compendium of universal human situations

richard brautigan

Your Catfish Friend

If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, “It’s beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,”
I’d love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, “I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them.”

evan kennedy

Where Diamonds and Dogs Are Best Friends

Plenty boys strictly thin sticks. Spooked mine slake focus
peel off as a dome. Cramming throb drop in plummet
chute finds. Fronts rumble. Spare dime. Of mixed verge
can’t flush the figures birdsong wrecks. Got grayed tooth
to ash and monger it much. Got appetite in lash and mete
it much. Stayed such origin, stayed solvent. Sewn scat
and rinds. Crisp up code in notch city scorch. Mates a
quake. What dogs boys turn to when laid off. To walk
through the writing, no fix to feature, to brighten.
Walked milked dwindle gobble tail to tooth languid lyric.

Courtesy of Gold Wake Press
From Shoo-Ins to Ruin, pg. 9 (2011)
Buy it: Powells