Peter Marra

Hallucinations from the pit:

A Christmas Benzedrine

 

 

Gigi crucifixions

Go-go sweaty skin under a Tanenbaum Nightmare

two pills down, another ego boost

another dream burst

one more crash avoided

slaves feasted first, Saturnalia celebrations

contents and origins happening to her

removing her shadows showing them to her

sucking the milk out of her breasts as

her happy holiday memories chased her down on the cracked roads

 

her morals shredded like razored silk

she wept and clutched at lost promises given to her

by concrete parents cast in broken molds

“I never saw that again,” she whispered

as always “I talk in a low tone,

humming with my demonic theremins left

on my door step by Krampus bleeding”

 

naked in the bloody moonlight

she offered herself up once again

she sold her soul to the junkman over and over

and she’ll never fall in love again

weeping as Patti LaBelle moaned in slightly

overspeed overclocked tracks

murders in the kitchen as grandma prepared the holiday meals

the Christmas tree collapsed in upon itself as she

told the story of Santa and knives

the classic tale – the one about the priests

hiding their stillborn babies

behind the convent walls

 

Terror of the latex nuns

double-featured in her skull

giving her spontaneous bounty and slight relief

her legs twitched as her heels click/ clacked

choked it off and gave it to her they were ordered

she saw the obedient slaughtered in the mall

she changed outfits just for this occasion and

became hysterical as TV shot her up

another holiday special – we’re all warm and fuzzy

she admired the nativity scene as she wept with joy as

she dosed it with radiation and collected the DNA of mutant magi

 

she took a dose of Winter and let it caress her inner thighs

and reveled in the pleasure

as it snaked up her spine

a week before the afternoon of a year

midnight sunrise was reflected in her ebony irises

Aluminum trees burst into multi-colored flames as the

petals licked her feet

she smiled as she knelt to pray

 

random wanderings along a distant beach

 

the tidal pool spoke to her in gentle whispers

(she wasn’t accustomed to these things)

and the Fear had abated temporarily

leeches of her memory always a reminder

 

As she lay on the concrete she enjoyed

the cold spirits against the fevers

random fingers against her spinal cord

flexing her muscles, she recognized the familiar tingle

up-and-down up-and-down up-and-down her thighs

 

anonymous pleasuring

a circulation burning

a circular path of pleasure

rings of solitude while

pale metallic blue thoughts comforted her

memory caused a fever

she was melting with feeling

vacant slots of fertile memoirs

viral rippling around the pool

they were telling details

 

tarantism of the erotic Briganti

 

she approached the couches reserved for nothing

on her hairless smile the Christmas card expressed her new realm

as drizzling pain

she knew what was currently possible.  

they saw some of the elves of delight and then you were there

they had all perished in the third hour by

spastic dancing under a criminal’s watchful gaze

 

 

 

Originally from Gravesend, Brooklyn, NYC, Peter Marra lived in the East Village from 1979 to 1993 at the height of the punk / no wave / art and music rebellion. He has had a lifelong fascination with Surrealism, Dadaism, and Symbolism; some of his favorite writers being Paul Eluard, Arthur Rimbaud, Tristan Tzara, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Miller. Peter also cites Roger Corman and Russ Meyer as influences.

 

His earliest recollection of the writing process is, as a 1st grader, creating a children’s book with illustrations. The only memory he has of this project is a page that contained a crayon drawing of an airplane, caught in a storm. The caption read: “The people are on a plane. It is going to crash. They are very scared.” His parents were always disturbed by that first book.

 

A Dadaist and a Surrealist, Peter’s writings explore alienation, addiction, the function and misuse of love and attraction, the curse of secrets, the pain of victimization and the impact of multi-obsessions. He has had over 200 poems published either in print or online in over 25 journals.

 

His published works include approximate lovers (downtown materialaktion) from Bone Orchard Press, Vanished Faces (a performance of occult infections) from Writing Knights Press, Peep-O-Rama: Sins of the Go-Go Girls and Random Crucifixions: Obsessions, Dolls & Maniac Cameras from Hammer & Anvil Books.

 

Peter Marra follows Tom Sheehan and Peter Weltner as Danse Macabre's third Artist-in-Residence.