Poetry | Fred Aiken Writing

November 16, 2023

visual evaporation

when i was in preschool,
a rumor got spread around that if you read for 48 hours straight,
no break, no meals, no sleep,
then your eyes would either
a) pop out of your skull and kids could kick them around like bouncy balls
or b) your eyes would melt, along with the rest of your brain, and you’d be the eyeless, brainless
kid of the 21st century wandering the halls in search for nothing because you could no longer see,
neither of which are reasons why i don’t read enough books now that i’m adult
that can reason that those childhood rumors were just that,
though no matter how many new years resolutions i make,
i can’t seem to read all that much,
so i guess i’ll just pretend that my eyes might evaporate if i read more than a sentence at a time

November 15, 2023

liar poems

i don’t go around telling people that i write poetry,
in fact, i use a pseudonym to stay even more anonymous on the internet,
and i lie to myself that i don’t know why i do that,
though really it’s because i can gossip about myself
without seeming too egotistical,
which might, i realize now while typing it out, sound even more egotistical

November 14, 2023

playing fetch with a man from texas

i met a man from texas
that didn’t know how to bbq,
which i told him was fine
because i wanted tofu anyway,
so he handed me a used bergamot tea bag
and told me to go fetch