Don’t Mess with Ouija by Jeff Bagato

Ouija you maniac, you fiend,
how can you keep spitting
words on the table
like that—pure, harsh
words that numb some
minds and make others uncomfortable—
you should be more polite,
more considerate, perhaps
more dainty or just more sweet,
and when I ask Ouija
to spell me a fortune,
some slim contact with a destiny
of desire, all I get is noise,
a string of letters like
Z-Z-Z-Z-Z or K-K-K-K-K,
like snoring or choking on her
own vomit and bile,
‘cause Ouija’s a wild thing,
independent of mind & clearly in touch
with a bad mojo, staring
too long into the wormholes of time,
the lairs of demons and failure
and pain, ‘cause those who consult
the oracle should already know
they were born to lose
from money to sanity and all
success in between—
Ouija lays it down hard
with a screech of stiff
legs on lacquered wood:
can’t see the forest for the fire;
can’t see the fire
for the smoke;
can’t see the smoke
for the retina burn of raw
ego need shining with
an inner glow of a soul
in hell

A multi-media artist living near Washington, DC, Jeff Bagato produces poetry and prose as well as electronic music and glitch video. Some of his poetry and visuals have recently appeared in Empty Mirror, Futures Trading, Otoliths, Gold Wake Live, H&, The New Post-Literate, and Midnight Lane Boutique. Some short fiction has appeared in Gobbet and The Colored Lens. He has published nineteen books, all available through the usual online markets, including Savage Magic (poetry) and Computing Angels (fiction). A blog about his writing and publishing efforts can be found at http://jeffbagato.com