Let (((This Be The Verse)))
(((a performance in excessiveness)))
Elana Lev Friedland
You get involuntarily committed because you can’t stop thinking everyone is talking in code.
You end up in the hospital.
You are in the psychiatric ward and everyone is speaking in code.
You end up in the psych ward and everyone speaks in code
no but actually in this story you end up involuntarily committed to Boulder Community Health
and in this story everyone is speaking in code.
let us give thanks to the study of semiotics, sing praise to the dissolution of the world to text.
i will respect the sentence.
as layli long soldier said, “Here, the sentence will be respected.”
the sentence was respected by its subject (of this we can be certain)
which at this point in time is the time in which you were committed
to Boulder Community Health in which you are deeply committed
to explaining your actions. the harder you try the less you believe
that you are incapable of explaining how could you be misunderstood if this situation is a finger trap then you are the fingers and if freed you are pointing you are pointing you are pointing and
you are in the psych ward and everyone speaks in code.
you have been locked up in the looney bin and to your great consternation oh my god for fuck’s sake could everyone stop. speaking. in code. please just say what you want please please please even as you know you can’t that we can’t and who would listen to crazies like us. like us. still. you fervently believe that there is a cheat code to the way everyone talks, a player’s guide a walkthrough if one is just willing to listen to not only hear but listen to people there is a series of chemical synapses or electric signals that
WIKIPEDIA: “The process of encoding converts information from a source into symbols for communication or storage. Decoding is the reverse process, converting code symbols back into a form that the recipient understand, such as English or Spanish.”
When the doctor comes.You have one chance to see the doctor. When by chance the doctor should come once a day. A day. Rumor has it the cost of your stay is 1.8 k per night. Per night.
When the doctor comes this is your one chance.
You must convince the doctor.
The rule is that every fifteen minutes someone will come to check on you in your room.
The rule is that you may not resist being checked on.
The rule is that you must eat your snacks.
/
/
/
what they don’t tell you about are the trees. what you never see in any pictures are the silent forests watching and the murder pits scooped out of the dirt where the people lived. what you never see is the trees. what you do see are the people were.
tell me where you saw the bodies.
tell me where when you were a child how did you see the bodies
what kind of corpses were you forced to look at
and i i mean you don’t want to have to talk to anyone who didn’t have to see a single one.
-Ponary Diary, 1941-1943
A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder
Kazimierz Sakowicz; Edited by Yitzhak Arad;
Translated by Laurence Weinbaum
/
/
/
phil is from Boston so i know i can say fuck you you fucking fuck without getting in trouble and i say that i say fuck you you fucking fuck and he laughs and i don’t get in trouble. i don’t get in trouble. i am swinging i am slamming my hand down on the table i am singing a hey nonny nonny song i am a god a god [say you saw me] i am [actually] the old testament god
i am the angry old testament god and
hey phil i say fuck you you fucking fuck and phil laughs and i don’t get in trouble but when jim asks you see it’s not phil but when jim asks and he asks and he asks
they say men make better soldiers after midnight
THIS IS THE PUNCHLINE TO THE JOKE THE JOKE THAT HAS THE SET UP OF THE SET UP IS jim asks and he asks but he says
men make better soldiers after midnight
jim asks jim asks jim asks
sir,
i say. sir.
it’s funny i could never pick a gendered honorific.
it’s funny that the joke lies within the body.
the joke is the body
the body lies
it’s funny
when jim asks
and if i am telling you without
]\\\ ]if. without regretting. I am telling you. every single word. Jim asks me the question. “Have you heard the one about Fort Dix
“Have you heard the one about Fort Dix?
HAVE.YOU.HEARD.ABOUT. FORT DIX.????????
-Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis
of Sexual Humor By G. Legman
they say men make better soldiers after midnight.
