in between dances
she looks for her last chance
picks at old wounds
long past infection
every pulse has a past
bad enough to scare
the devil
even on the nights
he turns in early
they’re all the same to her
since he walked out
left her with 3 kids
38 cents on the counter
a pack of Camels
one missing
Cathy Porter’s poetry has appeared in Plainsongs, Homestead Review, California Quarterly, Hubbub, Cottonwood, Comstock Review, and various other journals. She has two chapbooks available from Finishing Line Press: A Life In The Day (2012), and Dust And Angels (2014), as well as two chapbooks published by Dancing Girl Press in Chicago: Exit Songs (2016), and 16 Days (2019). Cathy is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and serves as a special editor for the journal Fine Lines in Omaha, NE, where she lives with her husband Lenny and their dog Marley, and cats Cody and Mini.