Matthew Agnew
Bio
Writing makes the bad thoughts go away, and the good thoughts more memorable. Despite the ominous tone, I love to write with humor and deep thought that helps me grow.
Achievements (1)
Stories (19)
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Where They End
A road, a stream, a path, a thought...they wind with logic, some grace, some planning, with a simple goal in mind. Start...and then finish. But roots? Those are fat and gorged on trickery. Yes, they have a purpose, but does that purpose have an aim? How large will our roots let us be? Will they let us survive storms and time and anger? Will they spread so long and far that the original sproutling has long been forgotten in the dust? Here's the secret...roots don't care about the past. The dig and turn, looking for ways around those that would end their progress. They feed and dive, rising to create a new world where the sun is perfect and the wind is kind. Yes, they started somewhere, but you may never find the end, because roots can last forever.
By Matthew Agnewabout a month ago in Poets
Learning the Way
I didn’t know the way. I chose wrong so many times. Every false path bruised my feet and scratched long, deep streaks across my chest. I looked for signs and signals, but despite their purpose, they didn’t know the way either. You kept a light on the entire time. I saw it, but I didn’t know what it was for. I chose the simple routes, clean, clear, and flat, hoping the easiest road would get me there. It did not. I reversed, and your light was still on. It was dimmer, but I could still see it. With my new bruises and scratches and memories of dead ends, I now understood why you never told me what the light was for. I followed it, and now I’m home.
By Matthew Agnew4 months ago in Poets
Toys
Turtles and legos don’t mix. How could they? The size, flexibility, vulnerability, and ability to adjust to these modern times just simply cannot align. The purpose of them is even different. One is meant to change and explore and go up and start over and change again. The other mimics a singular point in time where the outcome has been decided and your options are limited to the path another built. But I figured it out. I even brought the stiff, muscular ones into the mix. I built a whole conceptual world. There were goals, hopes, enemies, saviors, bystanders, twists, and a power that they all must either contain or vanquish. Did you know they could all do that? Did you put them together, in the same place with a shared focus? Their dreams were just so different! But you aren’t supposed to use their dreams. Use yours. They are much better.
By Matthew Agnew4 months ago in Poets
Perspective
Brink had tried listening to the words she didn’t say. From experience, he knew that’s where the real meat of the matter could be found, but those invisible sounds, which normally would hastily flutter around the back of his ears and into his body, were unexpectedly quiet.
By Matthew Agnew4 months ago in Fiction
I Forgive You or It’s Hard to Love You
…because you are selfish. You think like the wind, fast and with moments of youth, but like the wind, I cannot grasp your thoughts. I try, I want to, but they slip through open fingers just as fluidly as through clenched. I had one of them once, grabbed it like a thin ribbon untethered from the beauty it once held. But you can’t keep someone else's thoughts. They have places to be, after all. My mind exists because of you. I am here because of you. You gave me much, took little, but prevented more. More thoughts I could have tried to hold. More past so I could have built a ladder to escape pain. But not all pain, mind you. I need some pain. Pain teaches and scars remember. And you did that too. You shaped all the sides of me and carved the first scar. That scar became a road. It was deep and forever, but it no longer hurts. It tells me where to go by showing me where I’ve been. Thank you for my scars.
By Matthew Agnew5 months ago in Poets
Power-less. Runner-Up in Pitch Your Pilot Challenge.
After losing his powers during a battle to save the planet, recently de-powered superhero, The Smoke, must contend with his new life of abject mediocrity as a small town crossing guard. Intertwined with his daily struggles as a “norm,” are his relationships with his new blue collar coworkers, neighbors, his struggle to identify with his former super hero colleagues, and the never ending pursuit of his famed arch-nemesis Winters “Patient Zero” Buchannon. Power-less is a comical fish out of water story that satirizes and examines our culture's obsession with fame, personal identity, and the fight against the personified embodiment of corporate greed. Power-less is Schitt’s Creek, meets The Orville, meets Young Sheldon.
By Matthew Agnew3 years ago in Humor
The Third Salvation
Arn’s legs began to buckle as he angled down the shallow embankment towards his newly desired prize. The river, flowing with purpose as it formed white peaks amongst the unending current, snaked across the belly of the valley, zagging past mighty maples that clung to natural dirt walls that guided crystal clear snow melt towards the distant sea.
By Matthew Agnew3 years ago in Fiction
