I tend to be forgetful of late, but upon Zvi Sesling's announcement of the release of 10-by-10, Flash Fiction Stories #25 today I was excited to see who I was in there with.
And I wasn't in there.
Editors can be forgetful too.
But not in this case.
Upon further review, On To The Next Thing had been published in late January in Issue #24. Also, in that issue: Matheiu Cailler * Eileen R.Tabios * Vivian Clausing * Michael Gigandet
Tony Press * Phil Temples * Niles Reddick * Cindy Rosmus * Paul Germano.
Keep scrolling if you want to read the story behind the story.
Now the story behind the story. (Trigger warning for video---the bridge falls down with cars on it.) My flash piece was written right after this event happened, so I placed my character working on The Tobin Bridge in Boston waiting for HIS ship to come in. As cars pass, without falling in he hears on their radio lyrics from a Taylor Swift song. To be honest, my thinking was that by the time this story was published, Taylor and Travis would no longer be an item. I was wrong. As of Feb., 19, 2025, they are still going strong. Also I poke fun at betting apps, as per the story.
You can bet Kelcie will catch a pass in the first
quarter. You can bet that Tay and Tra. are finished by the time it takes to read
this.
So, read up, and a warning---the time it takes is less than two minutes.
Being an asshole is kind of a thing. It trickles down from the most powerful person in our country (name your favorite asshole who leads us), to the least. It is not influenced by class, race, religion---there is asshole potential everywhere. We vote for assholes because they are strong in their views, and citizens can live out their inner-asshole in supporting that. Assholes get ahead! They appear confident, driven, and get what they want. They will break you before you can break them. People who act in ways that aren't kind or empathetic may win certain battles, but they often end up alienating others or struggling in ways that aren't immediately visible.
A few years ago, I decided, because much of my pre-sobriety was pretty selfish and self-centered that I would be as kind as possible. I believe I've succeeded in that. I was available. I did things for people. Unfortunately, the Universe still confuses kindness for weakness and I got pretty much trampled, especially of late---misunderstood intentions, broken plans, decisions to not be friends. Fuck, if I know what happened. Sure, I had a role in it, that maybe I was too kind to the wrong people, but the way I felt about myself has suffered.
At least when I was an asshole, I knew exactly where I stood with people. If they were still around, they really wanted to spend time with me, because, after all, I was an asshole. Also, people I ended up standing up to...didn't matter at all, if I were an asshole or not, as mutual dislike was already there. There was nothing to lose in bad behavior in these instances.
I like being kind, and I don't want to be a jerk but I'm missing all the perks of being an asshole.
My publishing year was great--the new book that came out from Big Table Publishing Company took up a lot of my time but the experience was wonderful and the final product looked great. Also my last two novels were made into audio-books in 2024. I appeared in three podcasts, and also had four individual pieces of work published.
Some Best of Stuff. First is the Best News Blooper video for your amusement. Underneath the video, not the best but the MOST VIEWED BLOG POSTS FROM 2024. And it's the top 11 as the 12/24/24 blog post about the piece "Mom and Pops" had a lot of hits this week
Only one singular published piece made the list, and that needed a 4 day very viewed post about Mom and Pops. Five on the list had to do with Book 19 (Almost Bluing for X-Tra Whiteness, released in Sep 2024) and Book 20 (The Shadows of the Seen, due out May 2025). The top three had none of those categorical posts. Trends? Who cares. Enjoy the list.
Grateful to Lo Galluccio, Poet Populist of Cambridge, who wrote a wonderful review. Also, grateful to Doug Holder, poet, and Poetry Czar for publishing it in The Somerville Times...
Why---and now that you were interested, what's it all about? (and the F-word)
So, it's creative non-fiction which means there is no story behind the story---it's just the story. I could point out the "creative" parts of this, but I won't. All I want to say about this piece is that I am grateful to people I've already spoken to about similar loss I am grateful to other writers who walked through the same events and wrote about them, giving me courage to write pieces such as this. I've thanked them. They know who they are.
Some say holidays is when you miss the people that are no longer in your life, but I think about my parents every day.
Doug Crandell, Mathew Olzmann, William Orem, Martin Ott, M.P. Carver, Phil Temples, Mag Gabbert, Robert Fleming, Danielle Legros George, Michael Keith, Mark Wish
Marianne Leone, Tiffany Davenport, Jennifer Friedman Lang, Ray Guidrox, Gary Grossman, Elizabeth McKim, Carla Panciera, Dr. Dannagal G. Young, Ellis Elliot, Enzo Silon Surin, Josh Barkan, Laura Zigman, Tom Laughlin
Suzanne Frischkorn, Kim Addonizio, Thomas McNeely, Jenna Le, Sarah Bridgins, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Lise Hanes, Dr. Paula Perez, Michael Mark, Maya Williams, Hannah Sward, Caitlin Avery, Carla Swartz, Stacy TenHouton, Donna Spruijt-Metz, Morgan Baker
Jonathan Papernick, A.K. Small, Aaron Tillman, David Rockland, Kimberly Ann Priest, Sain Griffiths, Harris Gardner, Lisa Taylor, Michael Keith, Jim Shepard, Zach VandeZande, Rusty Barnes, Daniel Nester. Kurk Lovelace (reading from Annemarie O'Connell's book), and Nina Shope
Sara Lippmann, Robin McLean, Gregory Orr, Rich Murphy, Diane Suess, Ron Tanner, Aleathea Drehmer, Christina Adams, Sharon Applegate Greenwald, Lucas Scheelk,
Joseph Milosch, Barbara Legere, Ellene Glenn Moore, Vincent Cellucci and Chris Shipman
After I talked with Eliz McKim about my new poetry book Almost Bluing for X-tra Whiteness she was amused at some of the references, but most of them were obscure Easter Eggs, so allow me to fill in some of the blanks. Below is the Table of Contents and a comment, video or link for each one. When you read the book, read the part of the blog before each of the poems.
