backyard pool

Jimmy from down the hill arrives with towel and bathing suit. The pool water is cold, only three feet deep, but cleaner and safer than the river by his house.

darkness
of the empty garage

Mom doesn’t allow neighbor kids in the house. Perhaps to keep out the dirt. Maybe because it’s small and crowded, only two bedrooms and one bath, despite seven of us. I run in, grab my suit and tell Jimmy we can change in the garage. Flipping lights on, we close the door and strip.

growing awareness
of a friend’s body
naked and tingly

Barging in, Mom screams, What are you doing? My fumbling response, Nothin’—just changin’. She’s upset, sends me into the house, Jimmy home to his. She is right about one thing: This is how I will be treated if I keep my shameful ways.

—Long-listed Finalist in MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #3

Scott Wiggerman

A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, Albuquerque poet Scott Wiggerman is the author of three books of poetry, Leaf and Beak: Sonnets (Purple Flag), Presence (Pecan Grove Press), and Vegetables and Other Relationships (Plain View Press); and the editor of several volumes, including Wingbeats I and II: Exercises & Practice in Poetry (Dos Gatos Press, of which he is co-founder with David Meischen).

In recent years, Scott’s love of poetic form has moved largely into Japanese forms, and haiku and art have become more central to his work as an artist of both the page and canvas. For more, see his online portfolio: https://scottwiggerman.myportfolio.com

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Voices From Each Side of a Triangle, braided cheribun story by Scott Wiggerman, short-listed Finalist in MacQ’s Third Cheribun Challenge (Issue 29, August 2025)

⚡ Brothers by Blood, braided cheribun by Wiggerman, short-listed Finalist in MacQ’s Second Cheribun Challenge (Issue 24, August 2024)

⚡ The Things I Do for Porn, braided cheribun by Wiggerman, long-listed Finalist in MacQ’s Second Cheribun Challenge (Issue 25, September 2024)

⚡ Wiggerman’s introduction to his curated collection of haiku on the theme of the LGBTQIA+ experience, for National Poetry Month: Haiku of the Day, April 2023; scroll down a bit to access the slide show for April.

⚡ The Story of Fire, haibun by Wiggerman in Issue 16 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (January 2023)