Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three Nov-Dec 2026.
A Hungry Workshop, poems by Michael Minassian.
A Hungry Workshop
The old man who sits across
the table from me pulls out
a sheaf of poems from his briefcase
and starts reading in a scratchy voice,
releasing winged horses, a leopard,
and she-wolf, then Beatrice
in her mourning dress.
Without pausing,
I bleed all over my own
typewritten lines,
tear the wings off
angels and devils,
drawing a straight path
to the next inferno.
When I look up from the page
everyone else had fled
except the old man and me,
the wooden table aflame,
fragments of poems like moths
fluttering around our heads.
Between Two Shores
My friends and I swim across the lake,
dive off an outcrop of rock, watch the sun
capsize like an orange clock
dropped into the water.
We’re there to remember our friend Billy
who drowned in the reservoir last summer,
found tangled in underwater plants,
his skin a pale blue tinge.
We watch the water grow into a black bowl
reflecting back the night sky,
wonder where Billy has gone. Seventeen,
lost among the wheeling night’s open mouth.
The rest of us soon off to college or the draft,
while memories float on the skin of the lake.
Poetry Prompt
Today’s challenge was to write an anti-love poem. I ponder that for a while, not sure what anti-love means. Years ago, my students told me they never heard of a Dear John letter. After all, no one writes letters anymore, not even post cards, although I once received a break up message on my answering machine, another obsolete means of communication. Easier today to leave a note on social media, change your relationship status, or post a video of your newest love, in a compromising position wearing your ex’s favorite shirt he had the bad luck to leave behind the last time he snuck out your door.
© Michael Minassian
Michael Minassian is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual, an online poetry journal. His poetry collections Time is Not a River, Morning Calm, A Matter of Timing, Jack Pays a Visit, and 1000 Pieces of Time are all available on Amazon. For more information: https://michaelminassian.com