stands in the doorwayi turn my face away (Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.) Share this… Facebook […]

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trim my fingernailswash my dirty clothespress my wrinkled shirtshine my dusty shoesbuy some groceriesclean my living roomburn my memoriesmend my broken hearthug my only childclose my tired eyes (Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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dear lord,if i take this cup of bitter dregs you’ve given me to drinkand dash it against your rock,will sweet, cool water flow, washing away the knifing shards?will there be enough to quench my thirst and cleanse myself? or will i simply find myself still stuck in your immense desert,with only my cupped, supplicating hands, […]

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i thought it was because they were poor that they didn’t havesliding glass doors in vietnam during the war my father walked right into ours after he came back knocked his glasses offleft a smudge he said he wasn’t used to sliding glass doors the dog had run into the door, tooonce, in a hurry, […]

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there is something inside myselfsoft and sweet as fresh marshmallowbut somewhat more alive— there it isover in the cornerscuttering away by the baseboardsnot in its persistence to be underestimatedit can in its reshaping shape itself from animal to plantlike a weed grown out of the spot where a cockroach was crushed underfootsuch a mess—there! wth […]

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where am i in a world that goes only round and round where am i under night-time helicoptersand every next-door dog at bark where am i under hand claps just outside the bathroom windowand sounds of pistol fire from two-three blocks away another helicopter flies overseptember’s nights are too warmspiders climb the walls neighbor-boys play […]

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i turn on the television while i roll my first joint.markets are rising and falling.the japanese are calling for calm.the spa i summered in seasons ago has been destroyed by intelligent bombs.the chinese are demanding revenge.the vengeful are demanding chinese.there’s cold carry-out in the refrigerator, on the bottom shelf. i roll my second joint.it’s another […]

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Trailer Park Quarterly Issue Four has been published. It contains one of my poems (“Supermarket”) and can be found at: http://www.sundresspublications.com/tpq/TPQ4.pdf   Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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Fourteen degrees Fahrenheit at daybreak. The stairwell smells of dirty diapers and stale cigarette smoke. A man dressed several levels below stylish picks through the garbage bin behind a business. Three blocks away at three o’clock this morning, a man was shot to death on the street. The subjective impression of his last moments are […]

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The clouds relax, the snow shakes loose. Icy dandruff coats the shoulders of the roads. The sky is gray, the lake is green and still. Gulls threaten each other for scraps. A man stands on the breakwater, shouts at the lake, “Jah! Allah! Motherfucker Santa!” A commercial truck backs up on the street, its beeper […]

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The joggers and joggettes of Evanston gather in packs on grizzly November days and run south into Oniontown. At their head is the crier who clangs his bell and calls, “Stand aside! Stand aside!” The joggers and joggettes are young and slender and beautiful, their faces unlined, brows unfurrowed, their clothing new and unfrayed, well-styled […]

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When you are young and you move to a new place, you know you are going there to live. Everything there is fresh and very important. When you are older, past the mid-point of your life, and you move to a new place, you know you are going there to die, and you know it […]

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Mansions for sale up Evanston way Along Edgemere Court private drive three-point-five million a pop Thirty-five thousand a year to heat and cool Servants’ quarters around back Never been any slaves up here Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

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Squirrels in West Rogers Park are fat. Skin ’em and gut ’em and stuff ’em with cloves of sauteed garlic. Sprinkle with black pepper. Wrap ’em in foil. Set ’em to baking in the coals. They come out all juicy, the meat melting off the bones. The skulls can be dipped in clarified butter and […]

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Nine out of ten doctors will tell you that the crazy guy who gathers sopping newspapers off the sidewalk in the rain while talking to no one you can see about all the reading he now has to do is a crazy guy. He stops talking when people draw near, he’s not that crazy. He […]

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Hell in a very small place is directly beneath my feet. Las Hermanas de Las Dolorosas live if you want to call it living in the apartment below my soles. Their bickering ends only when one or both of them lose or loses consciousness. O to sleep and not to scream. They are up and […]

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A woman sat in a canvas folding chair by the lake. The day was still and water calm. Mist in the sky blurred the horizon. She held her wallet in her lap. She opened it and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, unfolded it, looked at it, a copy of her birth certificate. She […]

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The downstairs neighbors are having a bad day. Last night they had a bad night. Yesterday, at least during those parts of the day when I was at home, they were having a bad day. The night before last, etc. I try not to listen. (I want to listen!) I try not to press my […]

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Memo in the inbox at opening time today. From Divisional Headquarters, Department of Intimate Affairs: There will no longer be any fucking between the husband and the wife. Forms have been submitted, a closed-door hearing has been held (to preserve the privacy of all involved), and the decision has been reached. What little has been […]

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High over the lake on autumn afternoons gulls flutter flutter? They fly in lackadaisical manner, not in any formations or groups The angels this afternoon have been having a party and threw confetti Gulls flutter and soar and glide above the lake sidelighted by the afternoon sun, lifted by the breeze What do angels eat […]

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