/
/
/
i do not know if the moves i make are litigious i do not recall having signed any non-disclosure forms i do not recall i do not recall and i am grappling with too great an executive dysfunction to be able to look for them. thank you. this book will never be published you will never know who i am. thank you. this book will not be published and
-MGM Television Entertainment Inc. and Bluebush Productions,
LLC. All Rights Reserved.
to whoever is watching this is a work of fiction
ignore any and all search results you may find in my engine
if there is play let it be an act
if there is war here it is steeped in mundanity
if without regretting i am telling you every single word—
You wake up in the hospital.
You wake up in the hospital and everything that happened, happened.
“This Be The Verse” is the title of a poem by Philip Larkin.Alternate Titles For This Work:
80 Pages of Tumblr Discourse
Love in the Time of the Affordable Healthcare Act
If You’re Exhausted Of Always Hearing Me Talk About Semiotics Then Just Think About How Exhausting It Is To Always Be Thinking About Semiotics
Always LARPing
So This One Time I Tried To Write A Dramatic Monologue Poem Featuring Hades As The Ultimate Dungeon Master Who Forces Sisyphus To Play A Game of Dungeons And Dragons While Both Are In The Underworld And Rebecca Hated It
What A Shonde
[REBECCA] that means “disgrace” I’m translating for the goys
Post-Modern English-Language Haibun
bombastic
at least one more before you’re done
and at least you’ve done what you have done
NOTES
“”This Be The Verse” is the title of a poem by Philip Larkin.
“Here, the sentence will be respected.” is a line from Layli Long Solider’s “38.”
“That means ‘disgrace’ I’m translating for the goys” is a line from the song “JAP Battle” in Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
You get involuntarily committed because you can’t stop thinking everyone is talking in code.
You end up in the hospital.
You are in the psychiatric ward and everyone is speaking in code.
You end up in the psych ward and everyone speaks in code
no but actually in this story you end up involuntarily committed to Boulder Community
Health and in this story everyone is speaking in code.
let us give thanks to the study of semiotics, sing praise to the dissolution of the world to text.
i will respect the sentence.
as layli long soldier said, “Here, the sentence will be respected.”
the sentence was respected by its subject (of this we can be certain)
which at this point in time is the time in which you were committed
to Boulder Community Health in which you are deeply committed
to explaining your actions. the harder you try the less you believe
that you are incapable of explaining how could you be misunderstood if this situation is a finger trap then you are the fingers and if freed you are pointing you are pointing you are pointing and
you are in the psych ward and everyone speaks in code.
you have been locked up in the looney bin and to your great consternation oh my god for fuck’s sake could everyone stop. speaking. in code. please just say what you want please please please even as you know you can’t that we can’t and who would listen to crazies like us. like us. still. you fervently believe that there is a cheat code to the way everyone talks, a player’s guide a walkthrough if one is just willing to listen to not only hear but listen to people there is a series of chemical synapses or electric signals that
WIKIPEDIA: “The process of encoding converts information from a source into symbols for communication or storage. Decoding is the reverse process, converting code symbols back into a form that the recipient understand, such as English or Spanish.”
When the doctor comes.You have one chance to see the doctor. When by chance the doctor should come once a day. A day. Rumor has it the cost of your stay is 1.8 k per night. Per night.
When the doctor comes this is your one chance.
You must convince the doctor.
The rule is that every fifteen minutes someone will come to check on you in your room.
The rule is that you may not resist being checked on.
The rule is that you must eat your snacks.
/
/
/
what they don’t tell you about are the trees. what you never see in any pictures are the silent forests watching and the murder pits scooped out of the dirt where the people lived. what you never see is the trees. what you do see are the people were.
tell me where you saw the bodies.
tell me where when you were a child how did you see the bodies
what kind of corpses were you forced to look at
and i i mean you don’t want to have to talk to anyone who didn’t have to see a single one.
