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Nate @nfako.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

picked this up at AWP and forgot to post about it hehe.. fun to finally have a poem in print!

The cover art for Moon City Review Spring 2026

Playing Pretend

The smell of tar became Nevada dust
as we crossed the old bridge over Bunkerville ditch.
Brown dirt, khaki rock. Hell, even the river was brown.

At this point I can't remember what we thought we were doing,
but that desert felt like a door to where we could just be
brothers without all our history.

What is that expression about glass
houses, and throwing stones?
It goes you shattered me, Jacob,

or goes nowhere at all--besides, we hadn't
taken aim at each other for years. And we had to
stop because you hurt your shoulder

chucking one of the rocks too hard.
I wish we'd gotten smoother stones and skipped them,
or scrambled down to touch the water.

That'd make for a better story. Why am I always looking
for a better story? Say we hugged it out

on that little hill overlooking the Virgin River.
Say I flipped a nickel into your likeness on the muffler water,
then dove in after the long-drowned boy.