NONES What we know to be not possible,Though time after time foretoldBy wild hermits, by shaman and sybilGibbering in their trances,Or revealed to a child in some chance rhymeLike will and kill, comes to passBefore we realize it: we are surprisedAt the ease and speed of our deedAnd uneasy: It is barely three,Mid-afternoon, yet the […]
Read more "NONES – W.H. AUDEN"A Mint Left On The Pillow Not a cure, more of a ritual She’s got the curve of the moon from the ribcage to the thigh Serotonin levels off, Birds dropping down the tree branch by branch Leaves and blood, A final guffaw and twitch. Sitting patiently, waiting for the newness, The change, Thoughts not […]
Read more "5 POEMS – Joe Sonnenblick"THE PUNISHMENT ‘Love never goes unpunished’ Diablo once told me one night as we drank in a down town bar: he laughed, when I asked why: ‘You fucking fool!’ he snarled: ‘The crown of thorns can only be worn once’ and then he laughed again and I looked all around my home finding only quietness […]
Read more "THE PUNISHMENT – John D Robinson"THE WORDS I CAN’T HEAR IN MY HEAD There’s a graveyard in my cranium Attached to the lines of my skull I dream the images I can’t see I remember the words I can’t hear… I remember the words i can’t hear I remember the words I love you I can’t remember where they came […]
Read more "THE WORDS I CAN’T HEAR IN MY HEAD – JAYNA MARKS"Do Something His mouth is full of light. He clamps it shut. I know he’s filled, without my alabaster breast. I’m left heavy with what he doesn’t need. A humming grows as a star rises on the plain. In the manger, animals sway, sensing rhythm. Beating wings. A terrible wind. I sit on […]
Read more "2 POEMS – Carolyn Adams"Helping the Fires It wasn’t the flames that hated us nor the heat that they carried. It wasn’t the ash they embargoed past our breathing borders. It wasn’t permission the fire sought. Nor good. Yet good happens, in even the smallest of increments. And in these tiny bits we place our hopes […]
Read more "HELPING THE FIRES – Zebulon Huset"“pellucid” I am still here floating in this grey space knowing nothing but this blurring smoke that I breathe and exhale pondering on whether this is living or simply being alive but if this is what life is then kiss this life from my lips blow out my candle and do not call out my […]
Read more "CHICANO LIT – 3 POEMS – Ricky Winters"AVAILABLE NOW: STILL IN THE GAME by Andrew Hubbard. We have been fans of Hubbard’s verse for quite some time. We have published him on Cacti Fur 13 times, here’s one from 2017. We are happy to present a new clutch of poems from a poet with a smooth Brown County touch. We start in […]
Read more "THE EDITORS OF CACTI FUR BRING YOU: STILL IN THE GAME BY ANDREW HUBBARD"Tiny Town Wisconsin around town squarein slow-moving carsthe latest cropgape-eyed girlsgape-eyed boysgazing at each othernothin’ to do9 o’clock, 10 o’clockbut circle town squarethe town cop’s eyeshot on the tailof his gape-eyed selfcircling town squarein his old man’s carnothin’ to do tillfriends turned uptrunks full of beerone by onecars peeling offfor dead man’s quarry11 o’clock, 12 […]
Read more "TINY TOWN WISCONSIN – Darrell Petska"
