-I take comfort in simple things 

My aim 
is to keep
Things mundane

-this cafe is my favorite place 

My oasis
I come 
every day 

-And my order’s always the same

Keep it Safe
Im Afraid 
To tempt fate 

-wont throw caution to hurricanes

The risk taken’s 
always 
a mistake


So Here ill sit 
And here ill stay
Just Keep to myself and never deviate
Just me and my self and
Nobody else man
Now This is my plan

-on the day that I saw her face

Asked her name
Fell in love 
got a date

-a life time in the tides of change

Waves Break 
and they break
And they break

-unable to show restraint

Its In their nature 
to take 
and they take
  
-still in love at the end of days

And we’ll face it
With strength 
And embrace


So Here we’ll sit
Here we’ll stay 
Just to watch the world as its fades away
Just me and my best friend
This is the best end
I love you to death

08 Nick Lange 2024

Ole duck billed Phil Is what 
we used to call the kid
30 foot long 
5 metric tons
Stomping these marmosets

An herbivoric diet of 
of pine needles and twigs
His 5 foot long Cranial crest 
Lookin so marvelous
 
Debating Scientists 
Are still undecided with 
opinions divided on
what its function is

Could it be for recognition 
of both species and sex?
Or thermoregulation, 
maybe acoustic resonance?
 
These have each been proposed 
but nobody knows
The explanation for the crest
All that we know Is Phil’s the best

Ole duck billed Phil Is what 
we used to call the kid
30 feet long 
5 metric tons
Stomping these marmosets

An herbivoric diet of 
of pine needles and twigs
His 5 foot long Cranial crest 
Lookin so marvelous

the rarest of specimens 
scarce intact skeletons 
Phil is the novel-ist
Not like Vonnegut

Goes hard like a nautilus
Fossilized where deposited 
Oh wait thats not Phil, 
thats just a Parasaurolophus

06 Phil Witherell 2024

My names Bill Catenzaro 
And I got secrets to keep
I make dineros like a pharaoh
But the taxes are steep

Wanna stay on the straight and narrow
But the IRS is thieves
Subsidizing their payroll?
From Catenzaro’s proceeds?

“Gee willikers, if you say so”
Mother F- Homie please 
Aint taking a single peso 
ImThe greatest  calamity

the way Im hoarding this cheese
I stack it all up in heaps
Shout out Mia Farrow
Woody Allens a creep

Shout out Mia Farrow
Woody Allens a creep
   

Another work day done 
no more orders to place
Time to slip into something nice, 
time to cover up this face

sneaking out heading west 
when the sun starts to dip
Gotta clean up this bread
And give them OPs the slip

Think I should just give it up 
Would If I was a wiser man
But I put the Bill in Bills
Im the time square spider-man 

Its just a money laundering scheme 
To keep all my green
Dumb dumb tourists are all just 
my money machine

Time square Im right here
Taking pics with buzz lightyear
The Sightseers souvenirs 
Chandeliers and light beer

04 Bill Catenzaro 2024

Understudy of Marcus Garvey
He wins before he starts and
Wrote scripts for Johnny Carson 
And  Built ships for Marvin martian 

Took a squad of nazis hostage 
In the midst of market garden        
Got a barn to park his cars in 
All their plates are from Wisconsin 

Singing all the ladies sonnets
Mauricio Mclachlan
Leaves them all astonished
as rare as Halleys comet

He aint about that drama
Go say hi to your mama
Eat a plate of pasta
And Read a page of Kafka 

The metamorphosis
Pouring gorgeousness From his orifice 
Born Adorned with fortunes 
Donate them all to the orphanage

Adored for soaring choruses 
and engorging foreign porridges 
Maybe he’s born with it    
Maybelline for the less fortunate




He’s Often off to Boston 
To hop on Planes with squad to
His favorite Croissant shop  
 On 20 Jean–Pierre Timbaud 
      
(In Paris)

How can he afford the cost?
Flying oh so often?  
To Abscond across the pond
For a pastry he so fond of

Is he tied up with the mob?
Its Nothing so obnoxious
Puts some dramamine in his pockets
And dons his favorite bonnet

Hes just a frugality artist 
Before the plane departs
Before storing all his garments
In the overhead compartments

How does he never go broke? 
How do his pockets stay swole?
How does he buy those nice clothes?
And wear the nicest cologne?

Hes not one to boast, 
Hes the humblest folk
When he arrives
He tells the concierge- 
Put me in coach

02 Mauricio McLachlan 2024

About A year ago I went up to Nicole 
and I asked her
What do you want to be when you grow up 
win the Stanley cup? work at NASA?

