Bio

Tyson West lives in Eastern Washington in smoke and dust on the bottom of an Ice Age flood plain. He enjoys reciting his poetry to magpies and coyotes.

He has published poetry and speculative fiction in various genres in "Fast Forward Festival", Voluted Tales, and in anthologies "Warlords of the Asteroid Belt", and "You Can't Kill Me I'm Already Dead". He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry collection "Home-Canned Forbidden Fruit" is available from Gribble Press. His novella "Mall of the Damned" was published in 2014 by Red Dashboard Publishing, LLC. He received Third Place in the 2018 Kalanithi Award for his rondel 'Under the Bridge.' He is also a member of the Furry Writer's Guild and listed on the "Haiku Registry."

is
it
not the
longest night
when the sun falls half
between equinox and solstice
in that darkness dead faces wink and smile in bonfires
we hide from them in costumes divert them with carved squash shells and fill our husks high with sweets
lying to ourselves this dying thing is all a game
our dead retreat-days grow shorter
till that white sunrise
it dawns on
us that
it
is