Sometimes you feel like you’ve
entered the Twilight Zone, I was in
this supermarket and I saw a
stone fox in the condiment aisle
She opened a bottle of catsup
and chugged it down, then
moved down to the pickles and
raised her brown leather skirt
and pulled her panties to
One side and started shoving
gherkins up her vagina, she
was moaning and groaning
Then she turned and looked at me
and said, “I bet you think I’m a sour puss”
I left my basket and ran like
the bulls of Pamplona were after me.
Cocaine, Lizards and Balzac
Years heaped like golden maple leaves in
Quebec or snowflakes on a Tucumcari
coyote moon night on Route 66
Sometimes the heart is nothing more than
a clock measuring your minutes’ while
ticking and pumping in your chest
Life, death, earth, moon, sun all move in
circles, wise people live in circles, right
angles make you a square and box
you in like cattle not free buffalo
If you run a race against death, it always
gets a head start, unless you’re on the train
to nowhere or unless you can stab a flying
mosquito with an ice
pick
When you sleep with a shotgun and machete
and wake with a bloody dog’s head and you
own no dog and your cocaine has been
snorted
And your bald-headed girlfriend you took fishing
with the long blonde hair that got
caught in the propeller is pointing a 357
At your huevos while holding your Komodo
dragon, Booboo and your copy of La
Comedie humaine by Honore de Balzac, it’s
time to quit this nightmare and make some strong black
coffee.
Magdalena
Scarfing vagabond goulash
from Mexican sombrero
hub caps stolen from a
turquoise low rider short
in the valley of Albuquerque
Spanish yucca roots, flowers,
stems, and blanco corn tortillas
prickly pear tuna, serrano, pob-
lano, Copper Canyon sotol
Slow your cinnamon roll, mama
cooch, no need to gank the skank
let’s booty call tango fandango
Roots of the desert dagger are
full of saponins, a toxin that can
be used to stun fish without injury.
War Everyday Everywhere
Dedicated to the Australian movie Rabbit Proof Fence about atrocities perpetuated on the Aborigines and the Canadian folks that said America was lucky they let us land our aircraft there after the 9/11 tragedy.
People hate Americans,
they hate McDonald’s,
they hate Kentucky Fried Chicken,
they hate Mickey Mouse,
they really hate our drones and nukes
But when they get in trouble
or need money, they all yell
for Uncle Sugar to come running,
they don’t worry about teeth getting
rotten and falling out or calluses on
their knees from begging for a handout
All the hawks and doves,
left wingers, right wingers, and righteous,
religion, oil, land, water, pride, and egos
Blood is always thinner than money,
gold is forever heavier than love
Some Americans go hungry,
we cry for our brave soldiers,
that die fighting other countries battles,
killing terrorists around the world
Don’t point your fingers and blame us
for your problems or for the freedom we’ve
created, don’t expect us to fill your stomachs
Catfish McDaris won the Thelonius Monk Award in 2015. He’s been active in the small press world for 25 years. He’s working in a wig shop in a high crime area of Milwaukee. His newest book is:
www.amazon.com/Sleeping-With-Fish-Catfish-McDaris/dp/0692671323
