Unlikely Stories Presents

JONATHAN PENTON owns his own vanity press

Living on the road, my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean
But now you wear your skin like iron and your breath's as hard as kerosene
--Townes Van Zandt


To the Unlikely Stories home pageJonathan's works here at Unlikely Stories are:


2003:
The Morgans Waiting Room
Ravens and Jays There Is One Difference Between Myself and a Madman
Learning to Blow Jim Morrison Blues
Dear Laurie Written on the occasion of the marriage of friends
A certain shade of lipstick Don't you fucking tell me
Post-Coital Depression I'm very busy today
A war Ash
you might A thought, lost to me

2002:
Virginia Woolf Ask Yourself
Small Comments McNamara, huh?
All you fuckers seem confused on this minor point: Portrait of an Artist, No Longer a Young Man
After the madness of the 20th Century After Everything's Over
An airport in a strange city Bullshit
What can I do but scream Do you define yourself only
Everybody's Favorite Tonight my book is meaningless
Discourse with Oneself When she paints

2001:
Message You are nothing without patience
Not to cheapen the experience Knowledge kills faith
Once upon a time God and I sat down for poker and chess
Don't Let Me Give You a Title When did you lose
Laptops at the Coffee Shop You bleed me 'til I'm cold
Your peasants are in revolt again This Much Grief I Do Not Believe
The Librarian, Twenty Years Later, in a More Public Place What Do You
I Can Do this Better Drunk Wait

July 1999 - July 2000:
In the End I Have a Fantasy
This Is Where It Gets Tricky Waiting
There Were Almost Tears down
Plums Don't Tell Me
And I Am Still Naked And in that Moment
The Next Situation Let Us Pray
I Don't Care What You've Heard December 30th
Peachtree and Broad Down on Broad
Back to Broad

July 1998 - July 1999:
Family History it's not that i don't like your lies
Careful Careful I Need a Mantra
Predictability Never Write a Poem about a Poem
A Quick Read Controversy?
I Decided to Spend the Night Why Stop There
We Were Younger Then To Sink Slowly, You Need
What Holy Rite In a Hot Atlanta February
Lucky Isaac Staring into the Fire
First Day of Autumn Alright
E Dichotomy
ANXIETY (a chant) Better That We Not
Growing Old I Want to Kiss the Lips of a Girl
You Look Like a Toy to Me If Nothing Really Matters
Color Is a Fiction God Is a Can of Zyklon-B
Lithium Nothing
saying Yes is the greatest of privileges This is the Type of Loneliness
The Worst Nightmares Are Dreams of Hope I Want to Tear out Your Tongue
Sins Stillness
Cleansing I Only Want a Taste
I Have a Knife i see snow
There's a Layer of Darkness Beneath the First A Final Manifesto
Mail for the Dead The Night Is Rather Warm
We Are Building a New Dominion If Your Dick Feels Cold
When I Am Frightened Independence
Temple Joan of Arc
These Roses Are My Excuse Arias
Leon Education
The Ballad of '79 (availible as an Acrobat file)

Because The Ballad of '79 is quite long, an Adobe Acrobat file is provided so that you might conveniently print it out. Please understand that Jonathan Penton owns the copyright on The Ballad of '79 and you do NOT have permission to distribute it. In order to use the Acrobat file, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download.