Joshua Coben

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Six-Word Stories: Rhyming Edition

Icarus

Dad flies. Son defies sun, dies.

News Flash: Daedalus’s Kid Makes Splash

Blockbuster

Asteroid. Earth destroyed. Null and void.

Kansas Widow

Twister missed her, tossed her mister.

Star-crossed

Elephant weds ant. Want kids. Can’t.

Loves Lawyers Lost

He proposed. She opposed. Case closed.

Tears of a Clown

Circus bride lied, visited strongman’s double-wide.

Divorce Court

Assets bled. Lawyers fed. Single bed.

Witch Hunt

Devil’s wiles. Defendants’ denials. Water trials.

Dunked, bound. Verdict found: innocent, drowned.

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), as well as Atlanta Review, The Cincinnati Review, College English, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Visit him online at www.joshuacoben.com.