Luke LaGraff - 200 words

Well there is really no reason to write about God, now is there? I don't think or believe it's a topic to write about. I just think God-writin' is a purely fictional undertaking, and therefore kind of ridiculous to write about.

At least if you're writing about the big G man in a serious tone.

And I'm not saying God is fictional. But writing about God would have to be considered fictional, of course. How the hell do you know what God is or isn't? If you do know, please find out why egg nog can't be around all year? I love that shit. God will know the answer and the remedy. Can you mention that at the next company picnic?

So, we've covered a lot of ground on this topic today. And good, no questions. Wow, I seemed to have affected everyone's mind on the futility of writing about God.

Again, just for good measure- It's illogical to write about God. Yet, it's logical to write about people who write about God.

So I've got a problem with conjecture.

I, too, do.

I, too, want to know the 'end'. Not as much as I used to. My story is right about... now.

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - Everywhere for Me

I feel I've been more places than a lot of people. I've been more
places than one of my friends. I know I have. I've been more places
than almost all things. And by things I mean animals. Except birds I
guess. Well, the ones that migrate and shit. They fly thousands of
miles. They eat fish from the same little lake each time. They eat from
the same family of worms, too. That worm family must not like them. If
I was in that worm family, I'd be like, "NOT AGAIN! That same swooping
bastard ate my 349th born child!" I'm not going to check if worms have
that many offspring, I'm just assuming they do. Because worms don't
have much to do that's fun besides get it on.
I went to Memphis once. It was alright. I got lost in Soulsville. I
thought that was cool. I've been to Knoxville hundreds of times though.
Some were fun and some were forgotten. One time that wasn't forgotten
was the most cathartic concert I've ever been to; Phish is a helleva
band. I've been to Nashville a number of times as well. I had sex in
Nashville once. In the backyard of a house that was for sale. I never
had sex in Knoxville. I've been to Martin once, too. They have a
college there. I went to Bristol once to see a cirlce race. Yep, they
all went left. I've been to Crossville, Clarksville, Kingsport,
Murpheesboro, Dayton, Dunlap, Soddy-Daisy, Gatlinburg, and Manchester.
I saw all the bands you'd ever want to hear in Manchester. Bonnaroo is there.
Fun. I didn't have sex there, nor did I see anyone having sex. But, I
did see Elvis Costello, Beck, Radiohead, and Ivan Neville's Dumpstafunk
one day. On another day, in another year, I saw Modest Mouse, My
Morning Jacket and Widespread Panic. Two years ago I saw Al Green, TV
on the Radio and Phish on one day. Our camping neighbor that year gave
me something called Molly. He gave it to me for free! His name was
Apple Butter. I really shouldn't have taken it. At least not as much as
he gave me. I remember looking up after 15 minutes, and seeing a flag
for the Pittsburg Penguins and knowing I wanted to find a place to
watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, I headed straight towards it. I
found some people from Maryland who luckily gave me the hat I was
asking to wear, for my head was boiling and I feared it might begin to
melt off. They were nice. I got scared though after they went in to
hear music and left me at their camp. I began calling all in my phone.
Nobody answered. Then my friend who I came to the weekend with called.
He said he was at Al Green, and asked if I'd like to meet him. I said
that was probably the greatest idea I'd ever heard. When I arrived and
heard the full band tearing through 'Love and Happiness', blissing my
brain out, I remembered why I took the drug in the first place. Later
that night I sat down to rest next to a volunteer. He was beside one of
those signs for 'Sharps' disposal. In this case meaning needles. I
found this odd, and hilarious that the staff would provide a place for
the junkies to drop off their used syringes. But he told me it was for
diabetics and I realized this was a good idea. Soon a couple of local
chicks parked it next to us. I had gotten their attention by telling
them,"We'll talk about it later!" They were wondering what I meant. I
asked them where the ground was. They both had on makeup and were clean
and obviously had just come into the festival so they were curious what
I was on. I said,"Nothing, anymore." One of them said,"NAW. You on
somethin." I kinda wanted to hang out with this pretty, country girl.
She then non-sequintially asked me if I have any kids. I said, "No, do
you?" "No," she said, "oh wait, yeah I do." Damn Tennessee girls let me
down that time.
Six years before this I came with some friends to Venice and swam in
