New Poetry by Doug Holder

An old cat chases an imaginary mouse

He still
plays the game
of cat and mouse.

Stumbling
to and fro
across the house
to capture
the stealthy
phantom
behind the brittle
bars of his
decaying teeth
the damp, dark
prison of
his mouth.

This spectral rodent
taunts the cat--
he chases his ghostly prey
paws and claws
in demented disarray.

And for all of
his feverish wanderlust
he comes up
with a jaw
of dust.


- Doug Holder 2020

Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. His work has appeared in the Northeast Corridor, Word Riot, Blue Pepper, First Literary East, and many other places. The " Doug Holder Papers Collection" is currently being processed at the University at Buffalo Rare Book and Poetry Collection. Holder recently published a play with Lawrence Kessenich titled, "The Patient," that is set at a psychiatric hospital outside of Boston. Holder teaches writing at Endicott College in Beverly, Ma. and Bunker Hill Community College in Boston.