2022, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, summer

when anger, like a mushroom, is the most honest thing about you

on rainy days the sky blows spit kisses at the river:
more failed communiqúes from heaven

to the fractals of God. once in an act of pure creation
God splintered into a billion billion shards of light but

not to be undone the angry heart which was tore out in the hopes it would die

did not

being the most important coin anyone can spend

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2022, microfiction, Ohio River Valley Literature, the no-scape

upon a salty stack of truck nutz

At a truck stop in Whiteland, Indiana. It’s the usual break stop on our way to Indy for events. This time we were going to work security for a country music concert at Gatebridge Field House. I knew what to expect: the songs all about True Love, Truck Nutz, God, and Country, with an audience that often confused Truck Nutz for Country, Love, as well as God. Even though I always take food with me, I usually buy water or coffee, or both. But this time I splurged on a bag of Combos: cracker and (Real!) Cheddar Cheese, the way God — or Truck Nutz — intended them, unless pretzel is available and it wasn’t. My other options were “Supreme Pizza,” “Buffalo Wing” and — I shit not — “Cool Ranch Dorito” Flavor. What is there to say about a world where a junk chip is so uniquely known that it’s an imitation flavor for other junk foods? The mind doesn’t balk. But maybe it should. All I knew was the world was hyper-real enough without unholy junk food flavors. There was no place in my life for such blasphemy.

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2021, everyday words, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry

no. 34 / revised

[for]

about pal were never was never really trading a dogma

//

though to be some need sort of thing
the divine tires of hiding uncertainty

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