Art & poetry from the July 2023 issue of Tumbleweird

ACCIDENTS ON PURPOSE

By Richard J Balog

Love lions & flaming manes
fields of discolored magik
& my ivy love stranglehold
Spurting sparks, flames of a
lover lying in bed of severed
lamenting flowers
Which in tenebrific stark light
may never recover
O of my spongy brain
& tattered heart
Casting crippled love
& echoes of once, was
O The madness of my disdain!
Plumes of romance melting
flowers of forgiveness I
succumb to her hazel eyes like a succubus, impaling me
w/her her smile, reeking of
fetishism's still sticky on my body, shivering in reflections
of timeless fantasies & terrible tragedies
Perfumed honeysuckle breasts
aphrodisiacs reaping in poisons boiling beyond the pale infinite seasons of
romances blooming like ecstacies, chimerical, pleading
as so I have adorned her mad
mysteries, claiming to have
never told her so!
I am
The Madman!
The Prophet!
The Poet Supreme!
Dressed in my own hubris
& rusting tendrils, blood
filled quills, in which I stich
O I am skilled with anxieties
Dancing in the flames!
Facing the ink the blood the
the magik
Fences or crucified half hearts
lining the roadway
Faded, bleeding accidents
on purpose!
I see her through 80mile glass
O My crumbling skull!
O Weeping razors!
Loving every epoch of your
snow petalled flesh!
Sing! Sing! Sing!
As I die in her sibylline divinity!

Ring Around the Rosie

By Nancy R Peterson

Ring-a-ring-a-rosies
Everybody’s nosey
An issue, an issue
We all fall down.

Living in a bottle of pills
Buried under a pile of bills
An issue, an issue
We all fall down.

At first they think you’re lazy
Then they treat you like you’re crazy
Their issue, their issue
We all fall down.

It’s find the system’s shoddy
Until the day that it’s their body
Ashes, ashes
They’ll all fall down

Nancy is a civil rights activist in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington. Due to progressive paralysis from a lifelong neurodegenerative disease, they create art using unconventional materials such as scalpels, prescription bottles, and syringes.

Nattie is a wild artist/the owner of Natties Novelties

Crazy

By Bob Mathison

Things to remember

Things we’ve said

Things we’ve done

I remember most

The donut shop

It opened, it closed

We danced at daybreak

And all those records played

But a dime never played a sadder song

The day I lost you

Johnnnys crib rocks at night

Those plastic keys chime a little sanity

Because every time I look at him

I see you

You stared down the face of evil

With uncertain fear

Of all the heroes ever known

You’re the one remembered most

My soul chases all those memories

Echoes through my heart

All those silly little memories “of us”

Absent to hear

Absent to touch

But my heart always feels

I’m just going crazy

Student voices

“Student Voices” is a partnership between Tumbleweird, Tri-Cities Diversity and Inclusion Council, and Communities in Schools Benton-Franklin.

Chandler is an 11th grader at Legacy High School.

“I create art that expresses out-of-the-box creativity. It gives me such excitement to create something that I don't know how it will turn out. The unknown possibilities are endless.”

Christopher J. has put years into developing and creating his own art style. He showcases his artwork on Instagram and goes by the name hiimboogie_2.0

MyK V. is an 11th grader at Legacy High School.

“As an artist, I create art for enjoyment and to help bring smiles to others! I mainly take part in character design, so painting was a new step I decided to take! ~ Enjoy.”

MAIN IMAGE: Crystal Goat / Sissy Miller