total mope

region zero press

oakland//nyc

total mope
featuring six poets who live or
have recently lived in oakland
region zero is a transmedia
collective that publishes work
both online and in print
~~~
region zero press
editors: Zac Gunter and Will Lee
oakland//nyc
facebook.com/regionzerozero
regionzerosubmissions@gmail
2015

holly meadows-smith
Conference
It sounds like a slot machine. What? A slot machine.
The elevator.
Your suit. The hair. Floor 10. Goodbye.
Today a man played life-size jenga, and nobody lost.
Its still standing in the middle; every piece is missing.
Thats probably a metaphor, a head-nod to business.
Grab a beer.
Im inside a tunnel now, turned on its ends
A tube, glass. Sounds underwater, deep dark
And cold of course, not wet.
Like an aquarium, like a museum of Life, like a church
for fish
Like a restaurant, like strangers meeting, like mystery
Like potential
That ends here.

holly meadows-smith
Lets go to a mountain
That thing you do
With the neck, you know
When youre stressed
Are you listening?
Ill make it stop
Let me try
I raised animals
Babies and also adults.
Respond to my snap with an email
At least
Mercurys retrograde
I need you
I know you know.
If you were smaller Id shake you
In a helpful way
But lets go to a mountain
Somewhere with wind really big
And everything else small
That feeling you get
The worlds more powerful than you.
How come.
Nothing means anything
You always know though
I thought you werent listening
Confused
It was Mercury, again.

This got switched

Whos who
Back to the mountain
We both need it
Everyone does, ok.
I think were stuck behind
The 88 express line to Kensington
I would turn around
But take me with you
Yeah Ill go, whatever.
Everything being different
Never really hit til now
Let me touch your neck instead
Hold my hand
Ill drive.

ian brown
Feeling Elsewhere
i.
sometimes, the only way out
is in:

down and in
through guts and shit
clinging parasites and celluloid scavengers;

down and in
through which-slits and the brown murk of
desiring skins;

down and in
through the sly touch of a mans tongue
that began
again,
down through the sovereign body that was never really
yours

lord, give us the strength to see this thing through

to make the world anew
to let the Body decompose
and organize without
You

ii.

zac gunter
this heat
what I wanted to say was
porchlights stammer
if I listen hard enough, what you said was
the world is full of shit and
Mondays return because dead
is too big of a word. To describe this you said
if I impede the circulation of, if I lose it
in the conventional sense of
anything, really, as long as it isnt
distance. Declarative sentences offer the reader a sense
that its all repetition, really, as long as it isnt
that potholes collect glass or your phone is asleep
and the way we replace each other is with
without declarative sentences, saying that
stammer is what I meant by

this grass
from this angle I cant see which lightbulb is out and
from this angle I cant see what books are in the
bookshelf, from the mirror
I can see that tears start at the back of the head, in a
small and disguised part of the brain that seems
mushy behind your forehead
that tears start at the back of the head
is as good an argument as any
against the fabric of my sheets water soaks like fake
snow
the distinction between fake snow and real snow is
that I feel intensely positive towards
towards the sheets, fake snow falls on the sheets
fake glass in the parking lot is a metaphor for
I lost it somewhere in the mushy part of the snow
the problem with fake glass is that
my coffee got cold, is that
this house could belong to anyone else

bennett koss
Tokyo
A subway stalled
While they picked up skull
And dropped the bits with a clink in a bag of bottles
Inside the train the faces stayed like marble
A robo-birdlike voice chirped words
That passed all ears and buzzed right for the turds
And I missed my stop when a pop gave the herd a
startle
A broken sink
bathed in its own drink
clear as invisible ink
And I dried my hands on my pants like a martyr

untitled
My pen is that special kind of warm that only eggs can
get,
She sighed through her mint and smiled
Im going to be a mother!

Atascadero
Flick a plea in the fountain
Penny squeaks in-- almost missed
Displaced splash squats patronizing on the edge
I but for the grace of luck am your misfortune

aki neumann
At Night
lights down
Act One: It is Trying to Escape

Part Two: A Perverse Spirit

Act Two: Body Stirs

Act Two: (It Echoed in the

Caves)
Act One: (1911-2014.)

Act Three: (Above All This)

(Humiliation)
lights up

INTERLUDE:

Oh oh
this face
and
your eyes.

flicker flicker
lights down
Act One: The Shepherd

Act Three: (Poured Out)

(Slowly Spreading)
Act Two: A Tender Night

Part One: On the Shore

Act One: (Rapture)

Act Two: (In the Dark)

lights up

connor lopez

Thoughts Goin Up on a Tuesday

Listening to to this band is like making out with a girl that
likes Entomology.
I lost my phone, I mean Mom.
My brother thinks I should go to Rolling Stone, and demand
a job. Rolling Stone, the magazine. LOLZ.
Tinder: Loveline sent you a message.
I am so not into this Dionysus,
Love isnt always about being touched. Sometimes
friendship means endship.
Sometimes friendship means touching genitals.
Deep down I know it is not me that is in control.
Should I get a vasectomy?...Dad?
Olympia and Oakland seem similar. IS THAT BAD?
Im pretty sure Baby Boomers look at Millenials when they
look at porn.
Tinder will be better in my thirties. I guarantee it.
IM NOT LOOKING TO HAVE SEX WITH PEOPLE I DO
NOT LOVE!
I guess this is what happens with you sleep with your
friends.
I wonder what Pavarotti thinks about his music being used
to sell hot wings.
Ideas for music videos starring my dog.

-r-