-Ponary Diary, 1941-1943
A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder
Kazimierz Sakowicz; Edited by Yitzhak Arad;
Translated by Laurence Weinbaum
/
/
/
phil is from Boston so i know i can say fuck you you fucking fuck without getting in trouble and i say that i say fuck you you fucking fuck and he laughs and i don’t get in trouble. i don’t get in trouble. i am swinging i am slamming my hand down on the table i am singing a hey nonny nonny song i am a god a god [say you saw me] i am [actually] the old testament god
i am the angry old testament god and
hey phil i say fuck you you fucking fuck and phil laughs and i don’t get in trouble but when jim asks you see it’s not phil but when jim asks and he asks and he asks
they say men make better soldiers after midnight
THIS IS THE PUNCHLINE TO THE JOKE THE JOKE THAT HAS THE SET UP OF THE SET UP IS jim asks and he asks but he says
men make better soldiers after midnight
jim asks jim asks jim asks
sir,
i say. sir.
it’s funny i could never pick a gendered honorific.
it’s funny that the joke lies within the body.
the joke is the body
the body lies
it’s funny
when jim asks
and if i am telling you without
]\\\ ]if. without regretting. I am telling you. every single word. Jim asks me the question. “Have you heard the one about Fort Dix
“Have you heard the one about Fort Dix?
HAVE.YOU.HEARD.ABOUT. FORT DIX.????????
-Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis
of Sexual Humor By G. Legman
they say men make better soldiers after midnight.
/
/
/
i do not know if the moves i make are litigious i do not recall having signed any non-disclosure forms i do not recall i do not recall and i am grappling with too great an executive dysfunction to be able to look for them. thank you. this book will never be published you will never know who i am. thank you. this book will not be published and
-MGM Television Entertainment Inc. and Bluebush Productions,
LLC. All Rights Reserved.
to whoever is watching this is a work of fiction
ignore any and all search results you may find in my engine
if there is play let it be an act
if there is war here it is steeped in mundanity
if without regretting i am telling you every single word—
You wake up in the hospital.
You wake up in the hospital and everything that happened, happened.
You get involuntarily committed because you can’t stop thinking everyone is talking in code.
You end up in the hospital.
You are in the psychiatric ward and everyone is speaking in code.
You end up in the psych ward and everyone speaks in code
no but actually in this story you end up involuntarily committed to Boulder Community Health
and in this story everyone is speaking in code.
let us give thanks to the study of semiotics, sing praise to the dissolution of the world to text.
i will respect the sentence.
as layli long soldier said, “Here, the sentence will be respected.”
the sentence was respected by its subject (of this we can be certain)
which at this point in time is the time in which you were committed
to Boulder Community Health in which you are deeply committed
to explaining your actions. the harder you try the less you believe
that you are incapable of explaining how could you be misunderstood if this situation is a finger trap then you are the fingers and if freed you are pointing you are pointing you are pointing and
you are in the psych ward and everyone speaks in code.
you have been locked up in the looney bin and to your great consternation oh my god for fuck’s sake could everyone stop. speaking. in code. please just say what you want please please please even as you know you can’t that we can’t and who would listen to crazies like us. like us. still. you fervently believe that there is a cheat code to the way everyone talks, a player’s guide a walkthrough if one is just willing to listen to not only hear but listen to people there is a series of chemical synapses or electric signals that
WIKIPEDIA: “The process of encoding converts information from a source into symbols for communication or storage. Decoding is the reverse process, converting code symbols back into a form that the recipient understand, such as English or Spanish.”
When the doctor comes.You have one chance to see the doctor. When by chance the doctor should come once a day. A day. Rumor has it the cost of your stay is 1.8 k per night. Per night.
When the doctor comes this is your one chance.
You must convince the doctor.
The rule is that every fifteen minutes someone will come to check on you in your room.
The rule is that you may not resist being checked on.
The rule is that you must eat your snacks.
