Books Among Friends
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Fugitive Authors:
Claire McGill
William Rockwood
Tyler Elkin
Billy Finn
Coyote Darling
Jordan Savera
Apollo Alexander
Jack Hamerstone
John Leslie Butchart
CatchEye / Fall 2021
Girlfriends - by Billy Finn
Jagged Morning - by Claire McGill
Joy at the Smallest Affection - Tyler Elkin
Transplanting Trees - John Leslie Butchart
Girlfriends
by Billy Finn
Another one
Bites the dust—
I’ll tell you how
Wonderful
She is living
In my regrets now
Beyond reach:
Her name is Kelly
And she can spit
Margharita
Across the bar
Through the gap
In her front teeth.
That’s the thing
I liked most about her.
Before Kelly
There was Olivia
Believe it or not
She had olive skin
From Trinidad.
Velvet skin, velvet
Hands, velvet
Everything.
I fell asleep
Inside her
Velvet cocoon
And I’m afraid
I bored her
To death.
Now a new girl
A wild coyote
Who has already
Consumed me.
She has her teeth
In my neck
Furiously
Shaking my head
Fangs so deep
Blood so profuse
I’m painted red
Down to my toes
And loving
Every minute
Of mutilation.
I’m wrong, I know
To assume a girl
Exists somewhere
Out there
Who can whisk up
The flavor of sure love
As if desire could stay
Appetizing
Forever.
That’s foolish &
sadly romantic
But how does a man
Change the chemistry
That keeps him alive?
Will there be one
Who goes to the end with me?
One who conquers death
By living beyond
My expectations
By forgiving me
Holding fast
To her own ideas
Of what love is
With a well of life
So deep and fresh
I’ll never die of thirst
Or doubt.
A friend who happens
To be a woman, a girl
Who happens to be
A child of God.
Designed for more
Than words can say.
Because she and I
Will know
Oceans and mountains
And cities where the best
Cafes hide, and movies
We watch together
In perfect silence.
Like doves
we will find joy
Simply chasing
The future.
Jagged
Morning
by Claire McGill
I crawled out
Of my ciccada husk
Last night and danced
Away the darkness.
I boogied my butt off
Swirling in the light.
Oh how sore I am
With happiness
To be free
From what I was
Yesterday.
Joy at the Smallest Affection
I understand you’ll never understand
why you wallow in the mire of your self
for the love you need you do not seek
and the ice around your heart is deep.
Hear us barking now in the middle of the night?
Hear us snarling at the squirrels on television?
Poets and priests are man’s best friends
yet you treat us like dogs
Just for living truthfully.
There is no power, no light, only barking.
You can’t understand how we live
by instinct, how we know the way home.
Until you bury is in the backyard, we give
Like slaves, we howl at the moon
And curl on the stoops of churches.
Every dog senses man is doomed
feels sadness about your crimes
and joy at the smallest affection.
by Tyler Elkin
Transplanting
Trees
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