These otisi were culled from the facebook page. To found out what is an otis, click this.



these, second, stake, careful, songs, hide, I, bed, remain, reaming, lashing, fun


Did the cottonwoods

spill criminals names to

summer before it commenced?


Whose throat was clattering

against the flap that kept far

wilderness out of reach? Only hints


boiling utterances in air, an

infection of swilling eyes beside

an old dry rail road track. Boots


milling dust, dust issuing throat to throat,

busy thieving barreled touch, hoping

their mug shots would miss the circuit.


-Andrea Robison


call, smoke, parading, coyote, light, dawn, scrawny, fevering, path, erected, ear, count


you can call the gulf between yourself and the other

a wound or a ladder or smoke and mirrors,

but really, you’re just parading

the coyote

on a leash of light

at dawn.


poor scrawny thing,

mangy and fevering, clawing

the path with his crooked paw.


look, here is the city your mind erected.

it has nothing to do with your ear,

or ability to count.


-Otis Nebula



linger, up, thoughts, shrimp, value, rubber, babble, shelf, better, slight, glass, with

you don’t linger (you can resist

a pause, not a halt) else you might move up and out,


thoughts blown like dandelions across the bay

then caught fast in a shrimp net—


see, we know the value of a day

and time is a soft, forbidding rubber


you babble. or the tide. it’s not important.


your shelf holds neatly folded things

and you’re better when the day tilts toward dusk


slight shoulders drooping,

leaning towards your clutched glass

whiskey with a splash of heart


-Beth Ayer



resist, else, across, net, see, soft, important, holds, when, shoulders, towards, splash


You resist, I'll cease.

Get out or else get used

To life across a lawn chair

From an ape. Net yourself


Someone you can see

In the soft light of twenty years

As important.


What holds

You here, when

Your shoulders rise


Without your hips leaving the chair?

What puddle takes a foot without a splash?


-Andrew Baron


cease, used, life, ape, someone, light, as, what, here, your, leaving, without


my unemployment benefits cease(d)

i used to claim them online, like, every sunday

that was life, more or less,

i dragged my computer around like an ape.


then someone came

out of the light they stood.

as to what brought 'em there I did not know

naturally, I asked, what brought you here?


I came for your sake, which is enough.

and now I am leaving,

with or without.


-Quyen H. Falk


benefits, online, less, dragged, came, out, 'em, naturally, sake, now, with


The Eleven Word Otis?


What were the benefits of lizard living,

ordering your books on-line

for less,

dragged out of bed

only when the postman came,

going out the boudoir door, slowly,

to get em?

Naturally, you grew a little rough in face,

and for the sake of health and cake

you now live wisely,

hidden in a shoebox with a jogging snake.


-Seth Crook



lizard, books, less, dragged, postman, slowly, get, little, cake, wisely, shoebox, eleven


We do not fear the Father of the Glaciers


as if he were a giant lizard,

destroyer of our secret books.

We are not less beneath him


or spirits dragged across the ice. He's nice.

He's just the postman of our most ordinary fears,

tottering, slowly, set intent,


who'll get us in the end, each day

a little closer, inching on,

nibbling at the chilly cake,


who wisely takes the highest road,

keeps no shoes just for the shoebox,

smiles eleven days out of twelve.


-Seth Crook



giant, destroyer, less, nice, most, set, day, closer, chilly, who, shoes, twelve


Giant claws with his nine hearts beating, scratching

his objections into the grey of my canvas, destroyer

of a peace left unrealized, less from any conviction

than fury - a nice neat rage behind the scenes.


Most hours I struggle 'gainst his breathing,

set into my lungs, our rhythms never meeting.

A good day he'll shrivel to a tiny pit of forgetfulness,

closer to mindless ant than example of contentedness.


All nights it's chilly even as the sweat drips . . . . . .

(who would sculpt a creature's lair into their own skin--)


Time's shoes worn to a dark cloth beneath my feet

(twelve moons x five +158 suns = 1,984 but who's counting~~~~ )


-Diane Cambern

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