Glen Lantz lives in Dubuque, Iowa with his wife, daughter, and a black cat named “Daisy.” On most days, Glen ponders the significance of contradictions and how contradictions influence on our lives.
"He would say that he believes that our lives are filled with dichotomies, but he doesn’t believe in beliefs"
Glen has a BA and a MA in Sociology from the University of Northern Iowa. His work has appeared in 10K Poets Zine, Bad Marmalade, Calliope Nerve, Clockwise Cat, the Curious Record, Deep Tissue Magazine, Ditch, the Dubuque Area Writer's Guild 2009 Anthology Music & Dance, Full of Crow, Heroin Love Songs, Lines Written W/ a Razor, Lit Up Magazine, Lost Souls in the Fishbowl Anthology by Subculture Books, Madswirl, the Plebian Rag, Poetry Now, and Zygote in my Coffee. Glen has three poems forthcoming in Counterexample Poetics. His book "Boiled Tomatoes" is available as a free download at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16109158/Boiled-Tomatoes
Glen is co-founder of 10K Poets and the managing editor of 10K Poets poetry magazine "Deep Tissue Magazine."
(**all copyright remains with the author)
Becoming like Caesar
There is no consciousness of them left
We’ve them, each and every one
Charging and the little
Clinging to my light
On with the frittered indulgences
With god’s fat stick in my warm hand
Each mule with a kick
And high flying hands
All my actions are directed
And I know
To take advantage
They talk about your crazy eyes
No thinking minds, she wrote
I found it all a little too much
With no, no, no sunshine
Soul hungered sucking
Like a fucking wind
Tenaciously lodged
The human
There is no garden
Only good and evil
Yes, they must exist
On this thing we call home
Where the children dance
On the end of your shirtsleeve
She said, “Meet you around the corner.”
And a bulletin board bore
The photographs were of her face
She was peaceful with a dirty mouth
And shoves the burglar through the window
And the wind howls through your bones
Atomic bomb
Cool as chaos
On a Sunday morning
Disowned satisfaction
Etched into the oak
For another
Insatiable as the belly
It is your madness
Maybe in another life
An old woman sculptured
Produced by cutting and folding
That exists behind the smoky haze
Shadows stand so tall
There I was trying to get
Those sparkle like jaded beaks
Tiny flickers in a sea of light
To mete the worm whose molten rage
To their testicles, in this case you suggest
To turn around and face the fireplace
Turn many a corner
While the people clap and cheer
Who wept at the romance
Yes, there is a price
Your dirty corpse dragged through the streets
By those fat heavy garters
Counting on your gullibility
A desperate price
To be paid with a haunting smile
Along unknown steps
Always wasting
And baby, baby, I’ll show you the way
Watch the sun shine all over that thing
She came to stand at the table
As we feel the ground dissolving
Below our feet
The angels grooving
Not unbearable
Cover them with whispers
Disfigured shapes
Your ear pressed against the door
The farm wife
Producing copies of self
Driven under by instinct
North to unknown seasons
Put them down along the path
Marking each step
With fear and trepidation
That never left your lips
The hallowed rent
Paid for a life in the streets
They join us
As we call fire down from heaven
This still sickens me when I think about it
You and Your Secrets
Sudden Manhattan
And machinegun
We marched toward Algiers
As the past comes around
Belching fire and pestilence
Cry for the birth
Dances to indifference
Disputed and contested as they were
Drags us down
Dropping to the bottom
Eternal sleek and alabaster
Following the orders
He held fast to one place
Here we are now
I see her
She is alive with the fire
Moving about naked
Nailed to the boards
Quenched with the blood
Of Sally Red Shoes
She’s popping balloons
Stolen along past us
Struggling with the melody
The essential thing
To be me
Pulling out your hair
A victim to my crimes
Torrid pools
When skin parts below
Wholeness seeps through me
And you become
The Music Started and We Danced
It was a double dose
Of forgotten civilization
Running from the indestructible world
It stood before me
At precise intervals
I remember your moment well
Demise ends the ignorance
And you
Down on the alter
Legs spread
Eaten by flames
Just like Sister Mary
No way to cast my look
I see you still
Lovely when
Haunted
On the lonely highway
Down to the flux
Shaking your head
Wanting to save my soul
The guilt of swift execution
And the slumber of darkness waits
The weak and mediocre
Those who catch babbles
Distributing communist pamphlets
Truly Jehovah
An emptiness that swallows it all
In your sake of freedom
Ignorance wins the bet
Against the attack
From hearing the truth
Full of wonder
Have this before
Wagging our tails
Heart still set
Like unjust profanities
Not knowing anything
Of the fighting
Oh shit!
Only bloody hands
Or how
Plus whiskey
That sucks the blood from your veins
The photo synthesis
While the music played
You, you, you