the Pacific Ocean on Valentine's Day. I had bet my friend a beer that
I'd get in. I won. The water was cold but the air was around 80 degrees
that day. And cloudless. It was perfect. We drove the PCH and cut
through Topanga Canyon. We made friends on the 405 as we sat. It was a
great trip. I even got stuck in Dallas on the flight back because of
ice. So the airline gave me a $300 voucher towards a future flight. But
I lost the voucher.
But, I went back to California six years later. Actually, just a few
years after I had gone to Massachusetts. And one year after I had gone
to Toronto. And 15 years after I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. And
London. And when I got to California, this time having driven. Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona all having been
wonderful, I went to sleep. When I got up it was so nice. I felt grand.
I ate fish tacos and oranges and sushi and drank rum. I went to a
comedy club and Hollywood Boulevard. I got stoned. I, I didn't have a
way back though. Nope. This time I had come all the way to California
with no plans on how I was getting back. Back being Chattanooga. I had done
this when I went to Massachusetts. Also when I went to Knoxville once.
Don't do this, as it pisses off people. People who care about me and don't
want me sleeping on their couch. I ended up trading a very stylish Foster's
beer shirt that had a pouch sewn onto it with the words 'The Big Taste From Down
Under' on it. My friend who I traded this with said it might be worth
$90 at an L.A. boutique clothing shop. The plane ticket it got me was worth
it. On the trip home I had two dollars and 21 cents. I bought a taco at Taco Bell
during my layover in Denver. I was still so hungry. TSA had taken my
soup and Chef Boy-R-Dee at LAX. I boarded my connecting flight to Orlando. The
woman sitting next to me passed on her complimentary beverage so I
asked her if she didn't want her peanuts, could I have them? She asked if I was
hungry. I said yes! She immediately got up and went to the back of the plane and
came back with eight bags of peanuts, 4 bags of pretzels, and three bags of
cookies. She said she used to work for American Airlines! Thank you, ma'am. Thank
you very much. I continued reading Macbeth a much fuller man. When I arrived in
Orlando I knew only a little about how I was going to get to my third
flight. Sanford, FL to home in Chattanooga. Sanford is about 45 minutes north
of Orlando International Airport and I had no money. I found out the city bus
would take me within 2 miles of Sanford's airport. So I went to sleep and got up to
board the first bus at 5:05am. I showed the bus driver the 19 pennies I found in the bottom
of my backback and looked as helpless as a person with all working appendages
could. She said get on. I had to be at my flight by 7:30am. Busses are slow. I was
becoming more and more worried that I'd be stuck here for days, missing my
flight and reciting monologues from Shakespeare's 'Three Great Tragedies' for more tacos.
The bus dropped me at Airport Drive with 35 minutes to get to my flight. It was
August in Florida. It was around 93 degrees and so humid it was so humid it was
just so damn humid. I tried to run. That lasted 50 seconds. I had a backpack and a
large piece of luggage as well. I trudged and trudged along the road. I flipped my
thumb up but had no luck attempting to hitchhike. I speed walked! I sat. I walked a little
more. I sat. I was so hot!! I was sweating sweating sweating. I was becoming pissed for the
first time on my trip. AHH! Why do I get into these situations! I think I yelled rural
sayings like,"Y'all suck!" at the passing drivers in their cars and trucks and lawnmowers.
I was beaten down. I was desperate and worthless. Pathetic.
I saw a guy taking out his trash. I couldn't see the airport. I asked
him if it was close. He said, "About a mile." I kept on walkin. Damn
this heavy ass luggage. I didn't need to bring all this stuff. I
probably wore two different shirts and the same shorts the whole trip.
Why did I bring these hats, these CD's, these boots, these books, these
rollerblades! Why did I bring rollerblades?? I used them once when I
went to Massachusetts and often at home as a portable, free way of
traveling; I got make fun of.
-"Hey? You goin' to the airport?"
What. Was that? That was the garbage taker outer. "Yes, sir."
"Do you want a lift?" he asked.
"Yes. Yes, that would be the greatest," I answered.
I got in his air conditioned SUV and found out he was a heatpacking
Homeland Security Officer that was not scared of me or much else. His
wife graduated from the same college I got a 0.0 at and she was from
Knoxville. She wanted to move the family back there in a few years.
I got dropped off at 7:22. I made my flight.
My friend picked me up at Chattanooga Regional Airport and took me to
see 'Inglourious Basterds' that afternoon. It was like I hadn't left. Or
something like that.

