Published Poetry

I entered Cultured Vultures “Poem of the Week” contest last week. My poem “Six months without sex” placed second, with first place going to Jennifer Hudgens. You can find the poem here. Thanks to the editors and the publication for the opportunity. I have also shared the piece below, as the site shares it center justified without stanza breaks. It appears here as intended.

 
Six months without sex

You start finding the cheating bones
in your own body. They’re shaped
like cochlear shells, spirals built
on the Fibonacci sequence,
made to fit under the ribs like spurs
so every breath hurts
until the heart is numb as a tree trunk,
though we know now that plants too feel pain.

Memory becomes an internet browsing history,
persistently erased with sleep and routine,
a sound of ice creaking in temperature change.
Someone’s always working late,
always crawling into bed with a smell like smoke
on their skin, in their hair, like they’ve roasted
on a spit spinning in someone else’s loins.

It’s a paranoia of losing what’s known,
the familiarity of touch and sound
that builds itself into a nest of bed springs
and lost earrings. You tiptoe around it,
as if it’s a sleeping lion with blood on its teeth,
when it’s only a hummingbird of wants,
grown too heavy to hum, sad eyes you refuse to meet.

It’s awkward, relearning how to fly,
how to kiss your wife’s face,
how to wake up with her scent
on your hands, pelvis bruised
from breaking the ice
formed around your wings.

The kind people over at Novel Masters asked me to send them a few poems, and they were generous enough to share them with the world. You can read them here. Special thanks to Christopher Gretkus. Check out these poems and let me know your thoughts.

Today, Revolution John has published five of my new poems, four of which are response poems to recent events. One of these pieces, “This poem is a picture of the prophet Muhammad” responds to the recent terror attack in Paris and is dedicated to the Charlie Hebdo publication that was attacked. This poem should come with a “blasphemy warning,” meaning you shouldn’t read it if you know blasphemy upsets you. Another of these pieces is about Taylor Swift, and I hope she doesn’t try to sue me, or Sheldon Compton, the editor of the journal. I send much gratitude and admiration to Sheldon for taking a chance on my work and sharing it with the world. This is my second time in this magazine.

Another of my news-related, topical poems has found a home. This one is about the police force in Florida that were found to be using African American mugshots for target practice. A clergy group started sending them pictures with the caption “use me instead,” and thus the idea for the poem was sparked. You’ll find the poem here at New Verse News. Kind thanks and gratitude to James Penha for the opportunity.

You’ll find two new poems of mine up now at Melancholy Hyperbole. They have been publishing some fantastic work from some amazing poets, so I am thrilled to be included and owe much gratitude to the editors there. Please, check out the work and let me know if you like it!