Cum Laude Weekly

Booty Crocker

Today I kissed my husband like

I kissed my first love under the bleachers

during a basketball game in high school

It was hot

young

innocent

naughty and

moist

Gosh why do I hate the word

moist so much?

Is it because it sounds like something

a dirty old man would say,

“So, does that make you

moist Baby Doll?

Is it because when I hear the word

moist

my brain automatically goes to

Betty Crocker and the word

yeast

comes to mind?

that’s gotta be the most un-sexiest combination of words ever

Mmmm

Moist Yeast

All spandex wearers should have this phrasing on the back of

their shiny bun buns just to let the world know

what’s really cookin’ down there

Anyways

We kissed

and it felt good

to feel youth again

with him, my husband

Our love

has risen

…just like yeast

-Blk Swan

Brunch Junkies

Right before you fell asleep last night what was the last thought you can remember before you faded to black.

Do you remember if you dreamed.

If so can you recall what that dream was about.

Tell me the first thing you thought about when you awoke.

Mine was the voice of a junkie celebrating the chance to eat again.

Umm yes I would like to order me a number three between a rock and a hard place sandwich with a my super-sized ego shakes underneath her pleads please.

Cold shoulder, ice water, and fire sales.

There's more than enough for all of us to king kong karma and candy man our mirror mirror on the walls.

Mustard seeds for soul food. Sonic booms, alarm clocks, and always being driven is in desperate need of armor all. I'm afraid to break this twenty dollar bill because once it is everything's spent. A lot like your priceless heart.

Turn up the music.

Sing a song badly on purpose.

Put on your left turn blinker light and be alright swanging a right instead. Because sometimes being wrong, is the freest you will ever be.

The last thing I remembered right before I awoke was a junkie telling me that we are all Dreamers devouring the body of christ with communion wine on ice...

-CP Maze

#><

Love is no question

Other's never the answer

Same way we search for a diagnosis

Look inside yourself

Cancer me term-inally ill

I hope your tears don't spill

For any reason lesser than

Happiness can't be felt

In just laughter alone

Capture the greatest moments to memory

Make history when you speak

Tell me something revelating

While you get naked

Like normally you do this

To get someone to like you

But you read my face

Like an open book

So when you took your clothes

And posted them to your floor

This status read

Affection is greater than sex

When reciprocated instead of baiting it

Hashtag evolving

I'm solving all of my unanswered

Text

Scribing my life away

Ink until I die awake

Fuck your insecurities

Until they dilate

And give birth to new perceptions of you

I knew you before we met

And always meant more than

For us to just meat

But things don't always go

According to Planned Parenthood

We can choose the life we live

And the life we raise

What comes up over that horizon

Is a sun or a due date

But we dodged bullets in our passion

Not wanting drops of it to waste

Tasting what eating love feels like

I guess we're just full of fate

Fool of fate

My face glistening from your triangle choke

You, me, and the holy ghost

Rolling off my tongue

Cunning linguist

I mean it

Not even my ex

But I'm rolling nonetheless

In the event I've said too much

At least you can catch

My spilled guts

Like keeping feelings inside

Was never enough

-EPIC

November 2014

Intense

Conjuring romance with the universe

Thinking of you all day makes the passing time filled with hope

Excited to feel

I just want to hear from you

The way I think of the way our eyes meet projects my curiosity

My imagination takes off & plays with itself

With a challenge in mind

I hope

I find your attention appealing

I mean

I hope

I catch your eye & grab your heart by the strings—

I'll fasten them tight to mine

they can feed off of each other’s vibration.

Attraction like this has got me conscious about the way the why I am feeling

all

wrapped up in thoughts about you.

Maybe I just like the attention—

I like to be missed, yearned for,

lusted over, and fantasized about

being bent over.

My intensity produces my straightforwardness & I like the reciprocation

Just don't keep me waiting

Too challenging for my mind.

I'm gonna let my heart take this one

I've

been yearning for your skin and your scent

I missed the joy of a possibility

just too see you while you were gone.