So let's start with poem 1, page 9
I Didn’t want to call the 988 Operator Using the movie Don't Look Up as metaphor. There is even a line in the poem about the broteroc mentioned in the trailer below.
I wished myself extinct / like that bronteroc,
Dependents
What Cannot Be Fixed
After You Go
Dogged Years
These four are poems about my late MOTHER and FATHER
The next eight (8) are poems about a relationship ending. Comments withheld.
Remember That Smile: I remember, when I was a child, driving with my family while the trees on the side of the highway were ablaze. For years after that area looked like this, an image still stuck in my head
A Place Familiar
The following lines can be recalled from the opening poem (page 9)
weeks later, at the farm/ we stayed at in Maryland,/ that was one of the good/ things from the year.
How to Extinguish a Raging Fire Interested in this one? Go back in early November posts in this blog for the last 14 years about my recovery. This is a recovery poem.
reply to someone who said, “there’s a lot of selfish
going around here.” I write a lot of "reply" poems. There is one earlier in this book. In this one I don't remember who I might have been replying to.
Tennessee Songbirds: True story about real birds and musicians in Nashville
The Definition of Abuse is all about power dynamics in our culture.
Poetry Found on TwitterThese are exact twitter posts from the accounts of:
1) Lauren Boebert—On Another Shooting. 2) Michelle Obama—On Knitting. 3) Melania Trump—On Christmas Ornaments being
NFTs. 4) Marjorie Taylor Greene—Saying Stupid as Fuck
Things 5) Amanda Knox—On Losing Control 6) Margaret Atwood—On New Year’s Day
There are some good guys and bad guys in this poem .
Rainy Days and Every Day Always Get…My mom used to listen to this. Side note from video: I don't think he's playing the harmonica---he's playing his f-ing hand.
Valentine’s Poem written in the style of Eliz McKim. She picked up that the poem sounded like a heartbeat.
Picturing One Great Love Kind of like the guy pictured below, but sometimes you get to finish the work, and sometimes you don't.
Flashbulb of a Lightning Storm. About making love in the middle of a lightning storm. It happened.
Into the Silent Sea: This was written about the same time as It Sunk. Processing sea-creatures and hopelessness.
Animals Which Don’t SleepGrief and sleep problems the following line within Instead of saying goodbye you said, /“I’m sorry,” and refuse to lie down
Standing Wave and
Star Island, Night One, 2024
These next two were written for and about Star Island. The second was nominated for a Pushcart. Star inspires as these didn't need much revision.
The final section of the book is lighter, perhaps funnier poems
Abecedarius This is a form poem, the form being 26 words in the poem, using all 26 letters in alphabetical order.
Out and In the Void for Jeremy Hilary Boob Google Jeremy Hilary Boob and then the lyrics to that song the search points to. The poem is all synonyms to each/most words of those lyrics.
Almost Famous Massachusetts has the record for total number of Roast Beef joints that are famous but in name only.
Literary Action Figures Imagine if famous authors had action figures like star athletes or GI Joe. Wait...maybe?
On Dodo Oh My God. Want to go on a heartwarming trip? Of course, you do. Careful, you may get sucked into The Dodo rabbit hole for half the day. So this poem looks at Dodo and how it differs from those other feelings in real life.
Poem About Jon Wesick, written in the style of Jon Wesick; During the pandemic, writer Jon Wesick was on nearly every zoom reading and open mic. He had a series writing in the style of some of the other poets. I decided to do one on him.
Recipe Dumb-Ass Men Cook to Feed Women : A misandry poem from a man noting how men are obvious and stupid in their manipulations.
Poem Stolen from Other Poets at Dinner Yes...it's a found poem staring the dialog of many of my friends.
Found poem within the rules of the board game
Mystery Date : It pretty much uses the game rules verbatim. It was written for the game night event for the Improbable Places Poetry Tour.
Petition to Remove the Word Burble from our language Such a harsh sounding word.
Things You Find in Miami Beach (Poetry Form: 25,000 Pyramid) So I've invented a form. The poem reads like the clues given in the bonus round of the 25,000 Pyramid game show.
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