butterfly – Cajun Mutt Press

Butterflies in Reverse

You’re a child again
Badass to pain-in-the-ass
To asshole…

Demanding endless
Expired entitlements
Blind to what
You’d once seen
Unaware the toll,
Sacrifices made on
Your behalf
Just like we
Did you back in the day…

Except we were kids
Born into it
And gained insights
We still hold…

Until we become
Children again
Or God willing
Fucking die before
Becoming assholes.

Things Running Through My Head at 3:38 a.m.

Laying awake, needing to piss for the third time, still rolling on that Indica edible I took to sleep along with a tramadol and a trazadone because my joints are all shot and wake me up, I’m in that perfect zone of the warmth where my body meets the bedding and the cool night air coming from the open window, and I’m wondering why I drank to ease my pain, and I drank to hurt myself, at the same times, on the same nights…

DNR

I handed my son a 12-gauge shell, No Burden, written on it in Sharpie/
One in the back of my bald dome when the time comes son/
Don’t lose that but I’m not ready to give you that old Remington 870/
Not just yet.

JD Clapp is based in San Diego, CA. His poems have appeared in Farewell Transmission, Wasteland Review, Roi Fainéant Press, Poverty House, Revolution John, Maya’s Micros/The Closed Eye Opened, and the Remembering Charles Bukowski Anthology (Moonstone, 2023). His chapbook, Underbelly: Grit Poems(Alien Buddha, 2024), was just released.

Butterfly Confidential

I
saw it
coming
at me
and I
could have

swerved

but I didn’t.
My tires
are new
enough, the
paint
isn’t peeling

so, I

kept going
at full
speed
and didn’t
slow down
even when

we collided

… this butterfly
and me
or
rather
my windshield
now
splattered
with green
bug blood

if it’s blood

at all. It
lingered – wings
whipping in the
wind
and maybe

glared

at me
for a
moment
(can it do
that?) before
the sheer

velocity

ripped it
from my
sight
into the
path of
someone
moving slower

than me.

L.B. Sedlacek has had poetry and fiction appear in different journals and zines. Her first short story collection came out on Leap Day 2020 entitled Four Thieves of Vinegar published by Alien Buddha Press. Her latest poetry books are The Poet Next Door (Cyberwit), The Adventures of Stick People on Cars (Alien Buddha Press), The Architect of French Fries (Presa Press) and Words and Bones (Finishing Line Press.) She is a former Poetry Editor for “ESC! Magazine” and co-hosted the podcast “Coffee House to Go.” LB also enjoys swimming, reading, and playing ukulele.

Tag: butterfly

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 06/28/24

Butterflies in Reverse

Things Running Through My Head at 3:38 a.m.

DNR

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 05/05/21