Mercedes Lawry
“Help, I’m Running Backward and It Feels So Good”
from Caketrain Issue 02

Little or no reason for the sugar plantation.
Happiness gave up and went home.
Something about a pepper tree or cheatgrass.
The elderly man is trying to pray, but whispering
in his ear is a badly dressed ghost… “Too late,”
it says, its voice like broken zippers, “too late.”
I was in third grade once though no one will believe it.
I have the valentines as proof, and none of those cheap,
corny little ones, a hundred in a pack.
There were too many candles. I sent out invitations.
They said NO CANDLES in 16pt. Book Antiqua.
Oh, the days I myself feel like an old book,
it’s not too bad. Keep your eye on the moon,
soon it will be gone and you’ll be called a liar.

Caketrain is a literary journal and press based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our interest is in bringing you, reader, the very best in contemporary creative writing, full stop. Our goals are for each issue of our journal to submerge you in a birthing tank for gelatinous language monsters, young masses of tentacular foci undulating as directed (in all, at once) by our eclectic stable of contributors; for each new book we publish to seduce and ensnare you, sometimes intangibly, always undeniably; and for you, reader, to be able to draw at least one passage from our banks that prods your mind with such precision and power that it feels as if it was written for your eyes alone. To wit and to whet, here is a snippet, a slight nip of our delicious lit mix:

Copyright 2003-2006 Caketrain Journal and Press. Rights to literature revert to their respective authors.
ISSN 1547-6839.

How's Our Driving?
Send an email to
[email protected].

Powered by Blogger
Hosting by Doteasy
Audio player by del.icio.us