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - You Bonnaroo

Burnt light like muck,
drizzles life over the night music
for us to strut.

Molly talk with these sounds,
reaches into desire and the flower
shades the fun.

My mind and its’ eyes
blind in its disguise

Of health on the inside
for fear of the far side;

And to ascend the magical search
I require the furthest perch.

Great dark like freedom,
opens the soul sublime to see
even needs your worst friends need.

Travel the fields like a kite
forever now you dance in spite
Belching rock and loving blues
forever now you Bonnaroo.

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - And Beyond

And beyond a skyward eye
Little clouds are alive
Sweet mockingbirds strike a cord
Loud assumpions come on board

The deal of night is mixed with day
That light that's merry and on its way
A thought that might reveal the deal
Is there for me to see with zeal

Priceless life, once and for all
Has begun again to question its fall
The answer for my mind is kind
But revels around from bind to bind

The deal of night is mixed with day
I thought from birth it might go this way
But taking away the dead of life
Will score away the thread of strife

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - Flesh Poem

I got flesh to live!
I got it to spend.
I got till the end.

I wanna ruin my body, wanna shove it into the dirt, I'll give another moment to death
A pale daydream, me looking at me, awake but not quite alive
A sad eye, half of it available, the other oozing liquid flesh

Got a chance to see tomorrow
If this flesh can stand
It might have been all spent

The town of my actions
Has divorced my floor
Nowhere to be, no body is me

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - So This is Yours

This is yours, a dirty plate, a rotten steak
This, too, is yours- 854-322-9957.
I want nothing but the plate.
Clean.

But, alas, I can't clean like you. I'm dirty.
Just reallly dirty. I can't clean. I can, but
only myself, up. Oh, also
when it rains.
(Can you make it rain)
You can't?!
Well get out then!

Please leave the bucket. I need that list.
To remind me of you.

You were what I loved. Excuse me, who, I loved.

Now what to do with today. You've left. But, I'm right.
Yeah, I tell you I'm right but you, you don't listen.
Cause you're gone

I left it all on the relationship: The sweat, the time, the way I tried my best.
The, the game was, never timed. As I hear, if it's correctly timed, there is no time- it's untime!

So this is yours. A few words, it's all that's free to me. I hope you can be, yourself without me. And I hope I can continue, myself without you.
Love you

ps. don't forget to call, here's my number 423 544 2332

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - Things I Should Know by Now

The things I should know by now I should know by now I should know
The things I should know by now!
The things I should know by now I should know by now
I should know the things I know by now

It takes living to make the life the life I should live by now by living the life
It takes living to make the life!
It takes living to make the life I should be living by living
I should be living the life

With the thoughts I've thought I think about what to think about thoughts
With the thoughts I've thought!
With the thoughts I've thought I thought I had thought
I shouldn't bethink so many thoughts

I don't really know, if I should know, the things I should know by now
I don't really know!
I don't really know if things I should know I should ever know
I shouldn't know the things I know until, now

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - A Stranger Kind

The orbiter of odd
Has a few friends
A few go to lots
One is always the end

But unity can have division
It does love
It involves cohesion
And that stranger from above

The divide is grown
Through thinking like mad
It continues through when
When you have what you had

And all those strangers
The ghosts, the host, the
ones that matter most,
kindly give this cosmic day
a mind the reason to exclaim,"uh!?"

Cause it's such a sunny way
and a grand funny feeling
When you say to yourself,
"A stranger gave me this! UH?!"

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - Pulse-esque

12:17am

"No, there is no way. That's right. Would I buy that? Do you want me to? Should I disclose that I would like to buy that? I would buy that. Excuse me. Excuse me. Just a little left. Here I come. That was way ballin'. Nah, brah! That was! It was somethin that you or me or him wouldn't have even done had we not been there, ya know? That's just the facts of stuff, ya know? NO. OTHER. WAY. Why are ya not drinkin?"

A shake of the head.

"You're not gonna be drinkin?"

