I Don’t Put Entourage in the Title so More People Will Read My Poem

Matthew Zhao

I want my gentlemen taken care of, kids nonexistent, my money on the table and it’s black on first spin.

An aggressive Doberman knocked Cindy up weeks later.

looking up at me with eyes like dogs
who’ve humped too many pillows
and now it’s time to pay the price

She feels her and this bartender, this boy, are doing sex theater. Romance theater. Everything theater.

February 10, 2026 | Nonfiction

Affection follows episodes of abuse

February 9, 2026 | Interview

The secret is getting almost too in the weeds. The secret is Bujalski-maxxing.

February 8, 2026 | fucked up modern love essays

But by then I was dry heaving on some dark back road.

"I loved reading Exit, Carefully. It’s unusual, and in my opinion exciting, to publish a play without previously receiving a major production."

-Walker Caplan, Lithub

I thought I was unhappy as a man. Turns out I was just unhappy…