Tag Archives: streetart

Labyrinth

April 12, 2016 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

His dreams were frantic. She was always just-out-of-reach and each time he caught a glimpse, she was further away than before as he chased her through the labyrinth of his anxiety. He KNEW he was only dreaming… he KNEW she lay right next to him, asleep…but he could neither escape any more than catch up to her. And as his heart broke apart and crumbled to pieces for the one he had loved unconditionally, he realized that these pathetic dreams were better than his reality. This was all he had left, so he relished in the chase each night…..for just one more night…and tried to remember all the good things they’d had for a few precious moments more…before she faded completely, leaving him alone in the labyrinth.

***Our poor friend Balthazar lost his cat recently…well, she’s not missing – we’re not out searching or anything – I mean, he had a falling out with his precious Miss Fuzzy Britches a few weeks ago and hasn’t been able to patch things up. I wrote this little piece for them…though I don’t hold out much hope. Meanwhile, Our new book is out. Its beautiful and awful and available by following the link at the top/right to our site; www.sallemander.com . -Marsha

Clowns

Blue-ish Freaks

April 5, 2016 Marsha Mellow 1 Comment

***Our new book is finally out and available for sale at; www.sallemander.com (just use the link at the upper right). Its also been a while since we posted a decent (horrible) Clown poem, so… -Marsha

Blue-ish the Clown was a dangerous Freak, not just because of his looks, so to speak; True, both his legs were mismatched and lame but neither were both of his arms quite the same. So he scuttled about on his one giant hand which dwarfed his oversized skull, understand? Those weren’t the things, though, that made him a prick. There was something much deeper and darker and sick. See, Blue-ish was closeted, Christian and white from the Neo-con, fascist corporate right. Need I say anything more tonight?

body-oddies

Its All Speculation

March 22, 2016 Marsha Mellow 1 Comment

Herbert had been prone to rashes since he was a kid. He caught them all, like a rash magnet…it was inexplicable. He had at least three rashes on any given day of his life. As a sickly nerd, he never had friends…..so how the heck did he get chicken pox? He never had sex, so where did he get crabs? Hell, he had rashes no one ever heard of. He was a spotty, itchy, miserable pariah (though he was a delight to his dermatologist).

Anyway, when the ‘Speckles’ showed up, Herbert was neither surprised nor alarmed…but when they became an infestation, weird stuff started happening. All his old rashes now had a rash of their own. The Speckles definitely did not respect other rashes’ turf. His chicken pox grew feathers and beaks, his goose bumps grew long necks and started nipping and spitting at other rashes and his scarlet fever?…WOW!… well…lets just say that when she reached puberty…things got REALLY awkward.

The Speckles went on to occupy every inch of Herbert and ousted all his other rashes – which would have been good except that each Speckle became enormous, grew a face and took on a personality of its own. They started talking amongst themselves – argued with each other constantly (about religion and politics, ugh!) and sang bawdy songs at all hours. It made things quite uncomfortable for Herbert, though not as bad as the realization that they’d become stronger, smarter and cooler than him. It wasn’t long before Herbert diminished completely into the shadow of his own brilliant speculations…

***Oh, how this reminds me of my teenage years…though my speckles were quite amiable and we were into the same music. Meanwhile, my new book, “Marsha Mellow’s Blue-ish Freaks” is nearly ready for release, probably next week but if f you want to buy an advanced copy, leave me a message here… -Marsha

Clowns

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

March 15, 2016 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

Food was scarce. People were struggling. The war was taking it’s toll as there were shortages of everything from fuel to toilet paper to empathy. Rationing was severe and people were showing signs of stress. There was unemployment, hunger and daily violent protests against the government who caused this blowback war after decades of capitalist conquest. There was no sign of improvement on the horizon and…..food was scarce.

