Blurb for my blurbs
Tony Brewer’s blurb for my chapbook is like an earnest comment on a fetish site for em dash fanciers. He took me seriously — and I don’t take anything seriously. Everything is spelled correctly and probably proofread, I can’t tell. He gets weird around the middle. Punctuation: extensive!; — pulling out. all. the. stops. But bluntly. A jagged line about here. Then another mention of the title followed by a clever wordplay on it and OK let’s wrap this up in around 100 words or so — with a killer-no-filler ending at least as good as anything inside the book, hopefully.
No Joi in Newburgh Tonight
Can’t call love
transactional fluid
with children underfoot
but sometimes a guy has to
rub one out to feel capable
of satisfying
[insert ball & chain joke]
She uses purse strings
to edge him
knocking holes in his brain
like money shot rifles
at carney shooting gallery
Sex addiction is not in the DSM btw
but they wield BDSM
against his chastity
[he consents to it]
when all he really has are books
& threats of self-kill
if she won’t put out
the way he’s read about
What is a man besides a man
with a boss car
& flowery pink tattoos
he needs to show you
to prove he exists?
He put it in my hand
& made me buy shibari posey
of unskilled knots
[please look at me]
The kind of fuckin nerds do
complicated & contractual
brief clarity at the end
of a mighty nut
& the endless wait
[roughly 3 cigarettes actually]
until he feels hard
& mean enough
to take it & it be
taken from him
again
Tony Brewer is a poet and audio artist from Bloomington, Indiana, where he is executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Art Festival. He has published 13 books and chapbooks, most recently Good Job, Lightning (Stubborn Mule Press) and Water Witch (Pure Sleeze Press). He has been offering Poetry On Demand at coffeehouses, museums, cemeteries, churches, bars, and festivals for over fifteen years and was named Indiana’s 2024 Literary Champion by the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards. More at linktr.ee/TonyBrewer.
