POETRY – FICTION – NONFICTION/PHOTOGRAPHY
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we are happy to publish another poem by TOM PESCATORE. Tom Pescatore can sometimes be seen wandering along the Walt Whitman bridge or down the sidewalks of Philadelphia's old Skid Row.
5 Years ago Remember as the sun set on James island Barely there beach and we sat there Tired Together in a blaze of red Fading into the coming nightAnd how after heading back to our camp An old ma…
Welcome back to CACTI FUR, HOLY DAY who is a poetry instructor at the Richard Hugo Center in Seattle.
They Come at Night I know how to read men even with my eyes closed, hands out, fingers reading the Braille of sweat, of the man on the bed beside me. I pretend I’m deaf so he won’t talk to me, but …
I.D. Sherred lives, works and writes poetry on the south coast of the UK, in a house with two cats and lots of paperback novels.
We are creatures of Earth and we go by Water We are creatures of Earth and we go by Water Our silent barges slide through violet waterways Behind the warehouses No window overlooks our passing No a…
Daniel Schulz lives in Germany. MEMENTO MORI is a Latin phrase which means "Remember You Must Die"
Memento Mori I was in Duesseldorf recently, watching dreams burn out on the sidewalk. I love this city. The way the rich sit in their restaurants like animals locked in a zoo. Money isn’t character…
TODAY Atlanta poet Quentin Staley with his meditation on caffeine. Photograph by Suzanne Neville Staley taken near the skirt of Picacho Peak in Las Cruces, NM.
Caffiend Oh, when the bridle wirepulls her comb and her teethbegin their play, their tin-canmorning melodies aremocking me, so gay. “Oh,” is what I say.How is it these sirensstrike 6, a…
Jeffrey Zable continues to live, write, play rumba,
and drive through the hellish streets of San Francisco.
THE CONNECTION No, I’ve never come across a dead human on one of my walks in Golden Gate Park, but the other day I came upon a dead squirrel that was being ravaged by insects that no doubt heard th…
Powerful poem by Ruby Munoz. Age 17. We are thrilled to publish this powerful young poet who chooses a strong form for her truths.
Forgive My MomFor all the things you did for Marie and IWhen you would smoke ci******es andHow you always slept in and never really hung out with us in the morningsAnd all the times you only hung o…
Will Reger :
Poet Laureate Emeritus, Urbana, IL (2019-2020)
WELCOME TO CACTI FUR!
Tango Insects chirp in the yard and buzzTil Carol slides open the patio doorReleasing a tango on the Magnavox.Sipping a cocktail he approaches her,Begs a dance “with my sweetest.”“Oh, this is just …
Steve Deutsch is poetry editor of Centered Magazine and is poet in residence at the Bellefonte Art Museum. Steve was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. His Chapbook, Perhaps You Can, was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press.
O Canada From his first two weeks in Kindergarten, Eugene was told he wasn’t college material and should work with his hands. I’d like to tell you he had a gift, aside from perseverance, but he did…
Joseph Somoza's 10th poetry collection THE MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE is forthcoming from Grandma Moses Press in Early Spring 2024. This poem is from that collection. And HAPPY NEW YEARS'S from CACTI FUR!
New Year’s Poem Hardly any movement but the windshaking banana-shaped brown seedpodson the locust trees. So many seeds,so little space to burrow in, so few birdsarriving for the year’s last birdsee…
John RC Potter is an international educator and gay man from Canada, living in Istanbul. He has experienced a revolution (Indonesia), air strikes (Israel), earthquakes (Turkey), boredom (UAE), and blinding snow blizzards (Canada)...
Cold Ashes You thought you left me behind languishing in the dust… then the air began to clear; so, I rose above the unsettled place where you once occupied a little space. The smell of smoke still…
Happy Hollidays from Laura Stamps and all the volunteer staff at CACTI FUR POETRY JOURNAL
Light So many postcards. So much to say. “Dear Elaine,” she writes to herself. “Almost Christmas. Can you tell? It’s the reindeer. They’re everywhere. Their antlers rising from car windows. Tiny Ch…
Barbara A Meier is a writer living in Lincoln, KS. She loves walking where her grandparents walked, watching baseball where her dad played, and sitting in the same church where her great grandfather preached.
The Let it Be Rock at Williamson River The campsite is guarded by a rim of lodgepole pine with a break through the bushes allowing a meandering path littered with sunboiled needles, and a saggy swa…
Gwil James Thomas is a novelist, poet, and inept musician. He lives in his hometown of Bristol, England but has also lived in London, Brighton, and Spain. His written work has been published widely in magazines, zines, and also online.
