Ice Cream, Porch, & Audacity by K Spicka
Ice Cream, Porch, & Audacity, micro poetry by K Spicka #TheMetaworker
The Metaworker Literary Magazine
Where great stories are forged.
Ice Cream, Porch, & Audacity, micro poetry by K Spicka #TheMetaworker
“a myriad of waves cross / and re-cross Channel Lake.” – excerpt from Wave Theory, poetry by Douglas Twells #TheMetaworker
“I steal cats for money. That’s right. I select a satisfactory feline, wait for night to fall, and pick it up like other people pick up a penny they find on the street.” – excerpt from Lost and, fiction by Lara Wass #TheMetaworker
“she aimed for soft tissue / her verbal viewfinder / aligned perfectly with my aorta” – excerpt from exit wound, poetry by Dara Goodale
Celebrate 10 years of #TheMetaworker with a deep dive into the journey of co-founder Elena. Discover the heart, the history, and the kindness behind our ten-year milestone.
“The old house / cracks its knuckles / all night long.” – excerpt from Holding My Breath All Night Long, poetry by Dolo Diaz
“Shift the stone with both hands. Block the sun’s glare from blinding or burning them.” – excerpt from How to Make Friends with Grubs, poetry by Stephanie Jones
“I was supposed to be / someone by then, but mostly I was / a person who hoarded notebooks” – excerpt from Turning 30, Motel Light, and Other Illusions, poetry by Rowan Tate
“I noticed something fall into the sink. I found with some astonishment that it was my left ear, perfectly detached.” – excerpt from Sutures, fiction by AJ Ryland #TheMetaworker
“caught / they put me in a cell / i was forced to work / in retribution / my children were led away / for the komandant” – excerpt from rapunzel/refugees/slavic, a braided poem by Linda Scheller
“rank‑incense threads snag my throat.
I bow—knees lock—sweat turns salt‑sharp.” – excerpt from shinigami, poetry by Kimmy Chang #TheMetaworker
“listen i was slower once full / of syrup & warnings I used / to believe in build-up sent / my secrets by mail” – excerpt from Eight of Wands, poetry by Caiti Quatmann
Elena, Mel, and Cerid speak with Nancy Noelke and Bryce Painter about unfinished work—those ‘buried’ drafts. #TheMetaworker #podcast
“Scream right into the hole. It feels great.” Kathie puts a light, practiced hand on my shoulder… “I’m trying,” I say, but I’m not screaming, the screaming is not coming. – excerpt from A Guide to the Heal-By-Scream Method, fiction by Chelsea Sutton
Announcing our nominations for the 2025 Pushcart Prize! #TheMetaworker
“I am dark navigator / where they say love dwells” – excerpt from Change Of Residence, poetry by Marc Darnell #TheMetaworker
“These cases end / in bursts like / transitions in rhythm…” – excerpt from An Interstellar Genus of Needing, poetry by Nicholas Alti
If Daphne Monet were to converse with bell hooks, poetry by Ron L. Dowell #TheMetaworker
“Runes are scratched on gingerbread walls
in the stammering darkness.” – excerpt from Midnight in the Gingerbread House, poetry by Linda Scheller #TheMetaworker
“wealth is sometimes confused with gravity. both pull.” – excerpt from King of Pentacles, poetry by Caiti Quatmann #TheMetaworker
“I hadn’t planned to leave the city…but after elbowing through…tourists, even a day’s escape sounded like heaven.” – excerpt from Trip to Fallsburg, fiction by Gillian Fletcher #TheMetaworker
“He needs to regain control. No one knows he took her. There’s no one behind them following. He’s safe.” – excerpt from Samaritan, fiction by Matthew E. Henry
“The doctor speaks in percentages…as if my body is suddenly a math problem to be solved.” – excerpt from Measured in Ghosts, non-fiction by Tara Hashagen
“A body speaks in fabric…” – excerpt from Available Space, visual poetry by Shannon Cates
“When I was eight I had a friend who ate bugs.” – excerpt from Bug Girl, fiction by Taylor Kelley #TheMetaworker
“That one, she’s got nails sharp, mouth sharp, / and a heart blunter.” – excerpt from Accusations by a Half-Lover, poetry by Tejal Doshi
At Play: A Book Review by Aedan Ferrara #TheMetaworker #bookreview #shortstories
“On the neighborhood page they argue about outdoor cats and songbirds, carpenter bee traps and pollinators.” – excerpt from does anybody know, prose poetry by Jennifer Lubke #TheMetaworker
“It was dark, warm, and sticky in there.” – excerpt from Falling in Love Inside a Stray Hot Sauce Packet, micro fiction by Sarp Sozdinler
“moonish, midnight flesh / swollen with frost, / the plum blooms melodramatic…” – excerpt from Of Plum and Cherry, poetry by Shannon Cates #TheMetaworker
“‘I am sure…’ I started, exhaling in turn, watching the plumes dress their face. ‘I am sure, gods are like…Let me put it this way. Gods,’ I tried again, swallowing, the smoke catching me in my throat…” – excerpt from The Side Wound of Christ is Intentionally Vaginal, fiction by Shivani Kshirsagar #TheMetaworker
“Families and partners mill about in the sun and the warm air. No one is with me. Not anymore.” – exerpt from I’m Okay, non-fiction by Ed Kratz #MetaworkerMonday
“we’re watching that Beatles / documentary. Get Back. / it’s pretty good generally.” – excerpt from Yoko, poetry by DS Maolalai #MetaworkerMonday
