Mason Hamlin

Broken Cats

by Bradley Mason Hamlin

My girlfriend

she only

likes

broken cats

she’ll find them

in haunted shelters

or lost

crying in dark shadows

and

they’ve always

got mental issues

feral crazy

but wanting the love

she can give them

and just when I was

pointing this out to her

just when

I was going to say

something sarcastic

about the ones

that run

hide

show their fangs

and refuse training

I realized

I too was most likely

another broken cat

she took in

many full moons ago

when the alley

seemed like everything.

Bradley Mason Hamlin is an American writer, veteran of the United States Navy, and alumni of the University of California, where poet Gary Snyder dubbed Hamlin “The Road Warrior of Poetry!” Hamlin was born in Los Angeles and currently lives in Sacramento, California with his wife, kids, and wild cats. He is the editor of Zero Percent Magazine and his latest book of poems, The Surf Bum, is available from Black Shark Press.

Employee No. 23

by Bradley Mason Hamlin

Society

the irritated faces

atrocious attitudes

unkindness incorporated

and me working

within their system

infected

changing

molecules screaming

a monster, too

and I

swing my fists

of fury at them

constantly

kicking

jumping off cliffs

with little hope

for survival

crying mutiny

as I mutate

again

becoming more like

them

accepted

at the water cooler

now

and therefore

useless.

In Association with Fossil Publications