dog – Cajun Mutt Press

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 09/27/23

September 27, 2023 James D. Casey IV

Climbing

“…scheming after the big score that would deliver them to middle management.”
– Colson Whitehead, Crime Manifesto

“They call themselves ‘systems analysts’ but they’re just the usual gang of egghead white guys who want to run shit.”
–Colson Whitehead, Crime Manifesto

So many of these dudes aspired to team leader,
then branch chief, then division director
and finally a commissioner in the Big Office
on the eighth floor, big desk, office windows.

Oh, to be as unselfconscious as a dog,
lifting its leg against a tree.

Retirement evened us all out,
except it didn’t.

Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore. Two full-length collections were published in 2020, Catastroika, from Apprentice House, and Ugler Lee from Kelsay Books. A poetry chapbook, Mortal Coil, has just been published by Clare Songbirds Publishing.

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 05/08/23

May 8, 2023 James D. Casey IV

lucid nightmares

the cold rain beats
down an already
beaten area

apathy runs rampant
as chaos rides the
edge of a knife

some people abhor
violence

some people think
of it as second nature,
like breathing

most days, peace
and war are the
same fucking
thing

lucid nightmares
dance around all
the pain

writhing in bed

once beautiful

now a lost soul
awaiting that final
voyage to death

like an old dog

one of these days
where you just
want to lay in
the sun and sleep
like an old dog

at least i haven’t
started shitting
in the yard

yet another bad dream

screams from another room

too many years of abuse

yet another bad dream

stuck behind the eight ball
as the pressure simply builds

if life is a horse race
you’re stuck on a longshot
just foolish enough to think
one day, i will be a winner

winners already know such
things

losers need to manifest every
little thing into existence

here comes the rain again

supposed to last for three
days

J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) was raised by wolves yet managed to graduate high school with honors. He’s been widely published over the years, most recently at Horror Sleaze Trash, Synchronized Chaos, The Beatnik Cowboy, The Black Shamrock and The Rye Whiskey Review. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 05/19/21

May 19, 2021 James D. Casey IV

Last Will and Testament

Fuck a funeral!

Use the money you’d spend on mine

to celebrate the only proper way:

with drugs and alcohol.

You don’t even have to celebrate me,

just fuckin’ celebrate!

Or give the money to a good cause.

Just don’t give it to something boring,

like a church, please.

There’s enough reason in the world to be sad,

the inevitable shouldn’t be made worse by a

public display of platonic-necrophilia and tears.

No one should have to dress up and be miserable,

especially on my behalf.

I don’t wanna be buried,

cremate me!

Gimme to science!

Whatever!

I won’t give a fuck, I’ll be dead!

As my grandfather used to say,

“Shove a bone in my ass and have

the dogs drag me away.”

Well I got two assholes,

so I’ll need a shit ton of dogs.

Let graverobbers steal my body,

before it’s given over to the dirt,

like they did Lincoln’s,

and have a manhunt across the nation!

We’ll save them a step and a stop at

Home Depot for a shovel.

Don’t waste valuable land on wastes of space.

Build a hospital or a school.

Fuck it, I’d rather people frack or

build yuppie townhouses!

On a second thought,

I have one request,

please don’t fuck my corpse.

I don’t find it disrespectful,

just weird.

Joe Szalinski is a writer & performer from Pittsburgh, PA. He attended Slippery Rock University for his undergrad in writing & literature. Since returning to his native Pittsburgh, he’s been busy performing comedy, acting, making music, and writing. His writing, both creative and academic, has appeared in Defenestration, The Howling Press, The Short Humour, PS It’s Poetry (an anthology), and RockScissorsPaper.