“we carve what we call secret tongues / into the tender skin of trees, / fingernails packed with earth / and vows strung like webs.” – excerpt from “Kicker Kids, poetry by Tejal Doshi
“…echoes of Sunday School pull me from my book to the unyielding curve of a church bench.” – excerpt from “Abecedarian Lament”, creative non-fiction by M.R. Lehman Wiens #MetaworkerMonday
“my shadow slips like fallen light into the gelato rain of second grade ants in raisin boxes” – excerpt from Gelato Rain, poetry by Azure Brandi #TheMetaworker
“I find the station where the long tracks meet. / It’s burrowed beside an old steel mill…” excerpt from On the Train to Charlotte, poetry by M. C. Tuggle #TheMetaworker
“She thinks we can’t see her press her palm against the blank spaces.” – excerpt from micro fiction by Dana Wall
“you rise, / lay your arms like the seam / of the first dawn across / my shoulders and sigh with the robins,” excerpt from Sharh on on Sahih al-Bukhari 5460, poetry by Reyzl Grace #TheMetaworker
“Emerald did not tell Harrison that she worked at BIT, the London underground information service.” excerpt from Emerald in the Seventies, fiction by Joan Slatoff #TheMetaworker
“and the beer / tastes of bathwater / but water is not safe / to drink, and so / here we are” excerpt from Outsourcing, poetry by DS Maolalai #TheMetaworker
Micro Fiction by Erin Matheson Ritchie #TheMetaworker
“Dragging the laundry basket to the washer, she saw an ant meander on the kitchen top.” – excerpt from micro fiction by Rashmi Bhopi #TheMetaworker
“For a moment, / the tip of your finger / lights / on the edge of my hand…” – excerpt from Sharh on Sunan Ibn Majah 3914, poetry by Reyzl Grace #TheMetaworker
“she asked eggs / for an answer / they could not give.” – excerpt from Monday Morning, poetry by Mark J. Mitchell #TheMetaworker
“walk the highway until you see the billboard ad of the same two politicians, year-marked with bad graffiti and dust…” – excerpt from To find your grandmother’s house, poetry by Yev Gelman #TheMetaworker
and i agree, a micro poem by Breton Lalama #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“My mother’s ninety-fifth birthday was in late June. I couldn’t let the occasion pass unnoticed, regardless of her condition.” – excerpt from The Finding Momo Birthday, creative nonfiction by Madlynn Haber #TheMetaworker
“When I was dying, I dreamed of ice cold matcha, a single shot of espresso, a prayer to god that I would lose another five pounds.” – excerpt from Little Mercies, fiction by Arushi (Aera) Rege #TheMetaworker
“For a dog or a squirrel you might hit the brakes, but for something so small, you lift your foot and hope for the best.” – excerpt from Swerve (you’re hit), Flash Fiction by Charles Sutphin #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“The panther paces her cage / Heavy velvet paws pad the cell / back and. forth / left. and right.” – excerpt from Through the Motions, poetry by Diane Funston #TheMetaworker
“Tonight we burn away the stain / We bid farewell to the profane” – excerpt from Light the Fire, poetry by LeAnna McEuen. #TheMetaworker
Elena, Mel, and Cerid speak with Kathryn Temple and Matthew Smallwood about unfinished work. #TheMetaworkerPodcast
“The musical instruments
in the wooden cabinet are still alive.” – excerpt from “Fragments of Life”, poetry by Sonnet Mondal #TheMetaworker
“Our pond monster is the best. He waits under unruffled water, eyes only visible if you grow too close…” excerpt from micro fiction by Ken Poyner #TheMetaworker
“The swirling tendrils of smoke lifted from the cigarette, manifesting into clouds that hung heavy and low in the troposphere.” – excerpt from Rotten, fiction by Bran Winkler @local__skunk #TheMetaworker
“A medical diagnosis is a baptism into a new name.” – excerpt from Song for the Diagnoses, poetry by Christa Fairbrother
Peonies, micro fiction by Kevin Armor Harris #TheMetaworker
“In a different reality a murder encompasses the tree / of metal spires, lining the ground with pebbles” excerpt from Exhibits in Orbit, poetry by Paige M Eaton #TheMetaworker
“Honestly, though, what am I supposed to do / If I’m not present in my poems?” excerpt from “Get Outta There” poetry by Avery Thompson #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“A few months into my master’s program, each day had become just another attempt at acting human.” – excerpt from Puppeteering, non-fiction by Jackson Mattocks #TheMetaworker
“i am fond of searching / for pearls amidst / thorns…” – excerpt from Blue Boy, poetry by Anthony Ikeh #TheMetaworker
Six-Word Stories by Matthew Kasper #TheMetaworker #microwriting
“my parents still the effortless rulers of our simple cement house / in the West-African village my brother – the gentle historian” – excerpt from Sierra Leone, 1982 by Freddi Gralle #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Zana imagines an Afrofuturistic scenario set in 2048, where Nelson Mandela had died while imprisoned… and the entire continent finds itself in a racist apartheid.” #MetaworkerMonday