The Most MagicalThing To HappenAll Week. In the kitchen at work,a gargantuandaddy long legs landsin the bug zapperto an electricdrum solo of death -as we watchits poor bodyget cocoonedby sparks,bef…
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a repeat contributor to CACTI FUR : ROBIN WYATT DUNN
The Unprintable Word Beckons Me to Take a Seat the first call is very nicestretched out over the stratosphereshe beckons me into her earI listen to the sound of myselfrubbing up against my legspurr…
We love the list form and really appreciate this TO-DO LIST. Write your own TO-DO List poem and submit to Cacti Fur today...put it on your TO-DO List
A TO-DO LISTmake you happy,face east,keep an eye out for harlequins,look more up than down,walk and grunt at the same time,hold my nose when appropriate,don’t sneeze in public,do not use the …
All the guardian angels
have fled this war zone. ---- as BUKOWSKI says: WAR ALL THE TIME
AN ABSENCE She looks up to see a bathtub dangling three floors up from a three-walled building. Blue pipes leading nowhere in gray air. Bodies, old and young, scatter the ground. She wants to pray …
a poem that confronts domestic violence
because he can This morning he touched my cheek with tenderness where he had bruised it last night. Didn’t notice the purple mark left by his rage. Then he gently closed the door. Each day I move e…
poem originally broadcast in the final episode of MONSOON DOWN THE RADIO on KTAL-LP 101.5 Las Cruces. Poet Staley has been off alcohol since May of 2020, and off all drugs since March 2023.
Last Rites of a Shook Monkey for the Wharf Rats If this is preaching, it’s from the pulpit Jerry builtin rehab before his last breath. If this is preaching, it’s for those who reachedbetween the fe…
a handful of tiny poems from Joshua Beckman & Matthew Rohrer from their cult classic NICE HAT, THANKS. These few poems are presented for educational purposes as this book is not in print, and is nearly impossible to afford online.
NICE HAT, THANKS was originally published in 2002 by Verse Press. A few of the short, collaborative poems are being posted here for educational purposes. The 2 poets took turns writing lines. This …
on the transient nature of life...by an AMERICAN poet
After the Rain I glimpsed happiness, among the green leaves and damp grasses— the blades with their crystalline tears witnessed this joy, and partook in that brief, warm peace, which fades so rapid…
"there is another world inside, and it's inside this one" - Paul E'luard
Within This Tree Within this tree another tree inhabits the same body: within this stone another stone rests, its many shades of grey the same, its identical surface and weight. And within my body,…
My First Black Lives Matter EventPlaza de Las CrucesNew Mexico9.12.20 The restaurant patio on the cornerwas at capacity and clapping emphaticallyfor a white woman and her accompanistafter their set of covers includingTracy Chapman. Not “Fast Car”but the one that goes,give me one reason to stay hereand I’ll turn right back around....
My First Black Lives Matter EventPlaza de Las CrucesNew Mexico9.12.20 The restaurant patio on the cornerwas at capacity and clapping emphaticallyfor a white woman and her accompanistafter their set…
My First Black Lives Matter EventPlaza de Las CrucesNew Mexico9.12.20 The restaurant patio on the cornerwas at capacity and clapping emphaticallyfor a white woman and her accompanistafter their set of covers includingTracy Chapman. Not “Fast Car”but the one that goes,give me one reason to stay hereand I’ll turn right back around....
My First Black Lives Matter EventPlaza de Las CrucesNew Mexico9.12.20 The restaurant patio on the cornerwas at capacity and clapping emphaticallyfor a white woman and her accompanistafter their set…
My First Black Lives Matter EventPlaza de Las CrucesNew Mexico9.12.20 The restaurant patio on the cornerwas at capacity and clapping emphaticallyfor a white woman and her accompanistafter their set of covers includingTracy Chapman. Not “Fast Car”but the one that goes,give me one reason to stay hereand I’ll turn right back around....
My First Black Lives Matter EventPlaza de Las CrucesNew Mexico9.12.20 The restaurant patio on the cornerwas at capacity and clapping emphaticallyfor a white woman and her accompanistafter their set…
all the way from Seattle, Washington
Meditation: Listening Listen. Nearby, water rushes through the hose, birds twitter in a bush. wind rustles leaves. Listen out farther. Crows cawing in a tree, hammers on a building site, distant du…
Vyacheslav Konoval is a Ukrainian poet living in Kyiv whose work is devoted to the most pressing social problems of our time, such as poverty, ecology, relations between the people and the government, and war.
March 23rd Darkness, cold and water, the rain of the trenches of the bay, the shriveled fighter has lost a foot. Babakh gats there is an echo in the field, nature in winter hibernation, withou…
Bradford Middleton still lives in Brighton.
WENT TO WORK FOR LUNCH I went into work today & laughed as, for Once, everyone was pleased to see me. “Ah Brad,” one of them said, “it’s always Good to see you as that means my shift Is almost …
a prose poem from a regular contributor
Better The sky? Blue. Has to be blue. That’s what she wants. A blue-sky postcard. Okay. Found it. “Dear Elaine,” she writes. “So this morning. Pumping gas at Speedway. There I am. The rain is…
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