Alan Catlin

Alan Catlin has been making the small press and literary magazine scene since the 70’s. He doesn’t keep a running total, but he must have several thousand poems published in hundreds, if not thousands of publications, both obscure and well known. That and two dollars will get you on an express bus to Albany from Schenectady, where he has lived for over 40 years.

Arts & Crafts in the Day Room

Somewhere around my
eighth birthday mother
gave me a hand crafted
wallet made from a kit
she made in arts and crafts.
She seemed diminished
to me: so happy, agreeable,
smiling and affectionate,
I almost didn’t recognize
her. The nurses wanted me
to string beads, join in
with the others, “on parole”
patients in the day room.
I tried playing along but
couldn’t handle it. All I
wanted was my grandmother
to get me out of there,
to take me home, knowing
that gift she made me
was so out of character for
her, I wondered what they
did with her in that place.
Who this person was. If I’d
ever get my real mother back.