More Plain Heathen Mischief - Maurice Oliver

More Plain Heathen Mischief.

How it works is like this:

A fossilized thumb sprouts two sleepy hollows or the prized clay vase is
really an ayatollah disguised as an excavation site. Rocks grow-up to
be just another fairly common rash. Tissue is inadvertently exposed
around the umbilical cord of polluted metaphysics causing the whole
world to end up listening to Motown Music. Or in the alternative scenario, the color white learns how to bugaloo down Broadway wearing only a bunch of bananas for a skirt. A crowd gathers at the intersections. No
one is arrested. A misdemeanor is something you wash using rubber gloves. Or every branch in the family tree turns out to be kindling wood with the code-name "genealogy". No one even considers blackbirds
baked in a pie. Cherry is the flavor most soda-drinkers prefer and even you can develop spine enough to march into the boss's office without
knocking and demand a raise. In most cases, Seattle re-surfaces a
few months later as a hundred vacation-bound Germans destined for Havana. There's wood piled along the stream but no ribs served in the
cafeteria. Or the luft balloons are multi-colored and always willing to fly. So baby what you waiting for? Let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages. And don't forget to bring along enough chump change
to tip the executioner.



After spending almost a decade working as a freelance photographer in Europe Maurice Oliver returned to America in 1990. Then in 1995 he made a lifelong dream reality by traveling around the world for eight months, recording his experiences in a journal instead of taking pictures. And so began his desire to be a poet. His poetry has appeared in The Potomac Journal, Circle Magazine, Bullfight Review, The MAG, Tryst3 Journal, Pebble Lake Review, Eye-Shot, The Surface, Wicked Alice, Word Riot, Taj Mahal Review(India), Stride Magazine(UK), Dandelion Magazine(Canada), Retort Magazine(Australia), & online at zafusy.com, megaera.org, unlikelystories.org, girlswithinsurance.com, subtletea.com, interpoetry.com(UK), kritya.in (India), & blueprintreview.de(Germany). He currently lives in Portland, Oregon where he is a private tutor. His poetry blogsite can be visited at: www.bloxster.net/mauriceoliver.