For those unfamiliar with the bizarre and chronically intriguing phenomonon of the infamous Toynbee Tiles that have appeared in and around Philadelphia (and a handful of other cities) since the early 1980s, I direct you to the Wikipedia article on the subject. Also valuable, and highly enterntaining, is the 2011 documentary Ressurect Dead: The Mystery of the Tonbee Tiles, which includes a notable nod to E-Verse Radio as one of the early “outsider” media outlets to lavish attention on the tiles. My poem “Toybee Tile at Sixth and South Streets, Philadelphia” appears in the new issue of the Philadelphia literary magazine Apiary. Head over to have a look at the poem and browse the contents of the latest issue.  I’ve also recorded the poem for those who might like to hear it read by the author.

TOYNBEE IDEA
IN MOViE ’2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPiTER

 
1.
 
Oracular mosaics
Maim aging asphalt.
They flash and peel
Like scorched skin.
 
2.
 
Imprints of dropped
Birthday cakes,
They stamp our minds
With an uneasy sense:
 
A toxic essence slides
Like ‘50s monster slime
Unseen beneath
Each hour’s crowd.
 
3.
 
The colors tug us away
From robot rounds
That glue us to reality.
We pause, but we do not
 
Really want to learn
What they mean,
Who installed
Them, with what aim
 
Or why—always
More easeful
To imagine
Conspiracies and sects
 
Content to burn
Terms of warning
To earth,
 
Tabs of ice for
 
A mind to slip,
But otherwise leave
Us to our
Endangered lives.