Other Writing

October's Top Story Winner on Vocal Media (New York)

“After He Drove Away” is a poetic reflection on loss, memory, and the quiet ache of moving forward.
Chosen as a Top Story on Vocal Media, this piece captures that tender moment when goodbye echoes louder than words.

In Kamloops, there’s only one name you need to know when dogs, drama, and mild chaos collide: Brenda Barkley.

She’s a dog walker with a booming laugh, a van that rattles like a carnival ride, and a talent for turning everyday disasters into local legends.

When a routine walk at Riverside Park takes a wild turn, Brenda’s quick thinking (and questionable footwear) make her an accidental hero — and a small-town sensation.

A poignant and evocative poem about loving someone whose heart belongs to something — or someone — else. In “My Lover Has a Mistress,” the speaker reveals the quiet ache of sharing her beloved with his muse: the radiant, all-consuming mistress of art. Through lyrical imagery and emotional precision, she captures the beauty and pain of competing with creation itself — the colors, the canvas, and the irresistible pull of inspiration.

This is not a poem of jealousy, but of understanding. “My...

A delicate yet powerful exploration of love, fear, and emotional persistence, “I’m Still Here” captures the moment when closeness teeters on the edge of control. Through rhythmic verse and haunting repetition, the poem traces a man’s vow not to let go — and a woman’s inner struggle between trust and self-preservation.

As vulnerability and resistance intertwine, the piece asks: when does devotion become pressure, and when does surrender become survival? “I’m Still Here” is both an intimate...

Set in Koshigaya City, Japan, “The Streetlight” is a taut, true-story thriller that captures the quiet dread of being seen — and followed — in a foreign land. What begins as a dream job teaching abroad beneath blooming cherry trees slowly unravels into a nightmare of surveillance, obsession, and survival.

When a young woman notices a stranger’s eyes fixed on her during a crowded train ride, she brushes it off as curiosity. But when the same man appears again — and again — her sense of wonder...

A heartbreaking and necessary poem about the silent realities of domestic abuse and the myths we tell ourselves about strength. “The Strongest Woman I’ve Ever Known” follows one woman’s quiet unraveling under the weight of violence, isolation, and indifference — a story too often dismissed with the words, “She’ll be fine.”

Told in raw, unfiltered verse, this piece exposes how easily strength can be mistaken for survival, and how quickly love can turn into control. It’s both elegy and warning —...

When football glory meets secret-agent chaos, saving the girl hits a whole new league.

In this outrageous, fast-paced parody, NFL star Travis Kelce’s game-winning touchdown is just the beginning. Moments after clinching the AFC Championship, he’s tapped by the Pentagon for a top-secret mission: rescue America’s sweetheart, Taylor Swift, who’s been kidnapped mid-concert by the villainous Nebula Nefarious and her sleazy sidekick.

Armed with a B-2 Spirit bomber, a friendship bracelet, and a smile...

An emotional and introspective piece that serves as both a love-letter and a farewell to a land of stark beauty, quiet resilience and personal transformation. Through evocative imagery of glaciers, black-sand beaches, endless skies and the hush of the northern wild, the speaker confronts their own inner landscape — grief, longing, hope — mirrored in Iceland’s rugged terrain.

“Thank You, Iceland” captures the turning point when place becomes pilgrimage, nature becomes mirror, and you arrive not...

A lush and haunting poem that turns the human body into a landscape of discovery, devotion, and erosion. With lines like

“Her body was a garden, he’d harvest every day. Peony lips and rose hips. He would pick and pluck away.” the piece immerses the reader in a vivid metaphor of cultivation and consumption—of a relationship where tenderness and ownership blur, growth and decay intertwine.

Through its rich imagery and subtle tension, the poem asks: when love enters the terrain of possession, what...

A blistering, defiant poem about reclaiming power from manipulation and control. “You Lose” tells the story of a woman who has finally had enough—of lies, deceit, and the illusion of love used as a weapon. Through sharp rhythm and fearless honesty, she dismantles the facade of a man driven by ego and possession, exposing his cruelty, cowardice, and fear.

