BEST IN SHOW Emery Guadian Mayfield High School, 10th The Low Tide in Twilight The ocean doesn’t close its eyes at night. It just grows quieter, like someone thinking too much It stretches its long blue body toward the edge of the world and longs. Above it, the night sky unfolds slow, deliberate, buttoning itself […]
Read more "WINNING POEMS FROM THE 2026 5TH ANNUAL #BEAKARENNM HIGH SCHOOL POETRY CONTEST"Desideratum Roget spent a lifetime in pursuit of the right words. Unrelenting, obsessed with nuance and symmetry, from his methodical eloquence he birthed the thesaurus. I lack his singularity, living instead in surges of passion, volcanic eruptions of words: intermittent bursts of dangerous brilliance, more often blown smoke. But this I share with Roget – […]
Read more "2 poems by Jamez Terry"The Broken Machinery I’ve tried to unpick what made me like this only to accept that it doesn’t even matter, that sometimes it’s all just beside the point. Only survivors care about responsibility and it should be accepted that there are different levels of survival. Some things won’t be patched with a payout and there […]
Read more "Lindsay McLeod ~ The Broken Machinery"DOWNPOUR IN THE CITY When it rains, the city is nothing but rain. There’s no parades. No chess in the park. No window shopping. Just rain. Like a friend who won’t stop talking. The rain blowing sideways like it’s late for a bus. The anonymous rain soaking me. The rain sliding down the sides of […]
Read more "John Grey ~ DOWNPOUR IN THE CITY"Traffic Pointers for Your New Planet Greetings, alien! You may be wondering how to navigate. A few tips: Your spaceship requires two parking spaces. You might find a note on your windshield, saying “Learn to park, idiot!” Toss it in the trash. Avoid the mall. It’s full of crappy stores like American Outfitters and Torrid. […]
Read more "Leah Mueller ~ Traffic Pointers for Your New Planet"Rise up in splendor, Chicago! Rise up in splendor, Chicago! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord. See, darkness in the alleys, under viaducts, along the broken sidewalk concrete. See, thick clouds. The sun of morning shines on you and each wrinkle of the flat land, city of the middle, link between high […]
Read more "Patrick T. Reardon ~ Rise up in splendor, Chicago!"Juneteenth I sit in coffeehouses And read Tolkien Because Lincoln freed My ancestors I can live ( almost ) Anywhere because Martin Luther King had the Audacity To believe we were as good As them I can eat in ( almost ) Any Resteraunt Cos Freedom Riders and Sit in-ers chose to listen To the […]
Read more "3 poems by Erren Kelly"Undiagnosed Discomfort Asked if I still keep doves, I recall I once did, but like the petals of down they shed, I’ve lost their names, markings, the number of bodies I held in my palm, fed capsules of bread I’d rolled between thumb and finger, til my mother set them free, out of feelings of […]
Read more "Avra Elliott ~ Undiagnosed Discomfort"word up poetry fans, Cacti 🌵 Fur and its parent organization Grandma Moses Press will be doing a guest appearance in corroboration with Slippery Elm 🌳 Press at the AWP book fair in Baltimore. Look for us at table 839 on Friday, March 6 from 11 AM to noon. If you’re in Baltimore stop by […]
Read more "AWP 2026"ghost ride the whip another house party hosted by whatsherface another lacklustre Saturday chauffeuring you around rooms of architecturally handsome faces but tonight I’m cloaked each word I utter is a haunting met with a second-sucking startle before being relegated to the conversation’s footnotes so I saunter between gossiping huddles like a watermark on the […]
Read more "Alex Scarborough ~ ghost ride the whip"
Cacti Fur 