Scott Muska was already in a weird place when the pandemic hit—and then of course things just got weirder. He had a lot of time on his hands, and some things to work through, so he started writing at least one short poem a day.
"Many of These Could Have Just Been Tweets" is a collection of some of his favorites that address love, dating, heartbreak, nostalgia, mental health and living in a world where you can sometimes use a salve from the feeling of being alone. Some of them might even be kind of funny. Because if you're not having some fun with it, what even is the point?
Scott Muska writes stories, essays, poems and ads. He lives in Chicago. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram at @scottmuska.
At age 7, Scott decided he wanted to be a writer and basketball player. So he designed some business cards to help with self-promotion. (They featured clip art of a quill, inkwell and hoop.) He gave them to family members and classmates, and found some freelance jobs creating greeting cards, helping with English homework and ghostwriting the occasional love note.
During college, he had to decide between basketball and writing for the school newspaper. Chances were much higher that he'd go pro as a writer than a basketball player, so he retired his jersey.
He stuck with the writing, and has written for places like Cosmopolitan, Playboy, GQ, Mashable, Women's Health, Glamour, Thought Catalog, FlipCollective, PS I Love You and others.