Status Updates From HSTQ: Winter 2026

All the poems I wrote
when I thought that I was dying
and all the poems I’ll never write
when one day I really am

she picked up a shot
of Cuervo gold,
raised the glass, said
“it only takes three
or four of these babies
to get me naked,”
and I smacked that
shot glass right out
of her fucking hand.

there was no telling
how many she had
before I sat down
beside her.

Last Call
Brian Rosenberger

The cold and distant Moon, an observer.

Am I divine? Or do my eyes deceive me?
Poisonously poised and awake to shine
with pretty fragile hearts
gashing in the idle heavens.
taking all of my lovers but seven.

Grab a beer or master a weapon.
It’s up to you.
Talk it over with your loved ones.
Make the bargains your soul can bear.

Lifetime Achievement
Ivan Jenson

First you take sixty odd years
of muddling through the foliage
like someone half your age
with twice the gusto
and three times
the misplaced ambition
and add the elements
like hot, cold and sub-zero luck
and the unlikelihood
that lightning might strike
twice in your lifetime

Love it when you smell like gasoline.

Dinosaur Story
Misti Rainwater-Lites

a million years ago
when mommy & daddy began
we’d go home to my studio apartment
on lunch break from T-Mobile
I’d stick a Tony’s pizza
in the oven
tell him
“okay, you’ve got 15 minutes to make me cum”

Wednesday’s Child
Ryan Quinn Flanagan

She put the butcher block knife
to his throat
and asked him to tell her which
child was full of woe.

Do I get a phone a friend?

I’m not Alexander Graham Bell,
she shot back.