I’d Rather Be an Elephant
There will be a few good moments, but mostly it will get worse. Cars and loved ones dying. Yesterday after 2 years of dental work to get perfect teeth for a 68 year old “rode hard and put up wet catfish”, they started doing a root canal, which ended up being an extraction. My 3 fake teeth and wisdom tooth extraction all for nothing except for a boat load of money. My lady thought I’d died, they brought her back where I was, 1 dental student, 3 professors, 4 asst. all working me over. My wife thinking WTF! Since Thanksgiving 6 poet pals died, family gone. The small press will always be a war, out of 10 new people you meet 3 might end up being amigo/as. When I get tiny royalty checks, $.42 or $2.11 my wife gets ticked off because she likes to balance to the penny or peso. Hang tough, you have your youth, when you come to the fork in the road, take it.
Catfish McDaris has been in many magazines, books, and broadsides. He’s a 30-year small press and 3-year Army artillery veteran, from Albuquerque and Milwaukee. He works in a wig store in a dangerous neighborhood. Second day on the job, a lady dropped her purse and a loaded 357 rolled out on the floor, pointed at him. He was nominated for a 2021 Pulitzer Prize but didn’t make the final cut.