/
/
/
what they don’t tell you about are the trees. what you never see in any pictures are the silent forests watching and the murder pits scooped out of the dirt where the people lived. what you never see is the trees. what you do see are the people were.
tell me where you saw the bodies.
tell me where when you were a child how did you see the bodies
what kind of corpses were you forced to look at
and i i mean you don’t want to have to talk to anyone who didn’t have to see a single one.
-Ponary Diary, 1941-1943
A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder
Kazimierz Sakowicz; Edited by Yitzhak Arad;
Translated by Laurence Weinbaum
/
/
/
phil is from Boston so i know i can say fuck you you fucking fuck without getting in trouble and i say that i say fuck you you fucking fuck and he laughs and i don’t get in trouble. i don’t get in trouble. i am swinging i am slamming my hand down on the table i am singing a hey nonny nonny song i am a god a god [say you saw me] i am [actually] the old testament god
i am the angry old testament god and
hey phil i say fuck you you fucking fuck and phil laughs and i don’t get in trouble but when jim asks you see it’s not phil but when jim asks and he asks and he asks
they say men make better soldiers after midnight
THIS IS THE PUNCHLINE TO THE JOKE THE JOKE THAT HAS THE SET UP OF THE SET UP IS jim asks and he asks but he says
men make better soldiers after midnight
jim asks jim asks jim asks
sir,
i say. sir.
it’s funny i could never pick a gendered honorific.
it’s funny that the joke lies within the body.
the joke is the body
the body lies
it’s funny
when jim asks
and if i am telling you without
]\\\ ]if. without regretting. I am telling you. every single word. Jim asks me the question. “Have you heard the one about Fort Dix
“Have you heard the one about Fort Dix?
HAVE.YOU.HEARD.ABOUT. FORT DIX.????????
-Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis
of Sexual Humor By G. Legman
they say men make better soldiers after midnight.
/
/
/
i do not know if the moves i make are litigious i do not recall having signed any non-disclosure forms i do not recall i do not recall and i am grappling with too great an executive dysfunction to be able to look for them. thank you. this book will never be published you will never know who i am. thank you. this book will not be published and
-MGM Television Entertainment Inc. and Bluebush Productions,
LLC. All Rights Reserved.
to whoever is watching this is a work of fiction
ignore any and all search results you may find in my engine
if there is play let it be an act
if there is war here it is steeped in mundanity
if without regretting i am telling you every single word—
You wake up in the hospital.
You wake up in the hospital and everything that happened, happened.
Alternate Titles For This Work:
80 Pages of Tumblr Discourse
Love in the Time of the Affordable Healthcare Act
If You’re Exhausted Of Always Hearing Me Talk About Semiotics Then Just Think About How Exhausting It Is To Always Be Thinking About Semiotics
Always LARPing
So This One Time I Tried To Write A Dramatic Monologue Poem Featuring Hades As The Ultimate Dungeon Master Who Forces Sisyphus To Play A Game of Dungeons And Dragons While Both Are In The Underworld And Rebecca Hated It
What A Shonde
[REBECCA] that means “disgrace” I’m translating for the goys
Post-Modern English-Language Haibun
bombastic
at least one more before you’re done
and at least you’ve done what you have done
NOTES
“This Be The Verse” is the title of a poem by Philip Larkin.
“Here, the sentence will be respected.” is a line from Layli Long Solider’s “38.”
“That means ‘disgrace’ I’m translating for the goys” is a line from the song “JAP Battle” in Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Elana Lev Friedland is a writer and performance artist. Their writing can be seen in Cartridge Lit, Cosmonauts Avenue, Glass: Poets Resist, Salt Hill, The Rumpus, and more. Find them online at www.elanalevfriedland.com.
Elana Lev Friedland is a writer and performance artist. Their writing can be seen in Cartridge Lit, Cosmonauts Avenue, Glass: Poets Resist, Salt Hill, The Rumpus, and more. Find them online at www.elanalevfriedland.com.