hotel – Cajun Mutt Press

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 07/01/24

July 2, 2024 James D. Casey IV

The Nobody Inn

it claimed it was a non-smoking unit
but it reeked of stale smoke and there were
cigarette burns in the bedding and the refrigerator
was about a meter from the bed

and there was a towel in the freezer
and a toaster and coffee pot were on top
of the water boiler and there was a hat
wedged behind the tv and the toilet seat

was cracked and someone had left infection
ointment in the vanity and given the number

of bugs and other hungry organisms
in the room you got the impression
the owner of the hotel was a believer
in the sanctity of life

he was a little old indian man
a kind old man with the most elegant hands you’ve
ever seen but when I called him to complain
the phone just kept ringing
and ringing so eventually I gave up

and had a little whisky
and watched bonanza
then lay down
on top of the mattress and slept
with all my clothes on.

M.P. Powers is a Floridian living in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of The Initiate (Anxiety Press, Fall, 2023) and Strange Instruments (Forthcoming ’25). Recent publications include the Columbia Review, Black Stone/White Stone, Stone Circle Review, miniMag, and others. His artwork can be found on Twitter and Instagram @mppowers1132

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 03/03/23

March 3, 2023 James D. Casey IV

Housekeeping

the sun fights a turf war on my eyelids
and I wake, head quaking, to the big
knockover. “Housekeeping. Do you

want your room serviced? Sir, hello
housekeeping.” The room is dank and
asphyxiated. It takes a good five minutes

while I rearrange the mental furniture
before I see the dead hooker lying next
to me, face gouged in pillows, black hair

on a bed of roses and an anchor tattoo on the
back of her thigh. Bruises climb her skin and
there’s bottles of booze and a “silver member”

card on the nightstand nipple-zipped with
Florida snow. In a seasick wave the room
tilts &

I lunge towards the bathroom to throw up.
“Hello? Housekeeping.” I wipe my mouth.
“Yes,” I say. “Yes, just a minute.” And that’s

when the dead hooker rises from the dead.
I’m already at the door, cock half-hanging
out of the hotel robe, telling the Slavic girl

that I forgot to hang the Do Not Disturb
sign and that my wife and I overslept —it’s
our anniversary. But by then she’s behind

me, her face studded with makeup, her
back-alley babydoll lingerie trafficking
a tart coital come on. She flashes an ankle

bracelet and asks housekeeping if she’d
like to join us for a little role playing.
We’d be happy to pay for her services.

Damon Hubbs is interested in pulpy paperbacks and films with over-saturated colors. Recent poems have been featured in The Beatnik Cowboy, Scud, Datura, The Chamber Magazine, and Horror Sleaze Trash. Links to his published work can be found at dmhubbs.blogspot.com. Damon lives in New England.

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 10/20/21

October 20, 2021 James D. Casey IV

Hotel Room Poem

Haunted
by what I’ve done
Broken
by the quiet
desperation
of a night
spent in the arms
of tv preachers
The lamb of god
lies bleeding
on the bed

Now I lay me
down to sleep
in the straight
jacket of twisted
sheets
and the soil
of my demons

I do not beg
forgiveness
from the
empty eyed
mistress
with the
unforgiving smile
She is is not
here for me

Dan Holt is blues singer/songwriter/recording artist, poet and fiction author from a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He has produced 11 albums of original music along with various singles and eps. After many years away from the poetry scene, Dan returned to writing poetry in 2021 and has had his work published widely in the online and small print press. His first book, Blank Canvas On Bloody Pavement, was published in March 2021 by Alien Buddha Press and can be purchased from Amazon.com.