Monstrum Poeticum

By Tom Mangione

Poetry, you are a monster.

I was told to stay away from you.
I was told to head for the safe and warm:
To dip myself into the safe and warm
Toes-first, testing the waters of the safe and warm
Sliding in up to my waist, warming my navel in the safe and warm
Letting the pleasant tingle work through my innards as I slid deeper into the safe and warm
Until I was submerged, cut off from air, sucking a tube to breathe in the safe and warm
Incubating for an entire lifetime in the safe and warm

But I didn’t.

I went looking for you, Poetry.

The ones who met you said you were radiant.
The ones who met you called you attractive as the sun.
The ones who met you said you’d stick in my eyes – an image impossible to blink away.
The ones who met you said I’d go blind – screaming, bat-fogged blind,
Blind from you, Poetry, babbling about you, from you, for you.
The ones who met you said you’d possess me.

I imagined you’d be a beautiful woman:
Body heavy and full with smooth curves
Eyes carved from the gems glinting in waking, bright-morning dreams
Hair flowing in an eternal wind on which you bounded
Legs smooth and slender dancing every step
Feet arched, giving way to symmetric, dainty toes Continue reading…

Author Spotlight: Tom Mangione

Tom Mangione

Tom Mangione considers himself to be a poet first and a musician, songwriter, blogger, promoter and journalist after. However, telling people that you’re a poet requires great gall (or an unhealthy amount of alcohol), so Tom usually introduces himself as something else. Tom has published fiction and poetry for Shanghai’s own HAL Publishing and the Urbanity Project. As a local journalist, he has written articles for the Global Times, Urban Eyes, Smartshanghai, SH Magazine and Talk Magazine. He blogs regularly about poetry, China, his life and the amazing lexicons of both Chinese and English at Scruta.org. As a musician, he performs American folk rock music every Monday night at Anar as Ho-Tom the Conqueror.

Tom’s Featured Poem – Monsterum Poeticum

Five Questions for Tom Mangione

HAL: What is the one book that can make you weep every time you read it?

TM: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Continue reading…

Subways

by Tom Mangione

1

I am consumed by subways.
I say I only ride them.
They take me where I go.

But late at night it is more
It’s more than that for sure

I stay up late at night
Knowing I take the subways
And the subways take me.

Continue reading…

Sugartits

by Tom Mangione

Here’s a special little pre-Christmas pre-SLAM treat for you from our inspired friend Ho-Tom. Tom will be appearing in the dec 18th 1984 release SLAM as well, so expect some dirty stuff from the stage. Meanwhile, let Sugartits blow your minds…

Tom sugartits

Shanghai First Kiss

by Tom Mangione

Shanghai, Shanghai, you kissed me first.
Quaking, shaking we quenched our thirst.
Burning tongues on a foreign shore,
Gasping, breathless I yearned for more.

Shine not freedom, but shine with hope.
Tie me down with a velvet rope.
Whisper songs in my ear with care;
Sing them loud for the crowds to stare

Hold you close in the alleyways.
Mix our sweat through the humid days.
Lose ourselves in apartment blocks.
Feel our bodies in rapture shocks.

Lying there in the dark and warm,
Crowds outside begin to form.
Drills on concrete will break and burst:
Shanghai, Shanghai you kissed me first.