The Only Thing Louder than the Talking Is the Silence

My short story "The Only Thing Louder than the Talking Is the Silence" is in this issue of Tethered. It's online, and it's right here, but also here are the first few words. If you're paying attention to the typesetting, you'll notice it's laid out weird, and if you know me in real life then you probably know this is a pretty good indication that it's a part of a novel I've written, because I always get super aspirational and super layout-geeky on a novel when I write it, and one symptom of this is that the chapters always begin in some dramatic way. Like, say, 48-point font, and then they transition to a regular old font in midsentence. Geez, Matthue, just get published the old-fashioned way and let the designers do their thing.

This is a horror story, not scary per se but horrific, maybe, the type of thing that gnaws at you where there's something wrong but you can't quite put your finger on it till the last page, and maybe not even when the story finishes. I've been writing a lot of scary stories lately, and I think it's mostly inspired by Virginia Woolf, but that's probably another story entirely.

Sweater Dog

This is Madcap Review #10, and herewith are two poems of mine that are published therein.

Sweater Dog Brings Himself Joy

The happiest tiny dog
is kicking up dirt in his sweater

His paws don’t scratch much grass
but tiny shitlike flakes snow all over

The only mess he can make
so delightfully constipated

Here's the poem on their site. It really happened! One morning I was walking to work and this enormously tiny weiner dog was frolicking in the freshly unsnowed grass, kicking it up all over the place. It felt like he couldn't get it out and was just using the dirt as a substitute to make him feel better about himself. The owner wasn't looking at all. The dog stopped and looked straight at me. I think we shared a moment. I hope he felt better about himself.

They also published another poem of mine, My Jesus Fear. Really, you might want to just go and read the whole dang issue, which has a weirdly labyrinthine clickthrough pattern and is really strange and enjoyable, and has a great deal of good, freaky art.

Around You

I have a new poem in the Oklahoma Review! It's actually really nice. The whole thing is out now on pdf, but in case you don't feel like scrolling to page 60, here's the first bit:

When I’m around you,
I keep my cell phone on silent
my pen in my pocket
and pretend like I can color-coordinate

When I’m around you
I act like I use a knife & fork & napkin
at every meal,
even midnight snack.

(read the rest)