
A Revenge Poem in Tweets | Poems that Suck

"I'm your muse," his slow smile met my hesitation, exhaling a billow of blue smoke into the space between us. "Yes," I allowed, raking my calloused fingers through his soft, fine hair. "I like it," he kissed me gently as only a shy lover could. Do you? I wondered if he understood what it meant to be such a thing. If he grasped how much of my emotional landscape is painted in a pallet of him, The brown of his hair, the blue of his eyes, passionate reds, bruise purples, and the black of abandonment. It's all fun and games until someone loses their heart.
Hey ya’ll,
Just wanted to stop by and give you all some updates on what’s happening on my end. I know I’m still not posting a whole lot, but there are reasons for it.
My shoulder/bicep is still hurting – though, it is getting slowly better each time I get a massage. I haven’t been able to book one since the last post, so I’m still kind of at a standstill with it. I’m hoping to book soon and finally eliminate this pain. I still have no understanding of what’s causing the issue; neither my massage therapist nor I can figure it out. But… we’re working on it.
This has, of course, affected my ability to write. It’s impossible for me to write poetry (or anything else) solely on a computer screen. It feels wildly inorganic to me, and it’s just not something I can do. Holding a pen, and sitting scrunched up to write has been… significantly painful. With the semester having started a month ago, I’ve had to limit my writing as much as possible – and save my efforts for school work.
That being said, I AM still writing.
I’ve got a chapbook being released later this year by Newington Blue Press . The selection / editing process should begin here shortly, but the more I think about it the more I’d like to include more exclusive pieces (as of right now there are about ten). But, we’ll see what happens.
I’m also really happy to say that I’ve been asked to do another chapbook with Budget Press. Just today I got the go-ahead for an idea that I’ve been playing with for a little bit. The book will be called The Song of the Sister and will contain all new pieces that are exclusive to it.
The title, and the project, is a riff on the biblical book of the Song of Solomon. Now, I know you want to stop reading right there…. but know that the Song of Solomon is an ancient, erotic love poem. Yep…. biblical porno. Did you think I was going to go all soft and theological on you? Nah.
So, instead of hearing Solomon’s song, we’ll be hearing the Sister’s song. The sister being the female that the poem is written to. I don’t think it’s really his sister, I think it’s just creative language. That being said, while my response to Solomon’s song will biblical format (meaning, 8 “chapters”) it will contain modern language, modern situations, and … well… FILTH.
I’ll let you guys know more about this as we get closer to publication. I still have to write the fucking thing, afterall.
Anyway, hope all is well with you all. I’ve been surfing through my reading page and really enjoying what so many of you are writing. Keep writing, keep submitting and keep being real.
Leia
You came to me, pockets overflowing with tamarind pods, ripe figs, celery root and prickly pears, bravely holding me for thirty seconds "because that's how long it takes for the endorphins to be released." No one's held me that long before, and I could've fell to pieces in your arms because you felt so safe.
Hey guys,
I want to apologize for the lack of updates. I’ve been experiencing some significant shoulder pain in my dominant arm that’s making it difficult to turn my head or sleep, and it’s caused a bit of trembling in my hand.
I did see a massage therapist about two weeks ago, and she helped get the range of motion back in my neck. Now the pain is concentrated right under my shoulder blade, and is migrating up to my shoulder itself. Overall, it feels like terrible burning. I have an appointment with her, again, tomorrow. So, hopefully, I’ll be in better shape.
I also want to talk about something I’ve been ramping up on lately: submissions. I recently began submitting my work all over the place – and I want to encourage you all to do the same. I know it seems daunting, and the prospects of rejections is a little terrifying at times …. but you should do it. Submit. Go for it. We need diversity of voices in this genre – and you can bring that diversity – in your experience, in your style, in your own way. Do it. Submit.
The worst thing that can happen is the editor says no. But guess what? Your skin is still on, and you’re still breathing. Look, I submitted to several places this month and here’s the results so far:
I honestly expect the remaining two mags to reject me – and that’s ok. Despite our best efforts – reading the submission guidelines, spending time reading through the issues to feel out whether or not your stuff matches with theirs and typing shit up – shit just happens.
I want to say this; even if you feel that your work would fit with a lit magazine after reading through the issues and they reject you … don’t take it personally. Aesthetic, theme, etc. is subjective, and editors are going to pick what speaks to them (and what they like). And, again, THAT’S ok, too. You don’t like every writer’s shit, right?
I want to make a distinction here, though.
There is a large difference between style and technicality. My style, for example, is minimalistic realism. I’m writing about shit that happens to me, without sugar coating it and without any flourish or embellishment. It’s one thing for an editor to not like your STYLE – it’s another thing if you can’t write for shit.
So do it. Submit! Let’s celebrate the acceptances and rejections together. And let me know in the comments what your experiences have been with rejections.
L
The last straw was when I slapped his ass while he fucked me slow. "You sick fuck," he rumbled in my ear. We laughed in the thick darkness with nothing but each other to cling to.
I keep getting these emails about making my cock bigger. Which is strange because I don't have a cock. Well, I do. I bought it. It's mine.
Hey guys and gals,
I just wanted to remind you that, come Sunday, I won’t be posting daily any more. Like I said in a previous post, I have a chapbook coming out later this year and want to focus on writing content exclusive to that. I also want to focus on submitting my work to more places – I’ve had some good luck so far, and want to see how far I can ride that train. It’s kind of a morbid curiosity 😉
There are also some other avenues that I want to venture forth on – namely expanding my presence on Instagram (my poems are posted there with some visuals) – maybe starting a Patreon and …. my friend is trying to convince me to go on Tic Tok which, I gotta say…just makes my skin crawl. Either way, I’ll let you know what’s happening.
Rest assured, I WILL continue to post here – just not daily. I’m thinking maybe 2 or 3 times a week – maybe more or less depending on how I feel. In the meantime, I invite you to go through the archives – there are just under 90 poems here…. which is kind of mind blowing to me in a way.
The worst part is when I lie in bed at night, and I have to stop myself from thinking about a (our) future. I catch myself, then cross my wrists over my chest, like a corpse, to protect my heart.
Just got the nod from Once Upon a Crocodile that they will be including my poem “The Shit You’ll See in Paris” in their upcoming Issue 7!
Keep your eyes peeled for it!