Poetry | Word Riot

IT HAPPENED TO ALL OF US by Peter Venable

by a stone fence or under a hedge our sticky fingers hunt four-leaf clovers or poke twigs at squigglers under

Little Lady burned silent and I’d never thought a snoutfull of drugs would cause me such problems like tigers buried

Exformation

This woman’s only got one boot. This man’s got two boots but only

one foot. This is how

IF I DREW GOD

Big belly Open hands Brown eyes Laugh lines

No shoes Not very tall Ponytail Wrinkled robe

Each time I wash them my sheets soften, so I wash them every day. Once the world was like this—

Not that I need you dear but since you’ve been gone I have conducted a number of minor improvements which

They tell me it is not entirely unlike the intensity of breaking crème brulee—a quarter-second of guilt, desire, both

It is the knife edge of Halloween and you will leave tomorrow. The chill of this coast invades your joints

Listen to a reading of “Getting the Beast Out” by Lucy Simpson.

my tumorous gland call her Echidna soft lumpy

Listen to a reading of “Traveling Incognito” by Justin Rousse.

If I surprise you, it won’t be on a Sunday.