One Sentence Poems

Alan Toltzis (series) Goldfish They grew waddling fat— orange and white globes gliding through green waters to feast on insects and algae, flakes and pellets tossed into the pond, their own eggs and fry. Beggars Habit taught them greed gulping at food’s satisfying promise whenever I neared sending shadows across the surface that drew their […]

5 of 5 in a series Alan Toltzis  Deep Winter Locked below a thickening block of ice, the fish slowed too, drifting downward to wait, weightless in watery space, amid cold blankets of sludge and debris, the rotten remnants of their waste, time rotating forward all around them. Alan Toltzis (alantoltzis.com), the author of 49 […]

4 of 5 in a series Alan Toltzis  63.8 Degrees North Earth angled into its inhospitable orbit tilting farther from the sun the water stiffened as its molecules expanded, aligned, slowed, crystallizing from the rocky edged shore inward towards its core, zeroing past zero. Alan Toltzis (alantoltzis.com), the author of 49 Aspects of Human Emotions […]

3 of 5 in a series Alan Toltzis  Binge Where I saw thin and yellowing locust leaves skittering through air like celebration, they saw something that might be gorged upon— swallow, spit, swallow again. Alan Toltzis (alantoltzis.com), the author of 49 Aspects of Human Emotions and The Last Commandment, had a lovely goldfish pond once […]

2 of 5 in a series Alan Toltzis  Beggars Habit taught them greed gulping at food’s satisfying promise whenever I neared sending shadows across the surface that drew their pleading lips into the alien air asking more, more, more. Alan Toltzis (alantoltzis.com), the author of 49 Aspects of Human Emotions and The Last Commandment, had […]