ISSUE THREE: Alertly Messy | next poem →

The Best Writers Bombed the SAT

Kenneth Nichols

After such an exaggerated concert, we lined up to excoriate the cellist for his regal playing.

The archaeologist’s lecture made it clear that life in the Middle Ages was begrudgingly worse than it is today.

The brightness of the sun melted the snow and the impatient farmers looked forward to matriculating.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first refrigerator."

Tempers flared as the new mayor ventriloquized the established city council members.

The speaker congratulated the graduates for their conjugal attitude.

YEAR : CENTURY :: MACHINE GUN : GUITAR SOLO

CHARTREUSE : GREEN :: FEAR : VALENTINE’S DAY

WOOD : GRAINED :: TURKEY : SANDWICHED

TROMBONE : MUSIC :: LAWYER : CRIME

LOVE : MARRIAGE :: HORSE : MARRIAGE

Kenneth Nichols teaches writing at two colleges in Central New York. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Ohio State. (Go Bucks!) His work has appeared in publications including Main Street Rag, Lunch Ticket, Prime Number, Skeptical Inquirer, the Tin House blog and PopMatters. You can visit him online at greatwriterssteal.com.

ISSUE THREE: Alertly Messy | next poem →











ISSUE THREE: Alertly Messy

Kelly Nelson
   My Uncle at Nineteen
   His Mother Writes
      the Warden, 1955

Jon-Michael Frank
   Funny How Time Slips Away
   Not Fade Away

Jacqueline Jules
   Obsolete Angers

J. Bradley
   Yelp Review:
     Planned Parenthood
    of Greater Orlando

   Yelp Review:
     The Milk Bar

Amy Schriebman Walter
   Hope in a Yellow Dress

Miho Kinnas
   Earlobes

Mark Povinelli
   Notes I
   Notes II

Kenneth Nichols
   The Best Writers
     Bombed the SAT

John Patsynski
   The Money Weapon

Aileen Bassis
   Pellucid Musing

Travis Macdonald
   When the Map's Crease
      Becomes an Axis
      and Detaches

Kris Hall
   Pyromanian I
   Pyromanian II

Claire Scott
   Harbor Lights

Elizabeth Kate Switaj
   Poseidon's Canto