Poetry + Creative Works
Hey, why do these say they were written by “Amanda Woodard” or “Andie Woodard”? Who is that?
That’s my dead name. Here’s an explanation of why I changed my name.
TRAILER TRASH: Poems
Many of the individual poems below have been included in my poetry collection TRAILER TRASH, originally published by Bottlecap Press.
The Pill Mag [Now Defunct]
“Secret” & “Act of God”
Two Poems, 2025
On the pillow beside me, your
From “SECRET”
hair like a sweater, unraveling, I
share with only you
what others have told me in confidence.
new words {press}
“Uniform” & “Daughter”
Erasure Poems, 2024
Moody x Butterfly Collective
Rise
Erasure Poem, 2023
Drunk Monkeys
Turning Point
Poem, 2022
Back at the hotel, the toilet seat
is cool as a headstone on my arms
my vomit hot on my lips.I’m grateful no one came back
with me.
Split Rock Review
Residents of My Rental House
Poem, 2022
This bedroom was for my son, but instead
a coiling creature sleeps here that is not a worm.
Then there is a worm, I think. A wormlike thing
in the toilet.
Touchstone Literary
Search for Me
Poem, 2021
Validate my victimization
and do not.
Prometheus Dreaming
Self Portrait
Poem, 2021
When we got the eviction notice
the one we knew we couldn’t
fight, we sold our TV, our VHS
tapes, our favorite movies.
Sunspot Lit
Never
Creative Nonfiction, pg. 35, 2021
He laughs when I sing along to Hot in Herre on the radio.
“Do you even know what that means?” he asks me, his eyes shining. Passing car lights show me he’s watching me and wanting to laugh, his dark hands lazy on the steering wheel.
“Yeah,” I tell him because I do know sort of. They’re getting naked. He’s hot for sex. I probably know more than he thinks I do.
Quiet Lightning
“Anxious Attachment” & “Catching“
Two Poems, 2021
I’m lost in the underworld
again, my Eurydice.I’m scrolling through old pictures
From “Anxious Attachment”
Hades posted of you
when you were happy
The Dillydoun Review
Cocaine
Poem, 2021
I came home to find her
in my bedroom, her long shadow
flickering across the lamplight,
bent over a small table in the corner.
Daily Drunk Mag
Food Insecurity I
Poem, 2021
My hamburger falls to the floor,
our once-red carpet, now brown.
Button Eye Review
Rewind
Poem, 2021
Magical movies & sci-fi stories warn against
time travel, claiming butterflies have it out
for us. I’m supposed to say, Everything
happens for a reason & God’s will be done.
The Closed Eye Open – Maya’s Micros
To Know, in the Biblical Sense
Poem: “May 2021, Batch 017: 05/12/21”
I have forgotten how to pray.
When I get on my knees, my mouth
is otherwise occupied, wide, a serpent
Vocal Contest Submission
Francesca Foote
Short Story, 2021
This story was a submission to the Moleskin contest. I’m not partial to fiction, but this story came to me, fully formed, while I was driving around in my car, and I raced home to get it all down. Needless to say, this did not win the contest, but I’m particularly fond of it, so I wanted to share it here too.
Update: I turned this into a short screenplay and entered it into the Austin Film Festival. It made it to the second round!
I consider this for a moment: young women scantily clad and young men who will pay to see them nearly (but not quite) nude. When I was younger, I suspect if the internet had been what it is now that I may have considered this. It could have supported my journalism habit. Although, of course, Sarah never would have agreed to it.
Door Is a Jar
Red
Micro-CNF, 2021
Lying with her on her bed, her smooth shoulders still speckled with shower spray, soothes me like warm soup on a sore throat, an elixir.
Cathexis Northwest Press
Blind Light
Poem, 2021
Sunlight strips the blinds & casts them aside.
It’s the morning after.
In this blind light, his pupils make room for blue
eris & eros
“Red Light” & “Lessons on Womanhood” & “We Play Detective, Not Doctor”
Poems, 2020
It unfortunately appears that eris & eros is defunct. You can read “Red Light” and “Lessons on Womanhood” in TRAILER TRASH by clicking the button below, and I made a separate button for “We Play Detective, Not Doctor,” which I didn’t include in TRAILER TRASH.
Today we find it:
from “We Play Detective, Not Doctor”
a pair of little girl’s
panties — hanging
on a branch in the woods.
Flash Flood
Black Snow
Short Story, 2013
They took you away this morning, meine liebe, my love. They said you were too sick to work, unfit, unessential. And I didn’t know at the time. I didn’t know where they would take you or what they would do to you, but I knew you would not come back.
Keep This Bag Away from Children
Unidentified
Poem, 2013
This is one of the first pieces that I ever got published. The site, Keep This Bag Away from Children, gave me a virus, though, so just read the piece here, for your own safety.
Unpublished, But Worth Reading
Achievement Center of Texas
When I was the Marketing Director of Achievement Center of Texas, I had an idea to write a collection of short stories based on the experiences of students at the dayhabilitation center and their families, something like Chicken Soup for the Soul. I interviewed the families and had full permission to reshape their stories to promote the organization.
I wrote two full stories before I left the organization, and unfortunately, the book did not come into full fruition. But I am proud of these stories.
Goodies
Short Story, 2010
This is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood where the Big Bad Wolf is an evangelical Christian.
As Lily tied on her red cloak, she could only stare at the goody basket on the kitchen table and remember secretly watching her mother sprinkle rat poison into the corn cake batter. The thick straw-woven basket cradled the delicate cakes, and Lily’s mother had wrapped a plain, brown cloth around them to trap the warmth inside each pastry. Lily could identify the pleasant scent of hot, melting butter wafting from the basket, but all the same she told her mother, “The cornbread smells different today. Did you put in something special for Granny?”
“Don’t be silly,” Mother said. “You’re imagining things like always. Now run those goodies to Granny before it gets dark.”