Double fist a wine carafe and 
whiskey flask in the Catskills 
getting plastered watching the dukes of hazard 
with Doogie Howser?

She just laughed and stated she just wanted 
to dodge getting Caspered
“I wanna be Alive” is what she said….
nothing after

I thought to myself wow 
what an amazing answer
Same one given in 1925 
by the diphtheria stricken children in Nome Alaska
 

(Mush mush mush mush)
Them Huskies Siberian
weathered, experienced 

(Mush mush mush mush)
This aint our first rodeo
Mask off Rey Mysterio

(Mush mush mush mush) 
Over six hundred miles long
Eswatini to Namibia

(Mush mush mush mush)
Save them children from diphtheria
Good to know that in the future no one will be dumb enough to not vaccinate their children from this dumb bacteria


An epidemic swept in 
and quarantine couldn't prevent its spreading
The towns Dr. was sweating 
and a telegraph was sent in 

“1 million units of serum is needed 
we gotta get it 
If no relief is received 
100% mortality is expected”

“Maybe they can fly the serum in”
 homie planes just was invented
“By boat?” 2 degrees below the arctic circle in winter? 
Just forget it

Think for a moment homie you know    r   the only 
course we should be setting
Call up Balto call up Togo 
they my dawgs lets get to sledding


(Mush mush mush mush)
Them Huskies Siberian
weathered, experienced 

(Mush mush mush mush)
This aint our first rodeo
Mask off Rey Mysterio

(Mush mush mush mush) 
Over six hundred miles long
Eswatini to Namibia

(Mush mush mush mush)
Save them children from diphtheria
Good to know that in the future no one will be dumb enough to not vaccinate their children from this dumb bacteria


Lucky for them kids 
a team of 20 men and their dawgs 
wernt about to twiddle their thumbs 
and wait around for winters thaw

They grabbed their sleds and the medicine
and braved the blizzards jaws 
They did their best 
with frostbit fingers and blistered paws

None involved were aware 
that the nation watched in awe
No heroes fame awaited 
they weren't out chasing no applause

Winters dangers were written off 
for themselves they gave little thought
Bout to fuck around and invent themselves 
the got damn Iditarod 


(Mush mush mush mush)
Them Huskies Siberian
weathered, experienced 

(Mush mush mush mush)
This aint our first rodeo
Mask off Rey Mysterio

(Mush mush mush mush) 
Over six hundred miles long
Eswatini to Namibia

(Mush mush mush mush)
Save them children from diphtheria
Good to know that in the future no one will be dumb enough to not vaccinate their children from this dumb bacteria


Its 2025 and we alive 
Nicole we made it
Life is crazy so much has changed 
But you gonna embrace it

Gotta face what the day brings 
Whatever it may be
Like them sledders faced 100 below
Jacque Cousteau with them degrees

Loving life like the cereal
Favorite lake is superior
Favorite taco is birria
Save them kids from diphtheria

11 Nicole Kravec 2025

People of the court, the accused Brian Place stands before you.

Sir-
You Stand accused of the high crime
As decreed by emperor Norton
Of calling San Francisco “frisco”
A name without linguistic warrant

A truly indefensible act
So it has been reported
I aint hearing no pleas
Bail will be be set at precisely a fortune

Soon its-
  
Off to the warden
To be immured 
Forever more a
Small penance for

A crime so abhorrent
Payment for your debt
god what a horrid
monster before us

chose to ignore
Proper decorum
Forfeit your morals
In front of informants

days long before 
You woulda been torched
Dragged behind horses
lariat chorded

drawn and quartered
beheaded by sword 
This court cant afford
To have any remorse

The only recourse is
Locked up in Osborn
Tight in secure-
only way ta be sure-

Can’t be no reform
The Rubicon forded
 Icarus Soared 
before he was scorched

this is Important-
before you're escorted
a chance to retort
What say you to the court

and please keep it short

You call me Brian Place, 
But that isn't my name
I’m Eric, salutations 
See You've made a mistake

Its such a disgrace 
This aint up for debate
Lets set the record straight 
And debase all your claims

let me put you on game
You see my mother was late
And the egg split in twain
And 2   souls separated

You may recognize this face
But it has a duplicate
Tho we look the same
Reasonable doubt still remains

you see my fair magistrate
Its not in your station
To postulate On maybes 
Or Surmise speculations
 
You cant Approximate
Or prove without hesitation
Theres nigh on no variation
You’ve miscalculated  

