SCRUPULOUS TEMPTATIONS by Pam Benjamin

Infuse joy and Lent
Christ in the desert

Large quantities of
shock and chemical mercy.

Biologically there is no God and
telepathic insight resembles schizophrenia.

Conditioned to mystical surgery.
A decomposing visionary sits troubled in the corner.

The party continues:
                              Did you try the wine?
                              She burned down the house to roast that pig.
                              Don't pigeonhole the Mexican peasant.
Nothing is Eden.

The world sits directly behind these voices.
Intolerable surroundings and moral infections,

comfortable intellect and spiritual fashion
create religious overtones

and the party continues.

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Pam Benjamin is a poet turned stand-up comic. She is also the Program Director of www.mutinyradio.fm. Listen to "Pamtastic's Comedy Clubhouse" every Fri 8-11pm pac. Oh, and buy her novella "Voices" on Kindle here:http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Pam-Benjamin-ebook/dp/B005L3RQQW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386192534&sr=8-2&keywords=voices+pam+benjamin

HE BEGAN TO TELL ME ABOUT GOD by Brenton Booth

yea ok:
tell it to the 80 year old man whose wife died last week
and is now in a hospital bed with a broken neck
tell it to the supermarket cashier that didn’t take a sick
day in 50 years and never got promoted
tell it to the 12 year old girl whose 42 year old uncle
raped her
tell it to the survivors of war
tell it to the nurses that watch babies die
tell it to the homeless guy that sells ‘the big issue’
magazine outside of woolworths
tell it to the ones that have trekked machu pichu
tell it to the man that was beaten by his father as a
child
tell it to the tomb of tutankhamun
tell it to the rottweiler
tell it to the cab driver
tell it to the girl majoring in german philosophy
tell it to the clown
tell it to the prince
tell it to hitler
tell it to the dahlia lama
tell it to europa
tell it to the porn star
tell it to tolstoy
tell it to the old woman that studies the k-mart
catalogue
tell it to bigfoot
tell it to a flying fox
tell it to the birds
tell it to the trees
tell it to a zombie
tell it to the blonde cheerleader
tell it to the farthest corner of the universe
tell it to all the animals at the zoo
tell it to anyone or anything but me:
because i don’t really care.

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Brenton Booth lives in Sydney, Australia. He writes poetry and fiction. He has been printed in many publications, most recently Van Gogh's Ear, Regardless of Authority, Horror Sleaze Trash, Dogzplot, Mad Swirl, Clutching at Straws, and Scissors and Spackle.

GOD SMELLS GOOD by Pam Benjamin

A homeless man accused me of not caring.
Is caring different than love?
They say love is 90% smell.
It's hard to love people who smell bad.

I usually love bad people;
people who have been to jail
or who are jailed by their mother's memory.
My bad-ass Mother did neither.

None of my fingers would scan when I was bad;
my prints wouldn't show in jail.
The Uniforms showed they didn't care;
I didn't call my Mother.

My Mother is unusually affected by smells;
she wouldn't sit behind the garlic man in church,
it reeks from his pores, she under breath accused.
God, who wants the best tapenade, loves him.

How do you affect love?
Neither God nor my Mother care.
I want the best smells;
it's hard to smell people who love bad.

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Pam Benjamin is a poet turned stand-up comic. She is also the Program Director of www.mutinyradio.fm. Listen to "Pamtastic's Comedy Clubhouse" every Fri 8-11pm pac. Oh, and buy her novella "Voices" on Kindle here:http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Pam-Benjamin-ebook/dp/B005L3RQQW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386192534&sr=8-2&keywords=voices+pam+benjamin