One Sentence Poems

Ian Willey Family Curse We keep the family curse in a box of polished bamboo on the top shelf of the closet under the stairs, without a lock, for what would be the point of a lock, since we already know our kids are going to open it? Ian Willey is reborn every day as […]

Ian Willey Replay Every day my son watches a video showing highlights of the final game of the 2006 World Cup, in which Zinedine Zidane from France head- butts the Italian player in the chest resulting in a red card and a flat ending to a champagne career though maybe this time will be different, […]

Ian Willey Double Feature We were watching a Julia Roberts movie, a long one where the guy dies at the end, and when we left the theater there was my car alone at the end of the parking lot, lights blazing like the eyes of an animal on the edge of the woods and of […]

Ian Willey A Glimpse of the Afterlife A line of souls snaked up the hill to a golden throne upon which sat Ozzy Osbourne magnificent with his mane and glasses as he moved his hand to the left or right thereby separating the good from the bad and the bad hurried down the hill to […]

Ian Willey The Substitute A boy raises his hand and asks the teacher how much longer he’ll have to hate himself, and the teacher, unsure how to respond, reaches for the manual only to discover that the manual is missing, having been replaced by an old TV Guide, and so he stands there, discombobulated, green […]

Ian Willey Social Media I was out walking when a man ran up to me saying “sparrows swiftly berate the summit, pass it on!” so I said “okay!” and said just that to a woman walking her Shiba Inu who said “sure!” and hurried off towards someone else and I watched as people bounced into […]

Ian Willey The Experts I’m trying to get a picture of that bush warbler and after nearly an hour on the ground my knees screaming murder the bird appears on a sunlit branch and my finger is on the shutter when three men in suits burst from the branches pointing at the bird and saying […]

Ian Willey Progress I tell him there were stickleback in this stream but the water got dirty from all the detergent and the chemicals people put on their lawns so now they are gone and this makes him sad but I don’t tell him there is such a thing as progress, that there were once […]