O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & styles
Ken Poyner
UNDERLYING PREDICTION
We hold a Municipal Ball to see who will dance with whom. Husbands with wives, fathers with daughters, mothers with sons. When that ritual is done, we begin to collect knowledge. Do neighbors dance with neighbors, or do they opt for someone they have passed two or three times in the hardware store? Or do strangers adopt strangers, acquaintances made or missed? The band varies its style and citizens note what music collects what sort of fellow citizen on the floor. Wives dance with other women to chastise husbands. How long can we keep this up? The night is burdensome.
About the writer:
Ken Poyner ’s twelve collections of flash fiction and speculative poetry are available from most web booksellers. The latest collection of speculative poetry is Science Is Not Enough. He lives in the lower right-hand corner of Virginia and is married to a world champion female power lifter. He spent 33 years herding computers. See him in Analog, Asimov’s, Café Irreal, Blue Unicorn and another hundred or so places.
Image: Do-Si-Do, Dosado, Dos a Dos (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creative. 2025. Public domain via Midjourney AI.
To explore more of Ken Poyner’s work available on O:JA&L, click in the links below:
Poetry: All forms & styles|Prose Poetry||Ken Poyner|”THE WORRY”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Prose Poetry||Ken Poyner|”THE CASE AGAINST”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Prose Poetry||Ken Poyner|”Steady Work”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Prose Poetry||Ken Poyner|”VALUES”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Prose Poetry||Ken Poyner|”UNPROFITTING PROGRESS”
Flash Fiction|Flash Sequence||Ken Poyner|”Beautification”-“Completing the Circle”-“Proof”
Featured Series: Prose Poetry|Ken Poyner|”The Rain Mistress”
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
O:JA&L’S BUTTONHOOK PRESS MASTERS SERIES
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Brian Clements on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Mark Budman on Flash Discourse
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Ray Gonzalez on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Michael Martone on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Roberta Allen on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Peter Conners on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Maxine Chernoff on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
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