Dancing Without Invitation
Assembled by Rick O’Donnell, Eli Williams, Josh Romig, Danielle Romig, Kevin F. Smith, Casey Kizior
From works by Lennart Lundh, Gabriella Ercolani, Mark Fleming, Ryan P. Kinney

It’s lurking, not surprisingly, out of sight,
and even a quick turn of the head won’t suffice
to bring it from the darkness into focus

This is how we lived:
Dancing without invitation
at a local food store grand opening.
It’s what we felt like.

I woke in the shower singing morning
You were disarrayed Again
from our evening love making
when I went to join you

Grant in me the chance
to brighten an otherwise monochromatic galaxy
by recreating your beauty in another

I write to the woman
whose curiosity is
a blooming flower
sugar
magnolia wrapped in
Ivory ribs,
that dances sporadic
with her splendid panting laughter

-------------------------------------------------------­---------
I think,
There I am Ryan.
I am better than anyone I have ever known.
As the clouds begin to part in my mighty presence,
I can see the only one I have ever truly known
Is myself…

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Assembled by Eli Williams
From works by Ryan P. Kinney, JM Romig

I am getting over you
I can feel bitterness and anger coming
The opposite of love is not hate

As I say this,
Feel this,
I destroy,
I create
I am an artist

There was nothing
you could do
There was no way you could
stop it

In my head, I wander back
through years of dusty memories
I’m supposed to go about my day.

But, I’m still beating my feet
Against the concrete floor

I’m still plodding on
One foot in front of the other
One step at a time
Each moment takes an eternity to feel

*SMASH
Body cold.
What am I always so ******* cold

Created at the Jigsaw Workshop at Cleveland Concoction 3/2/2019

Every **** time, it makes me cry
“A kanon is a concerto where each verse adds a new element.
Each instrument joining in one at a time;
merging with the main melody.
Making it richer and deeper the more it goes on.
Wouldn’t it be nice if life was like that”

To my never queen, my g-friend
It’s a reminder of a first dance wedding song never played
To me, it was the first thing to make me cry
Feel again
After I was abandoned again
Linked to a preposterous story

It’s a happy song
This is a happy poem
And I guess, that Kanon
Gives us both a reason to cry

Barreling down the highway
Haphazardly spray painted, split down the middle black and white
Grateful Dead bear dangling from the mirror
Cher blaring on the radio
Dented, scratched, rusted- scars of well use
Bed full of broken toys

Second Engine
Second life

This thing was more a person
Than most I’ve met

Atleast this one worked
This one was useful
This one was still here
With me

The next Dr. prescribes me steroids
Because my hand lost feeling
Rushing to create any sort of feeling
Says it’ll take away the swelling
Because I’m too full of it
Say’s it’ll make me stronger
Because I’ve been too weak
Say’s it’ll take away the pain
Because it hurts to make myself
It hurts too much to make you make me

It’s not judgement
It’s more honesty

I still don’t believe any of them

The Dr. told me I had a Vitamin D deficiency.
“The sunshine one?”
Say’s, this is pretty common in Ohio in the winter.
Doc, I said, I never had this issue before
And I always lived in Ohio.
I guess Age just meant I got a little darker

So, she gives me these little round pills. Take 1 a week
Imagine that, they put sunshine into a little pill
Funny enough, they were black
Spongey little black things
Like a micro black hole that bottles up the sun
And when I swallow I begin my own internal big bang biochemical genesis
And suddenly, I’m supposed to be brighter

Like I didn’t spend my whole decade inside
Waiting for you to contact me
Waiting for you to open me up

It isn’t rejection
It’s honesty

inspired by Prison Terms by Diane Kendig

My mother was an inmate at Marysville Women’s Prison when I was born
(Now call the Ohio Reformatory for Women)
It would **** her off to know I’m telling you all this
But I will not live in her cage
She brought enough of those chains home with her
And beat me with them
Until I spit blood from my broken lip

But still, this jail baby bird will sing

I was sent to live with my grandparents
Nowadays, they don’t send the kids anywhere
They stay with their mothers in their cages
Even the babies have prisoner numbers
Born prisoners

My mother got out a year later
Together, my parents got me back
Although I never spent a day inside the reforming cage
I inherited the prison in my heart
My heredity legacy is to be forever trapped

The Jail Baby
Born in bars
I built my own prison

After my divorce
After another woman failed me
I failed her

I built my own dungeon
All that glitters is gold
And my glitter stuck to everything
I trapped myself in shiny baubles
And burned my life to glowing cinders of
White hot unredeemable rage

My catharsis came from feeling the burn
I ran circles in my cage
So I would never catch up with myself
Until I burned out

Slammed myself into the walls over and over again
And broke so many times
Even my pieces were dust
Just so I had a reason to keep rebuilding myself
I became addicted to the forced rebirth

Eventually, I accidently created my own key
Through some act of self-deprecating alchemy
The open says me password to
Finally let me tear down my walls
A reason to be free
A reason to not be safe
A reason to smash my bejeweled cage

The secret genesis codex
Says to me
“Daddy, it’s time to wake up.”
And my kingdom falls