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pumpkin spice Toddé

@toddedillard.bsky.social

6.9K followers 1.4K following 5.1K posts

“Ways We Vanish” from Okay Donkey, “Ragnarök at the Father Daughter Dance” from Variant, finalist for the Donald Hall AWP Prize, poems in Threepenny, Southern Review, APR, HAD, etc.

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · Sep 2

my issue of Threepenny is here! here’s my poem “Present Tense,” I would love for you to give it a read!

“I know this so loudly I don’t
hear, at first, my father’s silence.”

Present Tense
by Todd Dillard

My father’s telling me about his dog,
how it fell into a well
when they were walking down a wooded path.
His dog ran across some rotted planks,
the planks splintered, “And whoosh!”
my father says. “No more dog.”
I look at the clock and remind my father it’s three A.M.
“I’m not finished,” he says.
He tells me about the rope he bought, the bucket,
how he knotted the rope to the bucket, lowered it down,
and yelled for the dog to get in.
“But all I pulled up was more barking.”
“Dad,” I say. “This never happened.”
He says he can’t remember
how long he tried to get the dog
to shimmy into the bucket.
Just that at some point
when the sky turned tawny—“Dad—“
as a pitcher of sweet tea—“Dad—“
he decided to give up.
“Dad,” I say. “It’s late.
I’m tired. And you’re dead.”
“Dammit, son,” my father says. “Let me finish!”
My father tells me about filling the bucket with dirt
and pouring the dirt into the well.
And I know what he’s getting at, I know
he’s going to tell me bucket by bucket
he filled the well and
the dog jumped out. He’s going to say
something about how the dog
led him home through the dark.
I know this so loudly I don’t
hear, at first, my father’s silence.
“Dad?” I say. “Dad, are you there?”
I keep lowering the bucket
but all I ever pull up are leaves.
Red leaves. Lately, some gold.

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 11m

Houston

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 1h

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

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Reposted by pumpkin spice Toddé

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 10h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by pumpkin spice Toddé

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · Nov 19

me: having a really hard time figuring out what to remove from this poem

the poem:

a park bench with into a boulder embedded into the middle of it

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Reposted by pumpkin spice Toddé

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote a poem

Cycles of the moon or compiled texts from an ex

hey
Hey
HEY
Hey
hey

hey

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

and, true to form, I burned one side of something

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

lollllllll I ALMOST did, but then I know my brain and know I'll have forgotten about this by the time I am able to sub to the next one

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

AND it has a volta

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote a poem

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like he's like John Goodman in that he always nails his roles, almost always steals the spotlight when he's on screen, but he's still treated as if he has this "some guy" vibe

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 1d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 1d

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

oh I didn't know that was a bsky admin! this makes much more sense then

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 1d

seems like the bluesky admins actually listened to that pick me poster saying anti-AI rhetoric sounds too close to hate speech

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 2d

Congrats to John Bonanni, winner of the 2025 Donald Hall AWP Poetry Prize!!! Honored to have been a finalist for the award and can't wait to buy John's book.

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 2d

so I would differentiate this idea of "feel" and "intention" because it sounds to me like you're aware of the poem as an entity with its own intentions and your process includes being opening to listening to it--"feel" feels arbitrary, and not something you could articulate well later IMO

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 2d

I totally understand
how I don't understand

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 2d

trying to write about line breaks is so funny bc everything I write down is like "Intentioned language with automatic line breaks is a deer with the legs of a basset hound" and, what

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 3d

It’s great!!!!

Reposted by pumpkin spice Toddé

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 3d

daughter just told me every Friday her class has a “burial” for the pencils too small to be sharpened anymore 😭😭 one of her classroom jobs is to give the eulogy 😭😭 THERE IS A SMALL COFFIN 😭😭😭😭

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 3d

many hands make lots of work

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 3d

her teacher is AMAZING

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 3d

write the poem!

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 3d

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 4d

👀

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pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 4d

lol I google "no maybe no lady"

pumpkin spice Toddé @toddedillard.bsky.social · 4d

honestly never knew this was about kombucha

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