Honest Chaos

Mark Bonica
  • 0.0 (0)
  • PERFORMING ARTS
Honest Chaos

A poetry, fiction, and spoken word podcast. Completely irregular. Web site: https://honestchaos.blogspot.com/ honestchaos.substack.com

  1. Closing the Windows

    NOV 24

    Closing the Windows

    The thing is you don't realize this is the last time you will close the windows this year. You close them on a day when the sun is sharp like angels' wings and the air bites your cheeks. You're not thinking you should turn the stubborn locks to seal out the fingers of winter frost. You close them one afternoon and then it has been two weeks or four before you notice you have been closed in, and closed off, and the long, gray time has begun. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    1 min

  2. MAR 31

    Oh, Achilles, you were a sucker

    Oh, Achilles, you were a sucker you died and you were forgotten. Perhaps not your name but who you actually were - the details that differentiated you from the other brutes on the beach - and who knows how much Homer just plain made up after a glass or three, and he wasn’t one to disappoint the crowd. If they wanted a little more blood or wanted you to be a little bigger and stronger and not actually have had to fight your fear well then so be it. But that’s not you he’s singing about, let’s be clear. That’s Homer's Achilles, and people are remembering that Achilles, the one he made up to turn a little gold. They're not remembering what you actually did, not what you actually sacrificed - not the beautiful children you could have held, not the fields you would have tilled, not the sunsets you would have pondered leaning on your plow in your old age that you did not have. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    1 min

  3. MAR 24

    Purpose

    Each of us is born with a key-shaped soul - we spend our lives looking for the moments we are meant to unlock, where only we are the right answer to a question otherwise unanswerable. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    21 sec

  4. FEB 4

    Burning a Candle

    I'm burning a candle as a metaphor for how short our human lives are, us all being poor actors strutting and fretting. But this one here is a three-wick spiced cardamom candle not something extruded from pig fat or gathered from hives. I won't be lighting a lamp courtesy of some whale's song cut short by hard men on three year voyages out of Nantucket - though I may catch the ferry there this summer for a day of rubbing elbows with the tourist elite none of whom smell like fish or have salt plastered to their sun burned faces. Indeed, human life is a bit longer and a lot less cruel. And the candles are plentiful if you need one to be reminded. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    1 min
  5. Not a god

    JAN 21

    Not a god

    When you start your day by stubbing your toe even before you get to the bathroom and you know it's an insignificant injury in the scope of world tragedy but in the moment the pain occupies all of your brain except for the part still carrying on about how you have to pee - this is a first glimmer that the old gods are about today. But in case you're not ready to believe, you'll have cut yourself shaving and that tiny slice will bleed onto the first shirt you put on and so you'll go downstairs having dressed yourself twice. You'll knock your coffee over with a flick of your hand, then you'll forget your keys on your way to your car and then as you pull out of your neighborhood, you'll remember your wallet is waiting patiently on the counter for you. And you will do a quick calculus - can I get through my day with no money? what's the chance the police will pull me over? and that last one, given the other signs has you turning around in some stranger's driveway. Now your ancestors in that Mediterranean village - no, not the ones with the copious crucifixes, before them. The ones who made the tiny shrines tucked into every nook and corner where their descendants, closer to you, shoved little statues of Mary, but those older ancestors had other figures there first. They knew when a splash of wine was called for, or to place a slice of orange or a few almonds. And they would tell you, based on the morning you are having that you have with the utmost certainty offended a god. A small god, most likely, but still, what are you? Not a god, they would tell you. And now you, having lost touch with the old ways, awkwardly pour a bit of your coffee from your travel mug onto the mulch by the garage door, the threshold of your home and the larger world. It's a small gesture, but it is noted. Somehow from there you find yourself moving more deliberately and all the lights are green when you roll up to them and all the cars seem to have other places to be other than in front of you, and thus somehow, you arrive on time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    2 min

  6. JAN 15

    Saying goodbye

    So now you have left us, having run through the number of your days which we did not know were ending, but we came upon like a fallen tree blocking the road just after we rounded the bend. We slammed on the breaks and everything came to a stop - we could see our lives frozen in the ice of time and we stood outside waiting for the sun to melt us back into a new reality - one without you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    1 min

  7. JAN 7

    The colors of change

    The trees blush in reds and yellows at the thought of undressing for winter - soon they will stand brazenly naked, gray, the color of acceptance and surrender. Boney arms are lifted in prayer - do not make the snow heavy like concrete, keep the ice storms away. Let the nor'easters go on out to sea where the fish can look up and wonder at the whirling mystery of the airy world. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    1 min
  8. My People

    06/11/2023

    My People

    My people married their first cousins and passed on crooked backs and congenital deafness - my people scraped desert island hills into terraces and pleaded with the earth - my people gathered the rain in cisterns hidden beneath their huts.   There was never enough, and poverty only begets beauty and generosity in the movies. It's only true children are fear and jealousy. And that is why my people set sail and did not return. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestchaos.substack.com

    1 min
See All (112)

About

A poetry, fiction, and spoken word podcast. Completely irregular. Web site: https://honestchaos.blogspot.com/ honestchaos.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Mark Bonica
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    112
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Mark Bonica
  • Show Website
    Honest Chaos

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada