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  • Fish Heads

  • Grief, Hope, and Parker

  • For Mom

  • Real Girl

  • Never Too Late

  • Of Lockets and Pomegranates: Chapter 29

  • The Aging of Timber

  • A Love Note

  • Odd Extremes

  • How Soon We Forget: Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

  • Of Lockets and Pomegranates: Chapter 28

  • Tending my Garden

  • Pierrot

  • Whenever I Miss You, You Always Come Running

  • One Last Goodbye

  • Post 9/11

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Poetry
Home›Poetry›Fish Heads

Fish Heads

By Erynn Crittenden
September 21, 2026
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a black and white painting of an open sardine tin on a blue starry background
Coffee House Writers / Erynn Crittenden / Canva
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Slimy thoughts packed like sardines
Writhe and wriggle in my head
Waiting for the moment
The tin can closes
And leaves them to fester
In the brine
As their thin scales
Dissolve into nothingness
And bulging, dead eyes
Gaze into the darkness
Of the universe
And cry salty tears
As it stares back
With pure indifference,
Before twisting off the pull tab
With a metallic scream,
Thus ending my potential
For freshness.


Editor: Rockebah Charles-Stewart

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TagsExperimental PoetryFishFree Verse Poetry
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Grief, Hope, and Parker

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Erynn Crittenden

Erynn Crittenden has written poetry since she could hold a pen. This love prompted her to earn a BA in Creative Writing, where she learned how to experiment with syllables and styles. Since then, Erynn has self-published three poetry collections (By the Bones, Transfiguration, and Into the Western Sky) through Amazon. She also writes and publishes plenty of individual poems on her website, and her work has appeared in the Talon Literary Magazine, the Beautiful Poetry anthology by Silent Sparks Press, the #AmWriting anthology by the Wayne Foundation, and Life Blood: A Collection of Vampire Tales by Gary Hill. Erynn is also the creator and host of the Present Poetry Podcast, where she reads and celebrates a different poet every week. Find it and the rest of her works by visiting her website at LadyErynn.com.

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Latest Comments

  • Shannon Richards
    on
    September 14, 2026
    There are Facebook and Reddit groups dedicated to women expressing ongoing frustration over flying with breastmilk. ...

    Post 9/11

  • Seth Corry
    on
    September 1, 2026
    thank you!

    Imagine This

  • LC Ahl (Lucy)
    on
    August 31, 2026
    Seth you have a magical way with words.

    Imagine This

  • LC Ahl (Lucy)
    on
    August 31, 2026
    Ivor, your poems are always so uplifting as are your photos!

    Spring Will Never Vanish

  • LC Ahl (Lucy)
    on
    August 31, 2026
    A very heartfelt message. I'm sorry for your loss.

    One Last Goodbye

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