Elena Zhang

I’m sorry reverend mother I am not strong enough

St. Peter at the Pearly Gates: Did you live by the Ten Commandments?

Mike Johnson: I have no idea. I have not seen those

Ah crap…

THE BIG NUN Everyone’s waiting for the big nun. Our houses have been blown away. Our books are out of place. Life’s clinching hard to waning comforts. If we make rope out of rope what is the point of love? We’ve started saying things like that. And now there’s the darkness. It’s been creeping into everything. Suddenly, Here comes the big nun. She was different than we pictured, sashaying down the slopes.

Zachary Schomburg

@zacharyschomburg.bsky.social

the pianist by elena zhang The pianist sits down on the concert hall stage. She has childhood in her ears. It laughs in c minor. Thousands of eyes blink in tandem. Her fingers are grandmothers. They forget where home is. All they need are the right keys, then muscle memory will take over. But where should she start? Where to actually start?

One of mine in Scaffold Lit

#smallpoemsunday
@tomsnarsky.bsky.social

November 2, 2025 Hello from the Future Kate Hall We ran out of atmosphere but it didn’t turn out to be a big problem. It was never just the one thing. It will always feel strange buying magnetic fields from the government. Very funny how there’s a provincial law against making them taste good. I think to myself, This used to be my bank.

let's ALL celebrate #smallpoemsunday today with Kate Hall's FIRST PUBLICATION!

https://www.havehashad.com/rjn3l

Brewski — Ghost Parachute All I wanted to do was sleep off a nasty hangover, but my next-door neighbor had his television blaring. I banged on our shared wall and politely asked him to “turn that shit down” but got zero respon...

Have a new story in the latest issue of Ghost Parachute. This one is about a guy who calls beer brewskis and an old house turned apartment. Be sure to read the other amazing writers in the issue as well. 🍻

ghostparachute.com/issue/novemb...

Thank you, Matt!!

"Her fingers are grandmothers. They forget where home is"

Beautiful writing from @ezhang77.bsky.social

Thank you!!

Thank you so much!!!

the pianist by elena zhang The pianist sits down on the concert hall stage. She has childhood in her ears. It laughs in c minor. Thousands of eyes blink in tandem. Her fingers are grandmothers. They forget where home is. All they need are the right keys, then muscle memory will take over. But where should she start? Where to actually start?

One of mine in Scaffold Lit

#smallpoemsunday
@tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Mirror by Rita Dove 🤍

#poetry #sunday #poetrysky #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Séance Alone in the house in the early hours, I sit on my bed with my journal in front of me like a planchette. A candle is burning on the chest of drawers and I decide it is time to commune with the ghost of myself. Ready for visitation I speak out loud: I am listening, what is it you want me to know?

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Here's 'Séance', from my new pamphlet, Circulaire 🖤

The Blasting Company 273 STREAMS Over the Garden Wall 88 STREAMS Portishead 6 STREAMS Lisa O'Neill 4 STREAMS Ezra Furman 3 STREAMS Johnny Flynn 2 STREAMS

I don’t know what my music taste says about me

a woman stands in front of a bed that says 1:24 am on the bottom Alt: a woman stands in front of a bed for hours as the clock changes

Excited to have a ghosty Halloween poem up today with Boudin, the spicy online cousin of the McNeese Review. In case you need a spooky read, give their “Boo”din: The Ticking Clock issue a read!

www.mcneese.edu/thereview/af...

Flash Monster 2025 This is Halloween. I We Were Never Afraid of the Spider by Timothy Fox II In Darkness by Eoin Nordman III Toxoplasma Odocoileus by Colin Alexander   IV  Son of Seanfhocail by Joseph Gilbride V…

This is Halloween. #FlashMonster themolotovcocktail.com/2025/10/31/f...

AT THE MOVIES In this movie, Jesus and my mother are at a bar drinking mojitos. The music swells as Jesus unzips his skin, revealing a metallic endoskeleton. The audience claps politely. Jesus's eyeball pops out, but my mother just pushes it back in with a familiar sigh. I finally rise from my movie theater seat to embrace her. The lights flash red. How did my mother become younger than me? While the curtains close, Jesus fiddles with the drained batteries in his chrome torso. I don't tell him I have some extra AAs in my jeans pocket. We start to walk out of the theater, but Jesus can't make it past the exit door.

ICYMI, I have two micros up at the wonderful @hexliterary.bsky.social! Here’s one:

hexliterary.com?p=2909

We Make - Elena Zhang We are born making, with glue teeth and scissor fingers. We make life, no, love, no, we don't know what we mean, we are tongue-tripped and lip-leaked. We're empty, I mean we're full, spilling over to baptize you with holy water moon splash. We grow hands on our backs and flap clap, entering the cosmos while you run from us, but we made you. Put your hands on our hands, slip inside our ouroboros so we can be hungry again, so we can turn your wishes into pennies and hand out the copper on our tongues. Our dreams are sticky, salty, pockmarked with glitter like the whites of your eyes. We sip-soak and we bite-burn, we open the door to hell for you, please won't you come in, because we are the final girls, and we live, no, I mean, we laugh.

Spooky prose poem for a spooky October Friday

www.twinpiesliterary.com/fuck-us-up/p...

OMG.

"Big tough guy... I wear helmet sunglasses because I'm so scared of people... you prick.. YOU PRICK! I'm going to kick your fucking ass, you piece of shit"

Tiered rejection is raisinets

I loved this!

The Molotov Cocktail Viper Tooth by Lindy Biller I step into my son’s bedroom and find his skin crumpled on the maroon carpet. For a second I can’t breathe. Lungs constricted, limbs tingling. He didn’t tell me. What ha…

I'm so thrilled to have a story in the Flash Monster issue of @molotovlitzine.bsky.social!! I've been a fan of Molotov Cocktail for so long. Such a joy to get to contribute. 👻🐍

themolotovcocktail.com/vol-16/flash...

How to Write an Emotionally Resonant Werewolf Novel 1. Purchase a large notebook.   2. Think deeply about every werewolf story you know—every book, TV show or movie. Ask yourself what makes your werewolf story different. Do you have anything new to say...

Halloween is a special day set aside for wearing costumes, eating candy, and reading my werewolf story
maudlinhouse.net/how-to-write...

Thank you!!

Bone Fishing We went bone fishing in the Lake of Shining Light. Soon, there was enough to build a sister. She was smooth as a dragon's pearl. Sister, we cried, teach us how to die. But our bone sister simply laughed, teeth chattering like cicada hums in the waning summer.

I’ve got a micro in @folklorereview.bsky.social’s fantastic Skeletal series!
www.folklorereview.com/mico-series-...

leonliteraryreview.com/issue-32-ele...

the thing about insomnia is everyone who doesn’t have it gives you the same canned advice for how to sleep and they don’t believe you when you tell them you’ve tried it and it did not work

You Can’t Come Back If Your Memories Are Missing - Electric Literature "Accidental Girls" from PATTERNS OF ORBIT by Chloe N Clark, recommended by Juan Martinez

Going to do a little thread of my favorite spooky stuff I've written (that's available online). Let's start with Accidental Girls. A story about loss, guilt, memory, and doppelgangers (or are they????)