available now – Page 3 – Cajun Mutt Press

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 03/01/23

March 1, 2023March 2, 2023 James D. Casey IV

Soy Sauce

Do you have any packets of soy sauce?
the man asked.

Sorry, we don’t have that,
came the reply from the kid
behind the cash.

You didn’t even look.

We don’t have any!
the kid repeated.

Well, can you look for me?
the man asked.

Sir, we don’t have any of that.

I would suggest you look.

I’m not going to look for something
we don’t have!

The man then pulled out a gun
and shot the kid in the face.

Leaving the restaurant
without eating.

Dig

That thoughtless
slippery eel of a blade
going in

well below the ribs
because everyone
is scared

and no one knows
how to fight
anymore.

Shane called

from upstate,
sounded just like anyone
sent up river without a paddle,
complained that his celly was into children,
had all these pictures from the catalogue
and that the weight room always smelled
like dirty men on their worst day
and that Janine and the children
had stopped coming by,
that he thought she was out
dating again (taking a flyer) and I told him
I didn’t know anything about that
even though I did,
because a man can only deal
with so much when the world has
him down and the system
keeps kicking him in the balls
which never feels good
even though some men pay
handsomely for just such a service
from some broad in black leather
and impossible cockroach killers
that rip apart your floors
and forget the safe word
just for kicks.

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many mounds of snow. His work can be found both in print and online in such places as Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Cajun Mutt Press, Dumpster Fire Press, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.

Victory Slab by Ryan Quinn Flanagan:

US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMVG66QY

CA
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BMVG66QY

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 02/22/23

February 22, 2023 James D. Casey IV

Carpet Crawlers

The garbage chute for our building
has been locked by management
for the summer, says the sign.
Now we have to haul all our garbage
down and out the building.

It’s a real pita every time
you do the cat litter,
having to take it down.
You can’t wait until you have
a full garbage bag to take down,
but you can’t leave it either.
An acrid aroma fills the stairwells
and the elevator as well now.

The story goes, somebody visiting
their elderly parent or grandparent
found rancid and rotted foods
in the cupboards and the fridge.
They cleaned it all out, and threw
garbage bags full down the chute.

I don’t know if those bags landed hard
and burst, sending the maggots flying
or if those things inch real fast,
but apparently the next morning
somebody on first floor saw
carpets acrawl with maggots.

While in high school in Chatham, Ontario, David Alec Knight and his parents were told by a teacher there that he would be lucky to finish high school, and certainly wouldn’t make it through university. One of David’s English teachers, Bernard Cameron, saw something in his poems though and encouraged him to pursue his writing. He also attended workshops led by the poet, Ted Plantos, when he was writer-in-residence at the Chatham library.

David’s poems have appeared in the recent anthologies, By The Wishing Tree (2021), Poets For Ukraine – Volume 1 (2022), Muse (2022), and Love Lies Bleeding (2022). Recent poems have appeared in Verse Afire, Cajun Mutt Press and The Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

David’s work journeys honestly through darkness before there is any light, so it is well earned and substantial when there is reprieve. He speaks with his own voice, but he acknowledges as inspiration and influence, Edgar Lee Masters, Carl Sandburg, Gregory Corso, Charles Bukowski, Irving Layton, Ted Plantos, E. J. Pratt, and Paul-Marie Lapointe. Margaret Atwood’s Journals of Susanna Moodie and Irving Layton’s A Wild And Peculiar Joy are most reread in his library.

Since graduating from St. Clair College in 2014/15, David has worked in healthcare as a Personal Support Worker. In 2021, he was recipient of The Ted Plantos memorial Award for Poetry. The Heart Is A Hollow Organ, David’s first book, soon followed.

Leper Mosh (Cajun Mutt Press) is David’s second collection of poems. It is dedicated to his high school English teacher, Bernard Cameron (RIP).

Now Available from Cajun Mutt Press

February 11, 2023 James D. Casey IV

After the Fall by William Teets is now available from Cajun Mutt Press!! If you grab a copy, please leave a review!

After the Fall is a poetry collection that offers resurrection for a damaged Americana-spirituality: Blues music and barrooms, whiskey and smoke, rivers and haunted highways, leather jackets, hoodies, and Sunday’s best. . . and worst. William Teets’ poetry navigates corrupted streets, turns dangerous corners, and worships in darkened alleys. All in an unending quest for absolution, salvation, and answers.

“I often toss The Paris Review across the room after reading their poetry selections, because I all too often long for poetry to mean something. Nothing is more frustrating than reading poetry that is merely meter, failing to explore anything except that which the poet sees. Subtext is a rarity in today’s modern poems, and I think it may have to do with the lack of life our poets live. William Teets lacks neither life nor subtext. The poems in After the Fall are honest and hard-hitting. They may not be pretty, but you can’t look away. I will revisit these works often.”
G.W. Allison—author of The Final Round and The Sinful.

“William Teets writes poetry like a fallen jazz-blues-folk pagan priest. His narrative style is free and open and easy to read, but the subject matter deep and spiritual. I am reminded of the old Beat poets—can even see some Dylanesque qualities. His poems have that lyrical tone (Check out “Chillin’ with Chelsea” to see what I mean). After the Fall is for anyone, not just lovers of poetry.”
Gabriel Sebastian—Confetti magazine chief editor and founder and CEO of Word Werks, Inc.

Manuscripts, Available/Upcoming Books, Promotion, Royalties

February 7, 2023 James D. Casey IV

Wanted to talk a little about manuscripts and available/upcoming books. I also went over some specifics about promotion and royalties. Keep your eyes peeled for more details about the titles I’m working on, and click the link below to see our complete bibliography.

CMP Bibliography:

https://cajunmuttpress.com/2021/06/08/cajun-mutt-press-bibliography/

Write On,
JDCIV
🤟💀