Category: Compositions

  • Having Already Voted

    Having Already Voted

    This is a still moment of creation Like they always are. You cannot tell me it wasn’t raining Out, a warm fire in an ancient cave, When someone more like me than I imagine Painted the hunt (which now was also still). It’s raining now, Has been all day like dusk, And my Chicago apartment,…

  • Werewolves & Other Shapeshifters

    Werewolves & Other Shapeshifters

    Once you’ve met one werewolf You know anyone might Contort and change. They say it’s always at the full moon, But when you grow up collecting silver bullets You learn different. And you know of other transformations, From more than just the story books. Chased, women turn to trees in fear, Or lose their shape,…

  • Next Thing You Know

    Next Thing You Know

    I first heard Jordan Davis’ Next Thing You Know a few months after meeting my fiancée.  We were not engaged at the time, but certainly moving too fast.  We met in September, and by December, Nikki was sleeping at my place most nights.  She’d complained about the sorry state of my mattress two months in;…

  • There is my heart

    There is my heart

    Head on the pillow. In front of the sink. Slipping on little black boots. Driving away, singing a song. Someplace dark Walking quickly Pretending not to hear Them call her faggot. And I’m not there To fight them off As if I could defend  Everything I love.  And my heart is also in California With…

  • Bone Picking

    Bone Picking

    Felix Deiss A note: This style of poem is known as a sestina. The final word of each line is reused in a different and specific order in the following stanza.

  • This morning

    This morning

    The leaves were left on the floor this morning, like red solo cups. And the wood returned my texts with the curtness of a scorned lover.   Can someone tell me what happened last night? At the party? Felix Deiss

  • Seed

    Seed

    Nights like these are hard and white and crack like eggshell when you look at them.

  • Wolverine’s Nipples

    Wolverine’s Nipples

    The first time I realized I was a man I burst into tears.  I was in a Zoom therapy session and saw my face, just a few months on testosterone, and recognized myself in it for the first time.  I couldn’t be a man though. Non-binary I could reconcile with, but a MAN?  Through all…

  • Private Monologue

    Private Monologue

    It was cold out, as cold as the hands of an old diabetic. I lit my cigarette on the closest star and ducked into the joint. It was red inside, and blurry The man on the stage played the sax syncopated. Like a man with two left feet. The suspect looked the part. He was…

  • 1,316 mi.

    1,316 mi.

    I-94 E I can hardly see through yesterday’s rainbows in a black and white photograph blanket fort             (Please) Turn up the radio til it disappears. Hidden fires strip to streetlight personals They flipbook by and your head on my shoulder is the harvest moon. The light woke up to find herself tied with wire…