Six-Word Psycho
Bates Motel Billboard
En-suite shower, rooms by the hour.
Mother Issues
Dead mom berates Bates, kills mates.
Poor Marion Crane
Steals cash. Rash dash. Stab, slash.
Poor Bates Motel
Owner insane. Business down the drain.
Poor Master Bates
Titillated. Mom-fixated. Never dated. Unmedicated. Incarcerated.
Joshua Coben’s first book, Maker of Shadows (Texas Review Press, 2010), won the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. His second collection, Night Chaser (David Robert Books, 2020), was a finalist for the Vassar Miller Prize, the New American Poetry Prize, and the Donald Justice Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in Light (Summer/Fall 2020, Winter/Spring 2023), as well as Atlanta Review, The Cincinnati Review, College English, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Poetry Daily, Salamander, and elsewhere. Visit him online at https://joshuacoben.com/.