Peeking Cat 40 is now available in print! It features all the poems and prose published on the Peeking Cat Literary website from October 2020 to September 2021 – that’s 64 writers and 109 pages of wonderful writing! Our gorgeous front cover photo was taken by Beverly M. Collins, and there’s another peeking cutie inside, courtesy […]
Now I Am the Raven’s Sticks, the Nightingale’s Bidding Once I was a lie, her deceit, dreamt insidea solemn oath. Once I was a fledgling, folded in threads and nestledin another’s hands. Once I was the undertow swept along the stones of the swift seasister to the selkie’s distant shores. Once I was a soft […]
Unable To Locate Brent Carlin came into the 7-11 to buy a quart of milk.He showed me the program from our 40th reunion.My name—unable to locate. I guess I missed the emails. Well, you found me. It didn’t start out that way. I did the right things:Married the girl, raised our son—now in Florida,I cut […]
Hand-Me-Downs Heirloom seeds still bloom brightin the garden, fill supper bowls and bellies before bedtime.Treasures handed down from a white-haired grannyin a worn cotton dress, thin ankle socks limp againstthe tops of ragged shoes, who once quilted alongsidewant and despair, stitched tears of joy and sorrowand a few family secrets into each Log Cabin, Star,and […]
(Click to enlarge) Bio Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA fiction program. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” and “Tales From A Communion Line,” have been nominated for Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.
My Grandfather’s Allotment My grandfather had an affinity with soil,he read it every bit as well as I might read a book.Heavy clay weighed upon his rust-hobbed boots along with loam beneath his graft-chipped fingernails,these features marked for me his manly signature.Flat cap, scuff-sleeved old tweed jacket, shirtopen at the neck, best forgotten old grey […]
amateur narcissusradiatingthis puddle colours me in gentle raindrop wavesi’m beautifuli really am islands of sapphire sky and abandoned musicenter my mouth and ears like words and i can speak on reflectioni choose silence though oncewhen my head combusted with infantile starlit rhythmsi was a poet Bio Jeremy Platt is based in the Lake District. […]
Saved Pink pulsatingwomb cordjoinsmotheranddaughtertogether. At birth,extra cord cellscollected,frozen, Saved. Graciously givento anunknownboy’scancer-riddenbody. Eleven years later,boy is nowpulsating withfresh pinkpure blood. Saved. The boyandthe girlbound togetherby theshared cordand blood. For eternity.Anonymously. Bio Lisa Molina holds a BFA from the University of Texas. After teaching high school theatre and English, she served as Associate Publisher of […]
Frost All a poet ever needsis a mountainand shallow streams. Inspiration can be found by simply touchingthe barren ground. The Earth speaks and the river sings. Look at what the bluebird brings. Twigs at a timewill build a home. We are built to sit and freely roam. Bio Zach Beach, MA is an internationally […]
Dreams These chevroned waves start fromthe mind, ending only there, myriadshapes moving as shadow puppets. There now an island alluring, a meremirage of a choppy sea; chaperonedapparitions for vespertine hours; desires waltzing on the inner palisades.Love lingers in the air as lust leavesthrough the secret doors and rusty hinges. And one day phantasm fizzle out […]
