Poems by Ken Poyner

HALF-WAY

The man is not going to get any prettier

She early concludes

So she tries to stuff all the sex

Succinctly into the front half of the marriage.

At first, a half glass of bourbon helps.

Then half a bottle.  It does

Make him seem half-way prettier.

ORIGINAL SIN

My cousin chose to work

As a prostitute.  I don’t think

It provided a living wage.

She ended up with six

Children, a mixture of races

And likely conception stories –

Though no one rightly knows

What stories and circumstances

Apply.  The embarrassment lies

Not in the work itself, but in

The unfathomable lack of effective

Or even spotty birth control.

The children were farmed out to

Understanding relations, the cousin

Neutered.  Who knows what she does now,

But we hope it does not involve

Sequencing.

 

Ken’s four collections of brief fictions and four collections of speculative poetry can be found at most online booksellers.  He spent 33 years in information system management, is married to a world record holding female power lifter, and has a family of several cats and betta fish.  Individual works have appeared in “Café Irreal”, “Analog”, “Danse Macabre”, “The Cincinnati Review”, and several hundred other places. www.kpoyner.com