Posts Published by Cheney

in Life

Hello, 2026

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What are your biggest challenges?

Finishing what I start.

That was one of the easiest questions I’ve had to answer in quite a while.

Surely, no one has noticed, but this morning I posted a poem on my website for the 68th day in a row. I have been following prompts by my favorite living poet, Maya Stein, and with only 22 days left in this 90 day project, I am very confident that I will finish it.

I haven’t missed a day and cheated even once, and for that I am proud, but I want to do more.… Read the rest

in Poems

never close enough

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You always take care of the dirty dishes. Always. I can’t remember the last time my hands slid in slimy, sudsy soap water. You always take the trash out. You always bring things down to the storage space so I don’t have to go down the scary stairs full of cobwebs. We were so close to making it, but not close enough. I’ll never know what glue I was missing that could have kept you here, but I think I was the one lacking, and I will blame myself for everything until my last breath. I’m taking the jump from … Read the rest

in Blog

peace out, 2025

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What makes you feel nostalgic?

It’s a new year tomorrow.

It used to be such a big deal to me, celebrating the new year, but now it doesn’t matter at all, it’s just another day, and a way of marking time.

I’d like tomorrow, my first day of the new year, not to be one of reflection and waxing nostalgic over anything.

I am laser focused on my future and what I am going to do to make it better, and make it on my own.

Life really throws the shit at you sometimes, huh? I didn’t expect that during … Read the rest

in Poems

what a wonder we were

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Another day is fading away and soon you won’t be here anymore. Your presence here has an expiration date, even though I don’t know what it is, or how I’ll get through it. You’re going to go, so I need to grow. I need to remember that I have wings too, and leaving the nest isn’t necessarily not an option. What a wonder it would be if I could get by without you, without my pills, without my therapist. What a wonder it will be if I do. 

Today’s poetry prompt words were: expiration date, leaving the nest, and pills. … Read the rest

in Poems

you’ll linger

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This isn’t a time out,
this is an end,
and I know now
it’s coming, soon. 

We don’t need a
critical analysis or
more digging down
into our psyches to know
that we’ve gone
as far as we can go.

It’s not as easy as
sweeping the past
under a rug and hoping
to forget the mess. 

What’s left here will linger.
What’s left here will poke
at my tortured heart
long, long after you’re gone.

Today’s poetry prompt words were: time out, critical analysis, and sweeping.

Photo by Joseph Sharp on Unsplash

in Poems

last

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I really thought we would last this time, last like the smooth rocks in rivers we’ve camped by, last like they have for ages, just letting the water pass around them. We’re more like cats in traffic, terrified and dodging anything that moves, because any movement is a terror. Any pulling or putting away. This is a terror, every moment. I know nothing is as scary as waiting for you to leave. I don’t want you to go, but you won’t choose me, so you can’t stay. You’ll go like you came, and maybe we’ll end like we began, first … Read the rest

in Poems

hit the road, jack

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I’ve always wanted to see
the skies of Montana, or even
Wyoming, wherever that is;
can I find it on a map?

I’ll check the forecast,
pack up my medicine and
toothbrush and clothes,
and I’ll just fucking go.

Set out on the highway

With “head west” being
the only thing I know,
a road that may or may not
be lonely, and my cat,
she comes, too.

I’m going to die
if I don’t get away from you.

Today’s poetry prompt words were: Wyoming, forecast, and medicine.

Photo by Neil Wallace on Unsplash

in Poems

i want to be free

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I can’t take this anymore
I’ve said hundreds of times
but now I really mean it.
I can’t take it,
not a minute longer.

We’ve lived a life of
make-believe and never
stopped playing games.
Dress-up, house, pretend.
It really has to end. 

I’ve been dancing
around the edges of
my escape route and
now I’m running toward it.

I want to be free
as fast as I can be.

Today’s poetry prompt words were: not a minute longer, make-believe, and dancing.

Photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash

in Poems

i still miss you

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Decades ago,
it’s been decades now,
you and I shared space
in the same place
at the same time
and the fact that
was even possible
feels like magic. 

Now all I have are
memories and imaginations,
like the lump of my belly
growing with our baby
and the house we
would have bought together,
the home we would
have made forever. 

Remember marching
up the sand dunes to see
the most beautiful sunset
of our entire lives?

Do you remember dancing
at Limelight, utterly high with the
flashing lights and pulsing music,
our sweaty bodies sliding
against each other … Read the rest