O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & styles
Prose Poetry
Ken Poyner
Cash Crop
When we came to harvest our villagers, we found them to all be cardboard. Expertly cut, and painted so well that, full on, one would not expect them to be other than flesh. Each stood or sat or toiled in an appropriate theme – some outside of cardboard houses, some within. Cardboard children, cardboard pets, cardboard livestock. With closer inspection, they appeared to be shellacked, so that even a moderate rain would not destroy them – though the water beading would show them as representations, not true subjects. Such fine work, and no living villagers to be seen.After our initial amazement and honor of the workmanship, we thought: cardboard villagers – less effort to harvest, lower maintenance, unprecedented docility, even if those gains for us are serendipitous. No one can blame us for not then racing off through the surrounding lands to find villagers to harvest. No one can blame us for locking onto this new, easier cardboard catch. So we took our quota in cardboard: every fifth finely crafted cardboard villager. It was so much easier than corralling live ones: these prey did not complain or barter or fight or run for the hiding places each harvest we already had planned they would likely go. These stacked well, fit more cleanly into the conveyance, had no special requirements in order to survive the journey. For the cycle, we – and possibly the flesh villagers – were happier. Who knows how the market would see it? A day’s harvest done in an hour? We will project fantastic-supposed buyer advantages, parade proudly our own new cardboard purchases. What are the many ways a cardboard villager is better than a live villager? How much more service can a new owner imagine? We will be convincing.The market will adapt – it always does. And the villagers, seeing from afar the success of their ruse, will spend the time between harvests building new cardboard villagers, slaving over the shellac and paints and the pliant board. So much work, so much to collect.
About the writer:
After years of impersonating a Systems Engineer, Ken Poyner has retired to watch his wife continue to break national and world raw powerlifting records. Poyner’s two current poetry and three short fiction collections are available from Amazon and elsewhere. Individual work has come out of late in Café Irreal, Analog, Rune Bear, Misery Tourism, elsewhere.
Image: Traditional wall painting by villagers near Katni, India © Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons / By free license.
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.
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series (from OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters and its Buttonhook Press imprint) gathers acclaimed writers for concise, downloadable chapbooks that pair fresh work with candid reflections on craft. Each installment—often framed by an interview with an associate editor—opens a window onto how masters of poetry, prose poetry, flash fiction, and related hybrid forms build voice, compression, and surprise. Designed as a reader’s invitation and a writer’s toolbox, the series celebrates literary art that moves fast, cuts deep, and lingers long after the last line.
Click on the titles below to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks.
Prose Poetry and Flash Discourse
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
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Pedro Ponce on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Kent Dixon on Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
MIixed Forms: Haibun, Haiga, & Tanka Prose
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Roberta Beary on Haibun
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
Experimental Discourse
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Jim Meirose on Experimental Discourse (XP)
With an interview by Associate Editor Warwick Newnham
Poetry: All forms & styles
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Poetry from Bruce McRae
With an Interview by Associate Editor Jeff Streeby
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Poetry from Richard Widerkehr
With an Interview by Associate Editor Jeff Streeby
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