I was so confused when my heart swelled with sadness when you had to leave

No goodbye translated into betrayal without meaning.

You didn't owe me a gesture

but I felt a connection

that has created a deep tie to you.

I feel like I want to be close to you no matter the title,

as long as I can witness your beautiful smile Stand next to a real man

A true soul with a genuine spirit

it doesn't take much to know

Exactly what you want in life

Sometimes you just feel it

-Sunny

CLW: How did you come up with the name Nox Falls?
Nox Falls: It comes from the Roman god of night, I always felt more alive in the dark so the name felt like home to me. After awhile I added Falls because when night fell, (in love) it fell alone.
CLW: Nice! You have an EP coming out, Nox Laude, and your lyricism is very heavy handed. How long have you been a writer?
Nox Falls: I've been writing since basically I was a teenager, I had material for what seemed liked songs but I came to realize they were much more than that and collected my own poems over the years since.
CLW: Of all the tracks on your current release, which one is your favorite and why?
Nox Falls: DaugHtER. I've always searched for the perfect way to talk to my parents, I can never complete an honest and harsh thought while in their presence, but I find it easy to push "play" and walk away.
Gutter Poet: If you could have a one night stand with any poet, living or past, who would it be?
Nox Falls: Saul Williams
CLW: Saul Williams was the first poetry slam rock star, for his writing and performance style. Who are some of your influences/inspirations?
Nox Falls: Along with him: Erykah Badu, Poe, Andrea Gibson, Lacey Roop, Jill Scott, and Common.
Gutter Poet: Of that list, marry one, fuck one, kill one, GO!
Nox Falls: Marry: Saul. Fuck: Common. Kill: Poe. Ha!
CLW: Besides being a dominatrix of metaphors, you are actually a Jill of quite a few trades, correct?
Nox Falls: So I'm told lol. I currently reside in the burlesque community.
CLW: What does burlesque entail for you? More than just twerking it for a real poet, is it not?
Nox Falls: Hahahaha no. Honestly for me there's no twerking involved. I've always had an exhibitionist attitude about performing, I got spiritually naked behind a mic. With burlesque to me it's the same thing only physical, either way I still want you to look at me. With burlesque I found a bond with my feminine side without feeling guilty like I did before in life, a freedom to put glitter in my pants and it actually makes sense here. Also with costuming. I used to sew a lot before getting into slam and stuff, with getting back into performing I rediscovered my love for costuming. I actually make 90 percent of my costumes along with some of my girls in my troop. After I retire from burlesque, I plan on continuing creating costumes and selling them to other performers.
CLW: Haha! Nice! How did your venture in burlesque begin?
Nox Falls: I've always loved burlesk ever since seeing Gypsy with Bette Midler when I was a kid (haha my childhood rocked) when I became an adult and was slamming I knew there was a couple of troupes around Amarillo but really didn't know how to break into it. It wasn't until the 806 black and white ball for their 5th anniversary was I scouted for one troupe called the Red Room girls.
CLW: You have since then assembled your own troupe, why did you feel the need to create your own as opposed to work with the ladies who brought you in?
Nox Falls: Over time I felt like the work I put in was not the work that I was receiving from the others. I'm just a lot more dramatic and a lot more... hell sparkly to be honest. I actually do take it very seriously not to say that the other ladies don't take it too seriously to their extent but I'm very very passionate about burlesk and have been since. For me, my own troupe Galatea Burlesk, I've managed to get us in the paper at least 5 times, get it featured more than three times online, on Lone Star Burlesque, even get us a write in edge monthly Magazine. I feel that I market us differently and I present myself and my dancers differently as well. We are very glamorous with the illusion we sell, and strive on professionalism.
CLW: Do you mix worlds or keep your poetry and burlesque separate?
Nox Falls: I mix when it's appropriate. Erotica is performed with my burlesque primarily now along with choreography.
CLW: When you're not in front of a crowd or preparing for one, what does Nox like to do?
Nox Falls: Not wear pants and sew lol. Big fan of anime so Netflix is my homie.
Epic: Top 3 animes aaaaand GO!
Nox Falls: Dragon Ball Z, Neo Genesis Evangelion, and Ghost in the shell
Epic: Live in one, die in one, and visit one, go!
Nox Falls: Live in one, Ghost in the Shell. Visit one, Dragon Ball Z, and dying, Neon Genesis Evangelion
CLW: That's so brutal! To die in NGE!!! Is there a special someone you cuddle with for the Netflix session or are you hellbent on breaking hearts?
Nox Falls: Right now the only ones willing to cuddle with me are my cats: pussy control.
Gutter Poet: Speaking of which, you are quite the sight in and out of burlesque. What are you working with up there?
Nox Falls: 38 H (for now). And 100 percent natural lol. They grow every now and then so I have to keep a keen eye out.
Gutter Poet: Good god... you're going to poke an eye out. How do you shop for those?
Nox Falls: Online only. I used to be able to find my size at Lane Bryant, buts its growing. It became a magical unicorn. Hard to find and twice the sparkly.
Epic: You TOO are hard to find on your ep cover, I can see the bottom of your mouth and if I focus on on your heart I can make out the face of the person who created the music your release, Epic. Lots of poets rock an acapella album, why did you decide to back it with music?
Nox Falls: Because acapella was normal, I've never been good with that. Besides Epic's beats where the shit and I had toilet paper.
CLW: What are your plans for this release? Are you going to shoot videos for any of them or live performances?
Nox Falls: I'd be open to both really. Although I don't know who would want to watch a video of me hahahaha. But I do think I should have something of live performances.
CLW: Is there anything else you would like the readers of Cum Laude Weekly to know before we close out this interview?
Nox Falls: That no matter what, poetry is always my first love, and it's gotten me through a lot of unbearable hardships and heartaches. Poetry is responsible for who I became and most likely will be the culprit for who I become in the future.
CLW: Thank you so much for joining us and best of luck with ALL of your ventures and... finding shelter for those.
Nox Falls: Hahahaha thank you for taking the time to get to know me. And "these".

