Catfish McDaris

Like a Feather

After making friends with Maya on Facebook I figured she would not mind a visit. I found out where she lived and jumped on a southbound Greyhound. The worst part was avoiding peeing on myself in the skinny bathroom while hitting potholes. When the dog arrived, I stopped at Popeye’s and got us a bucket of crispy chicken and the fixings. I rang her doorbell and a man that resembled a black Adolf Hitler answered, he would not let me enter until I gave him a thigh and neck bone from the fowl. When I saw the queen of poetry I smiled and gave her some fried okra with a packet of hot sauce. She looked me over from head to toe, her eyes seemed magnetic. Finally, she spoke. “I’ll bet you’re pure hell on the ladies.” I said, “I do alright.” She removed her drawers and said, “Let’s see what you can do you silver-tongued devil.” I plunged in all the way to my ears; she started moaning and groaning and carrying on. I got a bit frightened; I thought I was going to fucking kill her. She started whistling and pulling my hair out by the roots. I figured she had enough. “Goddamn. You sure got a lot of pluck for a naked neck rooster scalawag.” I put my crotch in her face and asked, “Do you fetch bone?” “I’m too old to be your bitch, now give me the rest of that chicken and get the hell out of here.” I hit the bricks back to the bus station. There was a beautiful blonde that looked like Grace Kelly in the back row, and we played doctor under a blanket all the way to Chicago.

Ken Kakareka

Diction

Dick! 
Dick! 
Dick! 
How’s that 
for diction
Dick, fuck, 
cunt, shit, 
balls! 
Some words 
have no 
substitutes, 
like teachers, 
but we use them 
anyway. 
Students cringe 
at the word 
poetry – 
they hate 
the sound. 
Maybe if we 
spice it up 
with baby 
at the end. 
Poetry, baby
Because it is 
a party – 
good poetry 
anyway. 
It deserves 
to be 
celebrated
There’s something 
magical 
about words 
that hit right.
Not all words 
do. 
Poetry should 
rage
like a hard dick. 
Diction, baby!
Use it! 

J.J. Campbell

and the older you get

all these remedies, potions 
and pills trying to let you 
escape the pain

all the while, i’m more 
interested in embracing 
it

i had a doctor tell me 
once pain is how you 
know you’re alive

so is love

and the older you get

the more you realize 
just how much both 
go hand in hand

the lucky ones will 
have some flowery 
retort to this

the rest of us have 
no choice but to 
live in reality

Damon Hubbs

The Viaduct Girls

in high waisted acid 
washed jeans & Def Leppard 
half shirts  

the viaduct girls 
give furious  
fleeting hand jobs 

as the D&H railroad 
shoots its load 
across the Susquehanna

later they teach us to skip rocks
ducks & drakes, they call it 
to further mystify 

in a few years 
they’re at Vassar or Bryn Mawr
or some other college we can’t pronounce

we stay or leave 
or leave & come back 
it’s all the same

drinking beer every night
at the Copper Fox
on Water St

nowadays nobody skips rocks 
& the train stopped unloading 
years ago