Dog Heaven

I'm beginning to wonder if Lois liked taking pictures alot. We were definitely a black dog family and bonus points for big white shirtfronts on them.

I'd love to see an art show in which people submit their very best family art, the photos that under any other circumstances would be in art mags. I've a handful and this one is right up there with Lois and Trumpet and the Storm.

The truck (off screen) in this picture, oh man. The dog looking at it and the grass level perspective. The way windows worked to catch the drafts, genius.

Who was laying down on the lawn to praise this dog in rural Tempe just after the war?

 

Mabel contemplates her upcoming dental work.

 

XRAYS

The bones of Bayruth look like buildings
before the flesh and secrets
have been carried off by the organisms
there, faces carry
the look of assassinations as well
on eclipse days as the ordinary ones,
a type of sudden death syndrome.
The fruit vendors to the kaak trolley spies
have a winsome glow when the sun
is skewed regardless of the sea's intentions.
Some roll their pants up to the knees
and others fall apart on xray, shoulders
and legs, tiny feet and the poor
sell square pieces of old film
so others might view the moon's silver slivers
rather than suffer the myth of going blind.

All rights reserved, my sorrow, my property. XRAYS first published in 4AM.

For an old friend.

 

Daily Fresh Fish on the Corniche in Beirut, all rights reserved MSwaid

This was shot like this, it has not been manipulated in any way. AI might be able to manufacture something like it but remember, it's in the name of the slop: ARTIFICIAL "intelligence".

 

 Ode to the Man Who Invents Intellectual Property

When the scions arrive to plagiarize

the hem widths and planting depths,

remember to hide the tautologies

where no one thinks to look,

not in the drawers or under the sinks,

never under the sinks certainly not

in the socks, up higher.

Ever greedy and stupidly mean,

the scions might torture the females.

Plunge everything into the scum

bury it, don't burn and don't hesitate

to turn off the light and pretend

no one is home.

The Breadmaker in the Family- All rights reserved MSwaid
 

 Zeroth

-In the museum,

everything is laid out neatly.  - Jody Azzouni, The Lust For Blueprints

With just enough letters lights

and windows, that day

froze. It froze hard

the fights and promises

inside of it stopped

in an instant,

for an instant.

The hearts inside all the cages,

inside the cats and dogs, the 

inertial moment of all

the right hand rules

of thermal equilibrium

in the fetuses there

La ilaha illallah

and the entire particles of space

and glaciers

played dead.

...I have to chuckle sometimes...people who ask those of us who practice poetry if 'they still write poetry'?  Here's the thing, poets, those who practice 'poetry', never started writing it and never finish. Never finish writing new ones or elevating old ones to new heights.  This one is brand new, hot off the press and is in response to a long lost friend I found the other day:

It's one of the friends that you haven't thought of since the day you waved from across the street. You never thought you'd be heading out of town for a while and somehow, through the ages they just get tucked away in the mind's eye.  

Those guys were reaally hauling that day. So fast that entropy divested them of faces.

I invented the selfie. I also did not clean mirrors.

 

We're all on the way somewhere. All rights reserved MSwaid
 

Moqawama means "Resistance". Two men wearing boots. South Lebanon belongs to the people of South Lebanon, not a bunch of ZNX from Poland and New Jersey.  All rights reserved MSwaid

 

Reflection of a reflection of a prophecy, All rights reserved MSwaid, 1980.

What About Mars?

No more problems says the package
the cure came in, no more
warning labels and the price tag
no longer legible. It began
with flashy children and fast cars
then people started talking
about the leftover stuff
after the move out,
wondered what would happen
to the crystal ball and Japanese flag.
Where to put Mars now?
Whose house next?

 

Riyadh, Night Souk in Batta. Batta was an area of Riyadh that packed in 1-200,000 "TCN" workers on any given Friday. TCN is an abbreviation for "third country national". All rights reserved MSwaid

We bought alot of fruit and veg that night. I only vaguely remember, much like the dream this picture appears to be.

The Goat Life is an astonishly beautiful movie and sadly, accurate during those times. The men in this photo could be characters in that must see, should see, why haven't you seen movie. I cannot speak for the situation now. I highly, highly recommend it.

All Rights Reserved MSwaid. Shot with Nikon FM SLR with 35mm lens, ultra bad supermarket quality slide film, probably Fuji.

 

Operation Accountability, one of the many, many Israeli war crimes committed against the people of South Lebanon.  All rights reserved MSwaid, 1993

Depicting Syrian troops headed towards the south, we were headed to the north to flee the carnage.

How the Grand Canyon Looks
all rights reserved MSwaid

 

Barber Shop Libnan, All rights reserved MSwaid 
There's just something about barber shops. The real man caves.  Politics, comraderie, image.

 

 

The Biggest Dumb Ride in the World all rights reserved MSwaid
 

All rights strictly reserved MSwaid, The Red Wheelbarrow open source, by Wm Carlos Williams

—“The Red Wheelbarrow”:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

 

Oh the bowling was great then.

Sometimes I think of these souls 

I caught coming out, going in

if they knew they were part

of the long project called:

How the Ants Got Famous.

Who remembers the Daily Kos?

No one.

All rights to this photo are strictly retained by the photographer.

 

https://vimeo.com/130303794?fl=pl&fe=sh

At the end of the most uncivil war in Beirut, the Zionistas licked their lips and rubbed their hands together and never thought in a million years anyone would ever dare tell them no.  All rights reserved MSwaid

If you or a loved one thinks they may be in an abusive relationship with Nazism, turn to your local chapter of anything, anyone because over 90% of all the world is now your shoulder to cry on.

 

All rights reserved MSwaid.  Sambo's 1983.  My customers became my hostages, trapped in the forever of the temporary.

I was always a photographer first, poet second. Nowdays, anyone can produce a passable image with the flick of an index finger on a little bubble on a screen. However. It's even more temporary, more disposable than it (photography) has ever been.

Good thing is, for me anyway, hardly anyone can write a poem anymore worth reading. 

Large Language Models, oh pshaw!  Little magnetic poetry boxes from Barnes and Noble.

We all die anyway.

 

The Corniche, alas. The Nazis approach from the south. All rights reserved MSwaid
 

Go in, Get out, Try up.
All rights reserved MSwaid 2026

 

The Zionist 1983

At AZ State University, the Palestinians and the ZioOccupierNaxis used to set out tables to "educate".  I had literally no clue what all the fuss was about back then. I was innocently shooting pictures most likely for an assignment in beginning photography (I was already well on my way to understanding the whole deal with photography) so I figured hey, why not 'get a degree' to prove that I knew what I knew. So this arsehole got his hand right in front of my camera. You see, they've always known that they were criminals. Always and don't ever forget that.  All rights reserved MSwaid