Were both so Loquacious 
We catching no cases
We’ll sign no Affidavits
All your accusations Are baseless

05 Brian Place 2024

Dropping bodies call me Gotti
On my throne nobody cant Stop me
Got them tools out for harambe 
Sleep with them fishes- Luca brasi

Penny barking like my chopper
You Pirouet all prim and proper 
catch no cases- that revolver
Hammer dancing on Golgotha   


Hi Im Cristina nice to meet ya 
Welcome to my crib
want to hear how I got here 
 how I did what I did

Better wrap your phone up in plastic 
and stick that thing in the fridge 
Been Over 17 years 
Since I got pinched

Old habits die hard, 
thats no longer the life I live
Every now in then tho 
still wanna scratch that itch
         
Spent 15 years serving a bid, 
And I still aint no snitch
Payed the price regained my life 
Im no longer a convict

-Chorus

Clock was ticking no forgiveness
serving my sentence up in Fishkill
Stay Religious with my fitness      
Up at 4am on that treadmill

handled business nicked that witness 
commissary low tho  , no o’neil
No flipping bricks or water whipping
Swiss miss mixed in some oatmeal

No longer the life for me tho
Gloved up hands, Duct tape my soles up
Its that murder she wrote us
Whos the master? sho’nuff

We have some business to attend to
Can Handle this like grownups
Or sick mclellan on you and have him 
knock out all your components

-Chorus

07 Cristina Harrison 2024

Graduated college 13 years ago
The day Joplin was hit by a tornado
Now you spend days playing with Tato 
buying frozen and making pesos

Life ain’t always full of rainbows
Painted ladies and John Stamos
We can stumble, Macy Gray 
buried like Pompeii to volcanoes 

modern life can make me anxious 
radio static where my brain is 
I know you sometimes feel the same 
mental health issues are the lamest 

but it’s time for celebrations 
so show me where the cake is. 
You ain’t even supposed to be here, 
but it turns out that you made it 

recorded this in my car today 
during my lunch break 
so if it sounds a bit unfinished, 
that’s why

03 Taylor vs Swift 2024

Let me tell you a story
From Back in 2004 and 
I think of it every time I see 
Dan from procurement

Its a ballad of horrors, 
Go fact check the sources
Im just relaying the warning
That this tale takes no quarter 

Let me tell you about this city I love with all my heart
Vexillologists agree it’s flag’s a true work of art
White background adorned with two light blue bars 
And between the two are 4 red hexagonal stars

Each star represents important events in the city that happened
One for its founding as Fort Dearborn- John Whistler its Captain
One for the fire of ’71 that left the whole city flattened
The Century of Progress and World Expos had two more added

Now suggestions have ben made to add a fifth, suggestions met by cynics
Few of which would be worthy addition, no need for specifics
(Except probably for Chicago holding the first Special Olympics)
But if it was up to me I know what would be my submission

Let me tell you a story
From Back in 2004 and
I think of it every time I see 
Dan from procurement

On an architecture tour boat
When a whole Bunch of tourists 
Endured a torrent of manure dumped from 
Dave Mathews tour bus 

Devastation reigns gets a whole different meaning
The screaming the steaming the pleading the weeping
No sleeping when in dreams the sequence just keeps repeating
Imagine the cleaning? I think were all in agreement

This mess came from the heathen   
who wrote the space between      
Jeez 
Those poor people
I cant believe it. 
Band tried to keep it a secret
But they were caught by policemen
On tape dumping the feces

01 DMB Dan 2024

I aint about that hocus pocus 
Still a big fan of the doobie bros its
Forty one years of matrimony 
married to Mary, my Fiona

Never smoked a marlboro 
Sixty seven years old
My fatrher taught me that bridges freeze 
before the road

Type of thing I need to know
Where we plan to go
Get a dose of serotonin 
Christmas trees and falling snow

fifty years in this career, 
but now thats over
now you gonna catch me
Running off to Nova Scotia

Air so cold you need a coat 
when the sun goes supernova
Roads so frozen over 
My whip is a Zamboni

Tokyo drift past a couple jehovahs
Froze knockin at my abode
this place is so remote 
Midday its still twenty below

Mary and I aint antisocial
Just like being home alone
Cathrine O’Hara McCauley Culkin 
    

Next door neighbor San Nicola
Other side them bears are polar
How the heck both my neighbors
Got ad deals with Coca Cola?


John McClellan
Nova Scotia

New tracks tagged #swichard Rift