You can catch Nox Falls in any of these links including her first EP, Nox Laude.

https://www.facebook.com/noxFalls

https://www.facebook.com/GalateaBurlesk

https://soundcloud.com/noxfalls

instagram@noxfalls

Interview with Nox Falls

Burnt Bridges

She was raped.

Cold heartedly raped.

Arms held above her head,

A hand on her mouth,

She was six.

He was her step dad.

This went on for a few years,

He didn't remember-

He was a schizophrenic alcoholic.

She compressed it.

Every year her eyes held in more tears, causing them to become a light blue.

And her skin was pale from hiding under covers when she felt scared.

Middle school.

She broke down.

Broke down like a ford truck on a cross country drive.

Her windshield was cracked from the beginning,

Her transmission leaked every time her emotions breached her eyes,

Her brake lines finally cut

And she just couldn't stop.

Between the past he cursed her with,

To the "peers" in school constantly slurring unfitting words.

We knew she was strong.

But she didn't.

Her mother didn't believe her.

Chose him over her

And proved it with locked doors and dinnerless nights,

Her mothers excuse was:

"We just don't have enough,"

Yet her siblings had a second helping.

She was shipped away.

Sixteen hours away.

It was a good thing,

She was away from that bastard.

However, when she got there,

She wasn't quite better.

She joined groups to avoid going home,

Studied at the library,

And walked Chicago streets alone.

Her gain?

One of the highest GPA's,

Scholarships,

Even planning out highschool events.

Her loss?

Well, she still didn't feel like all her bolts and screws were tightened the way they should be.

She may not of had a great life,

But she made the best of it.

Her eyes, to this day, grow more blue.

She's forgiven her mother,

And burnt bridges she's walked on

For the sole purpose of forgetting.

She is my best friend.

-Mute