What begins as heartbreak becomes declaration: you don’t get to own me. In her refusal to be tamed, the speaker finds her strength, turning...

An evocative and contemplative poem that situates the reader at a threshold—a place where endings and beginnings blur, where loss meets possibility, and where the quiet hush of what was gives way to the unspoken promise of what comes next. With spare, poignant imagery, the piece invites reflection on closure—not as a final curtain, but as a breath held between beats. Ideal for readers who are drawn to poetry that lingers in the spaces between words and whispers.

A haunting and evocative poem that uses the image of a painting as its portal—inviting the reader into the fractured space between canvas and truth, seeing and being seen. With lines that suggest scars, silences, and the muted weight of what’s left unspoken, this piece asks: what happens to us when we become the subject of someone else’s gaze? Who paints whom, and what gets erased in the frame?

A quietly immersive poem that escorts you into a place at once familiar and overlooked — a park you visit not just for space, but for what happens in its edges: memory, solitude, and self. With soft but precise imagery, the speaker moves through swings and benches, the hush of trees, the hush of thoughts. This piece is crafted for readers drawn to writing that inhabits liminal spaces, that finds weight in silence and discovers meaning in the pause between breaths.

A powerful, emotionally raw poem that explores what it means to claim something fragile—maybe innocence, maybe protection—and then watch it slip away. With language that feels both intimate and inevitable, this piece places the reader at the crossroads of responsibility, loss, and the tug of what we hope to hold onto. Ideal for those who appreciate poetry that doesn’t shy from tension, that lives in the uneasy space between love and letting go.

A vivid and unflinching poem that spins the reader into the dizzying loop of desire, identity and the endless rotation of being seen — and overlooked. With sharp imagery and emotional resonance, this piece evokes the motion of a carousel: the thrill of the ride, the longing for permanence, and the vertigo when you realize you’re still where you started. It’s a perfect fit for readers who appreciate poetry that is both kinetic and aching — showing what it means to hold your place, lose it,...

A sharp, evocative poem that leans into longing, identity, and the illusory space between who we are and who we imagine. With language that lingers on the edges of memory and desire, this piece invites readers into the quiet ache of wanting — of wanting to matter, to be understood, to become the idea of you. It’s perfect for those who appreciate intimate, emotionally layered poetry that stays with you long after the final line.

From Adventures in Online Dating: True Stories from the Shallow End of the Dating Pool

A razor-sharp, brutally funny slice of modern dating gone sideways. “Vette Regret” captures one man’s shallow confessions and misguided bravado, unraveling into something far more revealing than he intends. With biting realism and a dark comic edge, this chapter peels back the glossy veneer of online dating—the cars, the ego, the entitlement—and exposes the insecurity humming underneath it all.

Told with the...

A delicate, haunting exploration of what it means to vanish—into memory, into the margins, perhaps even into oneself. This poem navigates the silent spaces where presence slips away: conversations left unsaid, rooms left empty, identities quietly unraveled. With lyrical precision and emotional restraint, the piece invites readers to linger in the liminal space between being seen and being lost. Ideal for those who appreciate poetry that dwells in what’s unspoken and lingers long after the...

A haunting, elegiac poem that conjures the weight of memory and the subtle ache of loss through the image of a dark blue suit—tightly knotted, pressed, and yet out of place.

“They’ve dressed you in a dark blue suit, tie knotted neat, as if you were on your way to some quiet meeting instead of lying here.”

The piece explores the tension between appearance and truth, presence and absence, what we show the world and what remains unraveled beneath. It’s ideal for readers who connect with lyrical,...

TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUALLY EXPLICIT/DRUG USE 18+

A laugh-out-loud, cringe-worthy chronicle of one woman’s wild ride through the dating world when booze, boldness and poor judgment collide. Part of the memoir-style collection Adventures in Online Dating: True Stories from the Shallow End of the Dating Pool, this piece pulls no punches—revealing the hilarity, the desperation, the awkward kisses and the misguided moves that come when you’re swiping, matching, partying … and hoping something...