TAKING A KNEE

by Martin Ott

You could be getting knighted or holding a ring,

the sun lined up squarely in the sights of your throw.

I have worn a uniform, positioned flags at half mast,

and aimed a rifle in the air while caskets are lowered.

You could be praying or imagining how white stripes

press down on blood lines basking in a field of stars.

They are balancing on caps that could break in battle,

warriors throwing themselves at the one holding on.

You could believe in silence that speaks to us in mass.

Wind whipping our flag is the same no matter the stand.


Martin Ott’s most recent book is Spectrum, C&R Press, 2016. He is the author of seven books and won the De Novo and Sandeen prizes for his first two poetry collections. His work has appeared in more than two hundred magazines and a dozen anthologies. He tweets and blogs.

GIANT DIE WASHES ASHORE ON LAKE COEUR D'ALENE

by Martin Ott

Coeur d'Alene resident Mark Sales told KBOI 2News that he and his father spotted the floating object on Saturday near the boardwalk. (Photo courtesy Mark Sales) —KOMONEWS (Seattle), March 22, 2017

Perhaps Paul Bunyan was rolling bones to stake Babe
against enough food to last the winter, the errant throw

skidding over the Rockies and into the soup. Theories
on how lake monsters could transform into any object

hung on rearview mirrors don’t account for this die
castaway forever tumbling toward its opposite or twin.

Alien vessels were round until the Borg sucked us in,
this camouflage of games and chance rolling in waves,

an invasion of our psyche, lust for numbers, and desire
to be on the last square. Dice, after all, are about turns

and seizing the next piece of land, inexorable steps
in an American game where there is just one winner.

Sometimes the die would disappear in evening mist,
the makeshift worlds we build ephemeral and slick,

until that last passage onto shore, final roll stuck,
the deity of odds nowhere to be seen in the picture.


A previous contributor to TheNewVerse.News, Martin Ott’s most recent book is Spectrum, C&R Press, 2016. He is the author of seven books and won the De Novo and Sandeen prizes for his first two poetry collections. His work has appeared in more than two hundred magazines and a dozen anthologies. He tweets and blogs.

THE BRAGGER

by Martin Ott

Image source: Reptiles Guru

Told the world that the ferret on his head was his own virile pelt and the sheen of tangerine on his cheeks was the glow of courage. He promised that his body parts were wonderful to behold and hold, and that his brain was bigger than even his intentions. The tales of his successes became his job, and he could not divorce the actor from the man as easily as his early wives. He learned from an early age that suckers were made, not born, and the dramas around the world could hold him as a leading man in the narrative. There is nothing he won’t say he can do. He can stomp his feet like a lizard king and crush foes. The rich will build castles that will not be torn down by the rabble. The rabble will have fortresses made of sticks and straw, but the moral of pigs and wolves is a lie. Time is a backwards journey and the smoke rising from our planet is just the end of a cigar with the proper vantage. Words will tingle at nighttime and sleep will settle in with gasps and tiny knives on your arms. Dreams will frame his face in a flower, in the horizon, in everyone.

A previous contributor to TheNewVerse.News, Martin Ott’s most recent book is Spectrum, C&R Press, 2016. He is the author of seven books and won the De Novo and Sandeen prizes for his first two poetry collections. His work has appeared in more than two hundred magazines and a dozen anthologies. He tweets and blogs.

THE FALL OF SKY MALL

by Martin Ott

The bankrupt SkyMall catalog may be rescued by a former Shark Tank contestant. Scott Jordan, the chief executive of a company that makes clothes with pockets specially designed for smartphones and other gadgets, plans to bid for SkyMall's assets. . . . SkyMall, a mail order catalog that has been found in seat-back pockets on airplanes for 25 years, filed for bankruptcy last week. It was famous for selling gadgets aimed at travelers, as well as variety of offbeat items like Sasquatch statues and glow in the dark toilet seats. --CNN, January 28, 2015