A shake of the head.

"You ever had Monk Chunk I.P.A 8.9%? So dank. What about just Monk Chunk Gold 6.7%? It's actually some of the best brew to come out of Wyoming since '92. Ya gotta try it. Just go get some. Just go. I mean, Blue Moon is good too. It works. It does. I like art. I do art. I like art. I like art deco, art reco, art flamenco. I have a manager who has been trying to get me to move to Miami. I don't know about that though. I mean, I have to go to work on Monday morning, ya know. Anybody else have to go to work on Monday morning? Anybody? Anybody? Wow. It's quiet. Everybody goin home. I need some weed. I haven't smoked weed in, like, three weeks! Anybody have any weed? Anybody? Can you imagine... three weeks... I can't find nothin. Nothin. I really do like art though. Do you like art?"

A shake of the head.

"Museums?"

A shake of the head.

"TV? Radio? Billboards? The internet?"

Shakes of the head.

"Shoes?"

A shake of the head.

"What kind of shoes are you wearing?"

"I don't remember," the other man said.

"That's the sign of a hard worker, man. You said it. I've been designing shoes for, like, 3 years now, and I don't see anything stopping the momentum I've amassed. The shoes are gonna just stomp, brah! I mean, think about it, three years, right. They better stomp! Right? God, why is everyone so quiet? Everybody's going home to eat dinner, uh? Everybody's got their dinners thought about. What are you gonna have? I would have that. I saw that movie 'Sucker Punch', man. It sucked, man. I mean, the first half was alright I guess, but then the director probably smoked too much meth and it just became all crazy and I couldn't understand it anymore, ya know? I mean, what's up with movies anyways? Ya know? What was the last movie you saw? I just saw Sucker Punch. Did you see it? I saw it. I saw most of it. I saw Spiderman vs. The Ewoks vs. Superman vs. Minnie the Moocher the other day. I saw most of it. What is up with movies? I don't know if I should disclose this. You're getting off here, too?"

12:37am

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke Lagraff - Bum Master

This day feels rented
With morsels of blood
That flow through dented
Hearts wanting love

I get up with another
Quarter’s worth of will
He didn’t want to give
But I told him I kill

I look like shame
That question’s all the same
I guess I’ve learned that pain
Is inherent to the game

But I’m seen everyday
Paw-happy in rain
Managing my spirits’
And the famous nicknames

Do I think about tomorrow?
Do I give? I can make it there.
Will I make it by on sorrow?
Will I forgive? I’ll only bum air.

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke LaGraff - Where is the Earth?

There's a come around
A thing I've heard called
A thing I've heard screamed

This sound is coming from Earth
I can't understand it, can't comprehend it
I feel it conveying it's terrible worth

To know this, is divine
I feel lucky to have the experience
I feel it emoting sublime

One day on Earth-
Moments in exponentiation
Involute change. Pain. Joy.

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

A Poemy Risk - Luke LaGraff

I slash along without a sword
A pen bathes the soul better.
And keeping my word, finally
I get it together within this letter.

Today was the best by far
Hell, it's brilliant with our only star.
And what? I even slip into our water,
Our host, our earth; our one of a kind birth

The talent we wonder about
Is stretched seamlessly, no doubt.
Al, me and JD are in kin
We brothers are 3 of many others.
And we reaffirm that many
Can do what a family does.
We do, we are beings, being...
Hey Dad
Hi MOM!


Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Untitled - Luke LaGraff

. . . climbing the tallest mountain in the world, George Hanover! . . . George Hanover pitched a perfect game, again . . . I don't know how he does it, but George Hanover has released eight number 1 albums in a row . . . This guy George Hanover decided to take matters into his own hands and fought back. The robber didn't have a chance . . . Science said it couldn't be done, but it hadn't met George Hanover . . .

"Wwaaahh! bllbbliittt. grrrraaaaahhhhh!!"

George had been dreaming.

