catfish mc daris

Harmonica Blues


His daughter came to
tell him his wife had
died, tears dribbled
off his sunken cheeks

He looked at his harp
& the bars & walls
& tried to smile at
the only good thing
he had ever done

Rubbing the cool metal
through his fingers &
running his tongue over
the holes, he blew

Sad crying hysterical
notes trying to capture
what a woman's body
felt like

What the church bells
& trains sounded like
when he hugged his
family & his daughter
rode his shoulders.


Catfish McDaris is a journeyman bricklayer & retired postal worker. He has 20 chapbooks, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in prose & poetry 15 times. He won the Uprising Award in 99 & the Flash Fiction contest from Unlikely Stories, judged by the Poet Laureate of the U.S. last year. His last big reads were at The Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore in Paris & The Green Mill in Chicago.