... or just plain old C17H19N3. Well, what’s in a name anyhow? It’s a common enough medication—not addictive, so they say, zilch euphoria, no notable highs or lows—rather “meh” as meds go. But it evokes the most spectacularly complex labyrinthine dreams—in wide screen technicolor Dolby 3D Panavision Todd-AO stereo cinemascope. Comedy, tragedy, psychodrama, adventure, mystery, romance, sci-fi—you name it—everything but the kitchen sink. And, hey, I’m the star each night in every feature, hero or villain; sometimes both. No popcorn, Sno-Caps, or Junior Mints, but endless shorts, serials, and my favorite classic re-runs. Thrills ’n’ chills; epiphanies and nightmares. Front row center. Doesn’t cost so much as a centavo. Now that’s entertainment!

awakening
on Dystopia Drive—
garbage bill due

Mark Meyer

is a poet, contemporary visual artist, and retired educator who lives in the Seattle area and describes himself this way: “ex-scientist/ quasi-artist/ semi-poet/ pseudo-guitarist/ meta-misanthrope.” Now in his seventies, he was a neurobiologist in a prior lifetime long ago—and still really misses looking through microscopes.

Mark’s short-form poetry has been widely published, and he is the author of a collection of selected poetry and artwork available on Amazon (June 2020): neo-Nothyngge

His paintings, drawings, and digital prints continue his interest in pattern-driven compositions, richly detailed, leaving almost no space unaddressed. As he says, “...there are no big plans or schemes in my work... it’s simply enough to find out where these individual small ‘experiments’ lead me.” His artworks are inspired by scientific, societal, psychological, and theological considerations, reflecting the complex and frenetic condition of our contemporary culture.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡Featured Works by Mark Meyer at Davidson Galleries (Seattle, Washington)

⚡Several of Meyer’s haiga and poems appear in previous issues of MacQ; see Index of Contributors for the list.