Haunted Hotel by Casey Ashman
Casey is in love with Jupiter’s moons. Usually moons are boring. The Earth’s moon is a dead rock. Jupiter’s moons are the sexiest moons in the galaxy. Europa offers the possibility of life as it orbits a big dead ball of gas. On Jupiter there is a storm, a huge storm that is always happening. It swirls around like the smoke from Casey’s cigarette. No one is bothered by her cigarette smoke. Like the storms it remains beyond comprehension why it twirls out of the cigarette in that exact fashion. Her love life consists of the galaxy’s offerings. Casey is an astronomer in love with the galaxy but nobody in particular.
Eagles are the symbols of America’s freedom. That’s why they pick through deer carcasses. Like America eagles have air superiority. Nobody messes with the eagle. US currency loves the eagle. Thanks to the eagle American currency looks considerably more Illuminati. Obviously the eagle is the ultimate symbol of not just the Illuminati but of the Freemasons in general. Super-secret the Freemasons and the Illuminati travel above the US on the freest creatures, the eagles, known to laypeople as ‘airplanes’.
A haunted hotel offers them a meal so good it is scary. Casey is terrified by the high-quality food. Together with her family she has a ghoulishly good time. Next to her family someone says grace before their meal. However the ghosts steal his soul to give him true peace. Everyone around him fails to realize this since he was dead on the inside for a long time. Only Casey understands as she sees his swollen hand. Souls usually depart through the hands. It is easier that way.
Praying for elk is cool. Casey is surrounded by elk. Sadly elk are really ugly. Elk get laid a lot though. An attractive elk doesn’t have to work that hard to impress other elk. Unlike humans elk have no concept of love. EMO elk don’t exist. In the rural part of America the elk roam free. Listening to ‘Born to run’ the elk is unaware of Bruce Springsteen or what New Jersey is. Freedom is a concept lost on the elk. All the elk know is they like that song. If elk ever created an elk equivalent of karaoke they’d do it with gusto.
By the end Casey thinks about death. That’s a main theme in most of rural America as the interior empties out into the coasts. Americans run to the coast like lemmings to the water, wanting warm weather when they pass away. Casey is right: she should wear a seatbelt. Protection from an uncertain world is important. And she’s in America’s heartland.
WOW EVERYTHING IS SO NEAT, THANK U, IM IN LOVE WITH EVERYONE
lots of touring this winter/spring!!
and im gona book more also—please tweet at me or facebook me if u have an offer, or if you’d rally all your friends to come see me in ur city!!
im booking a florida tour for april i think.. probably a couple trips to MI and OH (including cleveland this time #RARE).. i’ll be back in NY/PA and toronto/montreal sometime this spring/summer.. and back to the west coast.. i hope to go to England this year!
please help me decide where to go,i base my decisions on where i have the most suporters who are the most enthusiastic, and/or where i can get paid by some generous fund (often colleges have money for speakers, etc)
more tour info/updates on livemylief.com/tourHooray!!! Steve will be in the cities on the 9th! wow, neato.
(via altlitpress)
when i am alone, i underline my scars with a red ballpoint pen.
like ophelia, i am sallow with shame,
regret this.
regret this.
i have climbed this willow tree of you, and fallen into the brook of our
quiet wars below me.
i am drowned in attrition.
you may speak of me at my funeral, lay peonies and daisies on my grave,
“sweets to the sweet”
and after that, after all that extravagance, i’m not mentioned again.
wiped from the stage like a stray prop, tricking the audience into
believing that it was never there, not even by accident.
***ILLUMINATI GIRL GANG GIVEAWAY***
I was cleaning out my room and i found ~2 previously ‘lost forever’ copies of Illuminati Girl Gang Vol. 1 (the one on the right). The first issue was a ~5x7 handmade, full-color zine featuring work from Grace Miceli, Mira Gonzalez, Luna Miguel, Elaine Sun, Maggie Lee, Stacey Teague + More. (Cover art by Yippy Whippy)
Its a funny thing to be able to concretely see progression. I feel like I am watching my little bb grow up :’)
I’ve decided to do a giveaway for the 2 copies that I found. Reblog this post and follow the IGG blog for a chance to enter (only one entry per person, no matter how many reblogs you manage to reblog). I will pick 2 winners via random number generator and announce the results on February 18th, the release date for IGG Vol. 3.
(Source: seemstween, via blog-illuminatigirlgang)
i sat at the foot of my bed for ~20 minutes
i put my hands in my mouth
i touched my gums and my teeth and
i touched my tongue
sometimes i do that because i like the sound
and other times i do it because i need to know
what teeth are
i’m sorry for all the times on my porch
i’m sorry i brought up other boys
I’m sorry i talked about outerspace all the time
i hope you lay in your bed tonight and
cough up your heart onto those grey jersey sheets
i hope you choke on the memory of my exposed lungs
when you pulled me open at the sternum and
brushed the tangles out of my ribs
i wish i could build a lake big enough for me to sleep in
alone
Hello friends! I have published another book of poems, called “Haunted Hotel”. i wrote these all today, so it’s relatively short. It would be much appreciated if you read it, but if you do and it’s not your cup of tea, that’s okay as well! I love you! Your mom loves you! Puppies exist!
thank you for your time
-casey
I first came across Casey Ashman’s writing while (what else?) surfing the “alt lit” tag on tumblr, and I was immediately struck with the fragility and emotional depth of her writing. Casey recently published an ebook, I Don’t Know if You Panic on the Phone, and she agreed to talk about it…
Just did an interview— how exciting! This feels so official!
(via flaneurinpajamas)
