The Metaworker Literary Magazine
Where great stories are forged.
“this is a transcript of a video game / which is an adaptation from a movie / which is a download from a divine source” – excerpt from The Leash of Tartarus Squeezes up the Spine to Besiege the Head, poetry by Robin Wyatt Dunn #TheMetaworker
“as if scent could summon presence, as if blue plastic jugs / might carry memory like vessels across a quiet Styx.” – excerpt from Someone I love has vanished & that is why I’m in the detergent aisle of the corner store, poetry by Rowan Tate
“But I’m still here / snapping selfies” – excerpt from Live Man Laughing, poetry by Giancarlo Malchiodi #TheMetaworker
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
“she aimed for soft tissue / her verbal viewfinder / aligned perfectly with my aorta” – excerpt from exit wound, poetry by Dara Goodale
“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
“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
“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
“A body speaks in fabric…” – excerpt from Available Space, visual poetry by Shannon Cates
“That one, she’s got nails sharp, mouth sharp, / and a heart blunter.” – excerpt from Accusations by a Half-Lover, poetry by Tejal Doshi
“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
“moonish, midnight flesh / swollen with frost, / the plum blooms melodramatic…” – excerpt from Of Plum and Cherry, poetry by Shannon Cates #TheMetaworker
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“The musical instruments
in the wooden cabinet are still alive.” – excerpt from “Fragments of Life”, poetry by Sonnet Mondal #TheMetaworker
“The specular / Reflection / Splitting light / Into prisms / Like rainbow / Scales” – excerpt from Wonboyn, 2024, poetry by Matthew T Phillips #TheMetaworker
“A medical diagnosis is a baptism into a new name.” – excerpt from Song for the Diagnoses, poetry by Christa Fairbrother
“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
“i am fond of searching / for pearls amidst / thorns…” – excerpt from Blue Boy, poetry by Anthony Ikeh #TheMetaworker
“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
“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
“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
“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/
“a / new / day / dawns / wolves are howling / far / across the moon” – excerpt from “Anathematikon, Part III” #poetry by Lukas Jackson #TheMetaworker
“under nightshade we hold hands / kiss with foxgloved mouths” – excerpt from “I’m easier to manage in bite-size chunks” #poetry by Zoë Davis
“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
“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
“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
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
7th Grade Sleepover, a poem by Caitlin O’Halloran @selfcaremaven #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“When you ask me to sleep on the couch, / you wince. You know I know / you’ve banished others” – excerpt from Sharh on Sunan an-Nasa’i 736 by Reyzl Grace @reyzlgrace #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“The smell of trash dripping days in the sun / stains the air with its yellow gunk.” – excerpt from Parteada por el Fuego / Twice Born by E. N. Díaz #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Erik Satie and Me”, poetry by Ken Been #TheMetaworker #ForgeFriday
“The jars near the window
Sometimes I mistake them for busts” – excerpt from Busts by Jennifer Klein @JenniferKleinReal #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Micro Poetry by Mykyta Ryzhykh #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“We chanced upon him on our honeymoon. His gallery was empty / but well-lit” – excerpt from A Secret Knowledge of How to Love by Kit Willett #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“You carried it kinda heavy though, old Johnny / confided on my last day of a 3 year gig” – excerpt from Heavy by Shaun Anthony McMichael @samcmichael #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Micro Poems by Chris Bullard #TheMetaworker MetaworkerMonday
“some chasms are wider than others / this city is large and so are the windows” excerpt from spring cleaning by @laurenkellls
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“Not Done Yet”, a poem by Nancy Noelke #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“After years in the sanitarium, / the grasshopper looks up and sees / his therapist is the ant.” excerpt from Grasshopper Looks Up At His Therapist by Jocko Benoit #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“You wait for the night / below the castle on the mountain.” – Excerpt from All You Should Remember by Perry L. Powell #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
A Knight in Shining Armor for a Dad by Maxine Flam #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“the recurring colonnades /
offered the illusion / of progress, vital calamity / passed into oblivion…” excerpt from On the Plaza by Clay Waters. #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“typoem” by Michael Betancourt: a visual poem made from collaged typographic fragments. #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“In the Mood”, a poem by Lucia Owen #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Micro Poetry by David Capps #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
https://themetaworker.com/2024/01/29/micro-poetry-by-david-capps/
“Alone, he paces from room to room,/each room a cabinet of memories,/a diorama of another life.” – excerpt from The Inhabitant of the Tower by Taliesin Gore, featuring art by Cerid Jones #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
Micro Poetry by Michał Zieliński #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“Here’s where I was those last nights, / twisting on that rack / of a recliner next to your bed” – excerpt from “Last Nights, Dreaming” by Lucia Owen #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“The beach is sinking. / It’s a sigh. It’s the lack of you and I, pulling like the tide / against its warm face.” – excerpt from “The Beach” by Daniel Brennan @dannyjbrennan #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“It’s Not You, It’s Us” and “The Procedure” – Micro Poetry by Sam Alec #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“In a cracked-pot / full of tubes, / Chlorophyll leaks / out your mouth.” from “What if our bodies were trees?” by Lucio Cooper. #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“It is raining in Boston. / My friend is in an ambulance on those wet roads” #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
“At the height of my loneliness, I examine ways to escape my skin.” #TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“my swift nights powered by / Starbucks are behind me.”
#MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
poetry by Russell Willis
#TheMetaworker #MetaworkerMonday
“There is Juan Valdez sweat and mule shit / in the bottom of my cup.” #MetaworkerMonday #TheMetaworker
She came out of the woods with nothing but a blanket sprayed with white and silver paint #F. J. Bergmann #TheMetaworker
#MetaworkerMonday
I asked about her yearnings, her desires, as I suspected they might, perhaps, mesh with my own. It was worth a try, an attempt at some sort of shared, miraculous
camaraderie.