"Wake up, George. Wake up," his mother said to him as she crossed his bedroom door on the way to the kitchen. It was Friday morning around 11 and it really was time for him to get out of bed. He had to walk the family dog and then pretend to look for jobs on the Internet or his mom wouldn't give him the fifty dollars he would desperately need. The reason he desperately needed it was because he had to get loaded. On what? It didn't matter. Hopefully some Xanax would be found, because that would ease the nice, gentle buzz from the 10 or 12 beers that would have already have been consumed by the time his dealer got off work. His dealer, in turn, would be able to drop off the gram of coke that George and his longtime “party” buddy would do at the shitty bar while trying to make new friends. The two never made new friends, only people who wanted to do a line of coke and jabber on for five or ten minutes until they would leave George and his one friend sitting in the darkest corner of smoke and loneliness a bar can offer.

But George wasn't fazed. Nope. He never was. He was an excellent rationalizer. And an equally great delusionist.

And later on that night, sittin' up in his corner chair, George explained his greatness, "Edmund Hillary was a great climber, but he couldn't have done three lines of coke, drank a fifth of Evan Williams and made it home in an '89 Ford Taurus with three working tires, like I did last Tuesday night. And Roy Halladay is an amazing pitcher, but could he have rollerbladed down Interstate 75 at 2am after eating 4 hits of LSD and not get run over by a semi? NO! Could Michael Jackson start a fistfight with four polite coffeehouse regulars and crawl out with only second degree burns and a broken hand? Maybe. But he wouldn't have had the balls to do it in the first place. But I did! I did it all!! I even found time to try a new drug. Roxy. It's a mixture of cocaine and OxyContin. You shoot it. Einstein couldn't have done that. He didn't even think of it first. I did!"

George slumped back over, his withered and dying body aligning itself easily with the bent and spent shape of this crusty barroom chair’s final resting place.


Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.

Luke LaGraff - 'Another Continue? cool.'

'Another Continue? cool.'

The sun is here
It is never late-
The universe is a clock.
Does it have batteries?
Can it change them?
To the multi:
verse of lyrics of spheres?
Made to the beat
we bang out with fear.

If I cave in with thought
and wrestle the ghost
I'll wonder most about the hope
I lost before my heart did.
will be like, "Did the day come?"
"Did I have a son?" -or were my eyes dead then-
-Till the worms poked thru them.

Luckily time has
(And just might always have)
A time for me (and you,
and the never too many generations we flew)
to tell it it HAS GOT to GO!

And by go I mean continue
By go I don't mean get
By go I mean we need you
By go I mean we want you

Look. At me. I'm a dawning mass.
I'm full today. You see me now,
At the horizon, transcending again,
My life as it fell,

Into bright spring

-----------------------

'A Dawning Mass'

With the forward idea of time
I got up to become.
Since
Earth show's no way of backtrack
I woke up with the sun already in my comb.

This was with a history of abuse
of what I did with a comb-
which was nothing.
The cop did not believe me and he

Locked me up for a head half a'shave
and asking a girl her middle name.

In that dawn's sun I was a mess.

In today's light I couldn't see
my past blight's shadow
I although regret almost none of it-
There was a night
There was that one end to the nights.
Which I can not right.

So today a maroon and blue-orange sky
has a welded ball rolling
And inside is me.

It's pinballing dawn, day, and night
Crashing into love, me and some
new friends already on board.

Found out about this orb by my orbit
Around the odd.
A break of the law, too;
Too much irony to include within this here tune.

-----------------------

'The Simple Write'

I had 4 dollars
I had a piece of bread, too.
I hadn't a wallet
And an oven that had no fuse.

I lost the money
I dropped the bread on booze-
But ate it anyway.

I moved. I couldn't spend anymore...
time had arrived.
Then it moved on, luckily w/ me
To America's southwestern shore.

It has it all, now it has me.
What have I been doing?

I got clean, that moon shine
was too clear in Tennessee.

I flopped into the beach
Felt that air the sea brings
Moved into a nice dive
Gettin a job
A job I'll like, that when it rains 'about
I'll still sing!

We have 2 dogs- Chuck D
and another, named Monster.
And it's all good.

Also met a girl
Who swirls delicate jokes
And kisses like the lips of surf.
I kiss her back.
and her lips!

Luke LaGraff is a lover of sandwiches, egg nog, and one of a kind days. He used to forget them, but now has realized he shouldn't; they have more meaning than ever at this point of his life. He enjoys the sun in LA and watches hockey and funny things whenever he can. He listens to people. He's from Tennessee.