Leon’s Bar and Grill, however, seemed to be an exception to the misery. Leon, the proprietor, had a brilliant (desperate) idea a few months back when he realized he had too many cooks in the kitchen and not enough food to serve. Seeing his business on the brink of failure, he did the only logical thing; He ‘fired’ all his cooks and took over in the kitchen personally. He posted a new menu featuring ‘Chef’s specials’ like Chef’s Stew, Chef Pot Pie and Roasted Leg of Chef. He fired them all… in the big convection oven (though a few got deep fried, stewed…or grilled…..and one guy got sautéed in a wok) and his business has been thriving ever since.

Funny thing, though…once he solved his cook problem, he settled an old issue with that annoying waitress, Marge and finally took care of that pesky neighborhood Clown who always annoyed his customers as they came and went.

These days, ‘Leon’s’ is the only establishment in town with a ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the window…and I hear the food’s really good.

***We thought a little cannibalism this week would be a welcome break from what has become the norm in America; Illegal war, torture, kidnapping, rape, assassination, terrorism, corruption, usury, inequality and a massive political freak show. Hmmmm…..eating people’s got nothin’ on the U.S. gov’t. – so, bon appetit! -Marsha

Clowns

Can’t take it with you

January 12, 2016 Marsha Mellow 1 Comment

We stood at the intersection looking down on the body – hit by a bus…how ridiculous! After all the times I’d stopped people on their stupid phone gadgets from walking into traffic…now this? I must have been daydreaming…what an idiot!

Cars were still swishing through the scene while a small crowd of cynical bystanders gathered to make snarky comments in hushed voices (as if they might offend me). The police arrived to push the crowd away and redirect traffic. One of them walked right through me…uugh! Weird!! I shuddered. My companion just grinned.

I felt some regret. It was a good body for a middle aged clown. I’d kept it fit and healthy – not too bad looking, either…but now it was broken and mangled. There were scattered bits of gristle and a thick dark liquid splashed across the asphalt. One of my eyes hung by a thread down my cheek and my skull was split wide open like a busted watermelon – but hey, I always wondered what my own brains looked like….Eeeeew!!!…(Cool!)

My companion stepped over to me with a ‘we should go soon’ attitude. I must say, for a scythe wielding hippy weirdo in a medieval bathrobe, he seemed like a decent chap. He was good enough to give me time to adjust. Finally, with a friendly clap on the shoulder he whispered, “Come along, son. You can’t take it with you…” We turned away and began walking off into the ether.

“Hey Grim!” I said, “You think I’ll come back as a sea slug or a tapeworm? I hope not…maybe I could be a hockey puck! Yeah!…That’s where all the action is…” He shook his head and rolled his eye sockets. “Hey, can you introduce me to Jesus? No…ELVIS!!!…..Yeaaaah!”

***My little fiction aside, Liam the Clown did his best work squashed like a bug. Not much of a song-and-dance guy, Liam’s twitchings had an artsy aesthetic. Anybody who knows anything about Clowns, knows they’re incredibly hard to kill, so Liam never met Jesus – or Elvis but he and Grim became pretty close. -Marsha

robot

Jonny Bot 5

January 5, 2016 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

Jonny Bot 5 got horny and hot for a high fashion mannequin girl (who did NOT!). Classy and fine, Jonny loved her a lot, she turned up her nose…a high minded snot. He brought wild flow’rs by the bunch, by the pot, tried candy, tried gems, read poems – what ROT! But kindness in turn Jonny 5 never got, not an ounce, not a peck, not even a jot. Tried…..and tried ’till his brains were quite shot until finally…Jonny went cold……and forgot.

***Thought we’d start 2016 on a cheery high note with this post. When we met Jonny Bot 5 he was retired from the department store and past his bad marriage with the mannequin…but was engaged in a sordid online sex thing with Siri the phone chick…it was…well, lets just say ‘I wish I could un-see some things.’ I think John got some good sketches but our publisher (EEW Books) censored them. -Marsha

body-oddies

Constant Craving

December 29, 2015 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

“Constant gravy!!…or did he say constant craving!?” but everyone was already writing and the professor’s response was garbled…sure, okay, constant gravy seemed right. I was feeling pretty woozy since I cut myself shaving earlier and couldn’t make it stop bleeding. It just gushed, thick and goopy…yeah, constant gravy…coool!

