Read it now: ‘Poet for Hire’

The first short story I ever got published, back in 1995, “Poet for Hire” is posted here on my website for you to read.

In the story, I imagine Milwaukee’s first free-lance poet, a young woman with curly brown hair. She works out of a storefront in the 2200 block of Kinnickinnic Avenue, down the block from where I used to live. The plants in the Arid Dome of Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, one of my favorite places, provide her with vital inspiration. In the end, the power of her pen is mightier than she expects.

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Anja Notanja Sieger. Someone found the story and sent it to her — because she is Milwaukee’s first poet for hire. She’s written poems in the Arid Dome; her husband owns a used bookstore in the exact same storefront in the story; and she has curly brown hair.

Anja invited me to her podcast, The Subtle Forces, where I read the story out loud, and we chatted about its coincidences. “Perhaps you wrote this story,” she said, “and then I happened.”

You can read the short story here.

You can listen to the podcast here.

The story was originally published in The Czarnina Kid and other Weird Tales, available here.