“Did you know I killed a dragon once? / A bully made of scales and fire” – excerpt from Princess and Dragon, poetry by Amy Forstadt #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The customer ordered the fish and chips, and it all seemed normal until I delivered the fish and chips and he asked for vinegar.” – excerpt from Lunch At Café 86, fiction by Michael Smith #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Listen to the newest podcast episode! Elena, Mel, and Cerid discuss three of their nominees for the 2024 Pushcart Prize, plus readings and interviews with the authors. #TheMetaworker
“in this dream we’re all sharp objects and try, please, dance with me & ignore the burning roof.” – excerpt from Anatomy of a Memory, poetry by Anthony Ikeh #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“I let them into the library to steal the books. They say they’re going to digitize everything. In time, we can write our own.” – excerpt from Daylight under the Geofence, speculative fiction by Robin Wyatt Dunn #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
artwork by Julie Mota Kondi #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Your heart’s taken by another now and / so is mine” – excerpt from “We don’t send pigeons anymore”, poetry by Lou Second #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
https://themetaworker.com/2025/04/25/we-dont-send-pigeons-by-lou-second/
“I wish I knew why I didn’t bake Kat those brownies. I only made them once … and she would ask me at least once a year to make them again.” – excerpt from Brownie Points by Jennifer Peaslee #TheMetaworker
microfiction by by Anthony ILacqua #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“a / new / day / dawns / wolves are howling / far / across the moon” – excerpt from “Anathematikon, Part III” #poetry by Lukas Jackson #TheMetaworker
“Person 1: I’ve been thinking about Mom and the prognosis she’s received. Person 2: Yeah, me too. I’m kind of devastated here.” – excerpt from Exit Stage Left by Bob Gielow
“under nightshade we hold hands / kiss with foxgloved mouths” – excerpt from “I’m easier to manage in bite-size chunks” #poetry by Zoë Davis
“Life looked ahead long before it could remember. The better we could anticipate the future, the better our chances of survival.” – excerpt from “Triptych” by Tim Love.
A book review of Parchman Unit 29, poems, drawings, and creative non-fiction pieces that constitute a powerful call for systemic reform and for compassion towards those less fortunate.
“I used to believe / in water– / even when the world / told me blood / is thicker…” – excerpt from Dessication Daze, a #poem by Marla Dial Moore #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“We could have climbed into the moon. Instead / we biked in the metalshadows beneath Ohioan / hills everything hung still in the air” – excerpt from Field on Butternut, a #poem by Max Newman #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“I sit beside [my mother], pull out a bag of chips and open a word puzzle on my phone. She reaches over and places her hand atop mine. I freeze. It’s been years since she’s initiated a touch.” – excerpt from The Memory House, fiction by Maddison Scott #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Seeing the Eclipse at Sheetz / Is perfect for a working class / girl like me” – excerpt from Seeing the Eclipse at Sheetz, a #poem by Eleanor Levine and featuring artwork by Meghan Reynolds #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday #writingcommunity #artists
Micro Poetry by David A. Goodrum #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Slush reader M.R. Lehman Wiens shares his writing journey, plus a poem by the slush reading team. #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
Announcement: We will be closing submissions early on Feb 14 at 11:59pm PT. We will reopen on April 1st.
“Dad was on his way, said, Trust me, Elise. Said stop your bellyaching, said For crying out loud I’m on my way.” – excerpt from Dadless, a poem by Elise Glassman #TheMetaworker #literarymagazines #poetrycommunity
“The typeface begins to rise from the aged paper. …They stretch and coalesce into an undulating vortex, spiraling around my outstretched finger like a tiny tornado.” – excerpt from Unbound, fiction by Maudie Bryant @maudiemichelle #TheMetaworker #literarymagazines
“Mother would stand barefoot in the living room and amuse six million lonely souls from around the world.” – excerpt from “Dancing Like Mother”, fiction by Nadim Silverman #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday #literarymagazines
Micro Poetry by Mykyta Ryzhykh #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday #literarymagazine #writingcommunity
“the sky no more cerulean blue – soused in black ink, with it its moon and stars too. It is forever pit dark.” – excerpt from poem “that slow DRAGGED END.” by Devayani Anvekar #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The first set of numerals fell silently. They fell slowly and gently, tumbling like autumn leaves.” excerpt from “2575”, short fiction by Tess Hart #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday