But no, seriously, hear me out:
lead-laced water drunk from leaded
Smurf or Garfield cups, old fridges
laid out like mouse traps, chemistry kits
for little arso...
Nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net, M. Benjamin Thorne is an Associate Professor of Modern European History at Wingate University. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Sontag Mag, Bleating Thing, Halfway Down the Stairs, SWING, and Belmont Story Review. In 2026 he won the Rough Diamond Poetry Award and Lazuli Literary Prize, and in 2025 his poem “Odesa” was shortlisted for the Alpine Poetry Fellowship. He lives and sometimes sleeps in Charlotte, NC.