What began as a simple nick under my nose, got worse a few minutes later when blood started running down my cheek. An hour later, it was dripping copiously. In two hours it was a steady flow and by lunchtime I was squirting all over the place, soaking my clothes, the furniture and painting the walls. It was impossible to concentrate as the room kept spinning faster and faster…..

I must have spaced out for a while because when I woke, the stuff leaking out was no longer red. Thankfully it was just cheese wizz leaking from the push nozzle on my head. What?!…don’t you have a nozzle?…and what’s so weird about that? Best of all, the harder I pumped the thicker it flowed…aaaaah, pretty…..

I must have spaced out for a while…..what was I saying?…

***This really happened. Its lucky that John got a good sketch of this guy at the writing workshop before things went sideways. This post is a shortened version of the story…but we didn’t want to give away all the best parts before we publish it in our BODY-ODDIES book. -Marsha

Clowns

Jack in the Box

December 15, 2015 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

Jack the Jester lived in a box ’cause he had no legs or feet and liked popping out of his box -SURPRISE!! -to frighten the children…NEAT! He loved young children most of all, so innocent, kind and sweet. The crunchier ones always tasted best but the chubby ones had more meat.

***Aaaaah, for some reason this one always makes me think of Christmas; Mindless shopping, mall traffic, gaudy decorations, gluttony and crass consumerism (that should have been the title). Mmmmmm…and every year it just gets better and better. -Marsha

Sci-Fi

Diplomat

December 8, 2015 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

I do nothing all day but sit in my cell, chained to the wall in a puddle of rancid liquid. The place is filthy, the toilet hasn’t worked in weeks and they put that awful television box in with me as my only form of entertainment. It screams at me and blathers their inane, selfish ‘culture’ all day and its all I can do to block it out, lest I lose my sanity. The only decent people I have to talk with are the cockroaches, who seem to come and go as they please…

They take me out twice a week to show me off to their military luminaries while their (so-called) scientists run ‘tests’. They mostly probe my anus and shock my genitals and laugh like lunatics as they torture me. I don’t understand their obsession with my junk – and I don’t get the reference to it as “payback”. My people have never visited this place before.

They are an ugly people. I don’t mean their pasty, bloated flesh, two meager eyes and stubby fingers that make them look like deformed infants. I’m referring to their brutish indifference to justice, authoritarian rule and the cognitive dissonance of the masses. The racist, nasty things they call me…well, I can’t even begin to repeat in polite company. This is certainly no way to treat an ambassador.

I would never have come to this primitive cesspool if it wasn’t for engine trouble – and a spread of ballistic missiles that took all the dignity out of my crash landing. These people ignored my distress calls and now refuse to honor my diplomatic immunity…..boy oh boy, when the mother ship gets here to rescue me, they are gonna FRY this place!

***John’s illustration was first published as the June 2007 cover to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine for a story by Neal Asher. I wrote this tiny ‘Diplomat’ piece for fun. There was NO intention to sympathize with the treatment of political prisoners currently held, without charge or trial, by the United States….none what-so-ever. -Marsha

body-oddies

Niggle

December 1, 2015 Marsha Mellow Leave a comment

I once had a Jester named Niggle ooze from my nostril and wiggle. With a grunt and a hack, I snorted him back but he dribbled back out with a giggle.

***I don’t remember ever writing this horrible little rhyme (though it amuses the hell out of John…). Niggle was a little jerk who made a runny, sniffly nuisance of himself on a ten hour flight to Dusseldorf – with no tissues. When I finally managed to snag him on a fingernail I took great pleasure in kneading him between two fingers until he dried up and stopped screaming. He is now a permanent smear in the booger graveyard under aisle seat #22F on flight 1134. -Marsha