Catalogs floated in dark matter somewhere between seat pocket and a wrinkle in time. Where were you when the sky began raining solar-powered cooling hats and serenity cat pods? Many had just heard that the universe may not have exploded from a single point. The crowds trampled each other to catch the squirrel tree climber sculptures and plush referee turkey hats. In an alternate universe time ran backwards. Some were maimed by the dinosaur trophy friezes and peacock dreams mirrored plaques. The volley of God-hand statues with cradled cats whistled down and you reconsidered the notion of pi. Were you one of the first to catch a wrist cell phone carrier or head massagers, each one unique like melting snowflakes or conjoined twins? The fabric of the universe was weary. Millions marched with wine glass holder necklaces and alien butlers, waistband stretchers and sling couture, slumber sleeves and Siamese blankets. Nothing lasts forever except ideas of forever. Spaces between borders filled with a new theory of universal expansion. The deluge ended somewhere over the Rockies. The fasten seat belt lights dinged and you woke with dried spittle crusting lips, hoping you didn’t snore or feel up the person in the next seat over. The dream of owning everything remained. Your hand trembled to open the window shade. The person next to you sighed. The crinkle of paper. The light looking like it was made. 


A previous contributor to The New Verse News, Martin Ott is the author of six books of poetry and fiction, including the forthcoming books Underdays (University of Notre Dame Press) and Interrogations (Fomite Press).

COMING-OF-AGE POEM USING 50 WORDS THAT MIGHT CAUSE THE NSA TO FLAG YOU AS A TERRORIST

by Martin Ott

Image source: popdecay.

Source for the 50 words in the poem: Business Insider: Australia.

His impatient mother would place her mace in an indigo
purse, and badger him, “Slow-poke the artichoke,”
for preferring Reno to the college snuffle, beef market
of lacrosse tossers, Jello shots, and credit card fraud.

His sometimes flame Jasmine got him in the zone,
loin to loin, on the basement couch, their chosen niche,
utopia of quiche and salsa, his red-headed Capricorn
quick to unzip for sex, and call his thrashing fish a minnow.

His friend Jack told him to run, Austin nerd, full of cocaine
and malaise, afraid of Texas, and dropping dead from blowfish
darts from gorilla boyfriends transformed into clandestine snipers
with Ninja stealth from keyhole eavesdropping on his sister’s friends.

Today he suited up, Roswell cowboy, not afraid to strap on his big
asset, his Macintosh, to face the fangs of starving career advisors
peering at him like a veggie burger without French fries or a bun,
the enigma of missing something almost as hard as missing none.


A former U.S Army interrogator, Martin Ott currently lives in Los Angeles, where he writes poetry and fiction, often about his misunderstood city. He is the author of 3 books of poetry: Underdays, Notre Dame University Press (to be published in 2015); Captive, De Novo Prize winner, C&R Press; and Poets’ Guide to America, co-written with John F. Buckley In 2013, he published his debut novel The Interrogator’s Notebook, Story Merchant Books. His blog - writeliving.wordpress.com - has thousands of readers in more than 75 countries.

PILATES INSTRUCTOR CALLS 911 AFTER MISTAKING LABRADOODLE FOR LION

by Martin Ott

Dog causes uproar after being mistaken for a lion because his owner cut his 'mane' to look like the local college mascot. --Mail Online, January 9, 2013





Perhaps the doors to the fitness center
should not have been left ajar to let
in air, and the dog’s owner should have
better tied the rhinestone leash to a lamp
pole. The tan mane was freakishly puffy,
and reminiscent of a nascent lion king,
and it was difficult to make out details
in the chaos of leg warmers and shrieks.
They’d been frightened by endless tales
of rampaging death, and the instructor
put the class in a closet, hero that he was,
assured no feline possessed opposable
thumbs to work the knob. They did
not fret about the oxygen running out
or the receptionist getting maimed,
resisting impulses, sharing bareness,
lit by smart phones, bodies pressed,
an excited beast chasing a giant ball
over matts made on distant shores.


A former U.S. Army interrogator, Martin Ott currently lives in Los Angeles and still finds himself asking a lot of questions. His poetry and fiction have appeared in more than 100 publications, including Harvard Review, New Letters, Prairie Schooner and Zyzzyva. His book of poetry Captive won the 2011 De Novo Prize. He is also co-author of Poets’ Guide to America (Brooklyn Arts Press). Ott’s blog about writing has drawn thousands of visitors from more than 75 countries.