UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/IRIS BERRY

IRIS BERRY

Love gets buried

Love Gets Buried
under bad days
in the trash
forgotten to be taken out
and that one loose handle
on the kitchen cupboard door
that
no one
ever
fucking
fixes...
Love gets buried
under bills
and no jobs
crumbling buildings
and terrorism....
Love gets buried screaming
and muffled under the sound
of alcoholic neighbor
who always win
because they're drunk and louder...
Love gets buried
and forgotten
under countless unpaid parking tickets
lost souls for loved ones
and motel drug overdoses.....
Love gets buried
under friends dying too soon
before they ever had the chance
of a fully realized life....
Love gets buried
under the heartless shuffle of HMO's
finding things that aren't there
and not treating things that are....
Love gets buried
under lost blood tests
and bad carpet....
Love gets buried
and sometimes love resurrects
and sometimes
love just gets buried.

I am the bastard child

I am not my Mothers daughter
or for that matter
my Fathers either
I am the bastard child
of Jack Kerouac
Jack Daniels
and Jack Sprat
I am the lost
Illegitimate love child
of the ages
and I suffer at the alter
of humanity
or something close to it
I’ve given up
on perfection
and whether you think
It’s right or not
I’ve given up
on all my heroes
living and dead

and I apologize
beyond the solar system
for trying to hold them
to the job
of my demise
and my rescue
I am not my mother’s daughter
I am her sister
I am not even my father’s daughter
I am his wife
I am the bastard child
of all those who have gone before me
who loved too much
too little
or not at all
and crippled by it.

Garbage Queen

She lives underneath me
and I can hear her
and her alcoholism
even when she's not
breaking things
fighting with her loser boyfriend
trying to kill herself
remodeling at 4 in the morning
or throwing couches all hours of the night
I can hear her insanity
and her pain
and her sorrow
I can feel her hurt
and her anger
through the floor boards
that's all she has left
somehow she managed
in a drunken stupor
to flush a whole T-shirt
down the toilet
it ended up costing
the landlord 1200 dollars
he was not happy about this
he sent her a letter
asking her to respect the neighbors
and to be careful with her plumbing
and her gas appliances
because the rest of the building was worried
that she would blow the place up...
accidentally of course
she calmed down
a lot after the landlord
sent that letter
she's afraid
she's afraid
that everyone knows
and they do
she's angry
and thinks that
it's eveyone elses fault
I can tell by the way
she runs her garbage disposal
she runs it long and often
she runs it empty and angry
it's her only weapon
it's all she has left
she just runs that thing
for minutes
sometimes a half an hour
at a time
it's like tourette ventriloquism
her lips aren't moving
but the garbage disposal says it for her
spewing her grinding anger
it's her way of showing us all
as she's backed into a tiny corner of her kitchen
with only a bottle and a switch
and an angry hole
too bad she can't dispose
her own personal garbage
down that hole
too bad...

Iris Berry a native Angeleno is described in the press as "A punk-rock James
Ellroy in fishnets," Berry's poetry and short stories have been widely
anthologized in a number of literary journals and collections. "The Outlaw Bible of
American Poetry" (1999 on Thunders Mouth Press) along side the likes of Allen
Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Her book of short stories
and poems was published in the often dark yet infinitely smart and funny Two
Blocks East of Vine (Incommunicado Press) before that, New Alliance Records
released Berry's "Life on the Edge in Stilettos" CD and Berry's most recent
release, Collect Calls on Bad Bunny Records, which features 13 tracks of Berry's
acclaimed poetry backed by the haunting guitars, observing the seedier sides of
Hollywood, Berry interprets the world with poet's eyes and a sultry voice which
should be selling expensive French perfume.

Berry founded and toured extensively with legendary Los Angeles rock-n-roll
spoken word troupe, The Ringling Sisters (A&M Records)--famous for their
numerous benefit shows enlisting local fundraising help from the likes of Henry
Rollins, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, X, Possum Dixon, Ann Magnuson, The Gun Club (in
their last-ever appearance), the Red Hot Chili Peppers, River Phoenix, Mike
Watt, Concrete Blonde, and more.

Currently Iris is touring and writing. She's working on her forthcoming
book of short stories, In the Shadow of the Hollywood Sign. Iris has also
penned two chapters in the 2nd addition of the best-selling Underground Guide to
Los Angeles (Manic D. Press). You can also see Iris in the soon to be
released horror film "I Pass For Human."