Mio Is a Punk Rocker
After I put a studded collar on my calico cat named Mio, she started acting like a punk, slam-dancing recklessly with her unaware sister and brother (more like stage-diving on them), meowing loudly in defiance that she was not consuming any food from multi-death corporations (MDC); I explained that's all I can afford, otherwise you'll go hungry, whereupon she put her paw to her head and shook it back and forth, meowing in displeasure, saying, couldn't I still eat the food but not support those dirty rotten imbeciles (DRI), and sensing victory I quickly replied, that's exactly what poseur punks do, and, seeming quite pleased, she frantically started gulping down that plate of Fancy Feast.
Joey Whitton was born on the East Coast, raised on the West Coast, and now lives in the Deep South. Hardcore punk has inspired him for decades. His poetry is forthcoming in Heavy Feather Review, Bicoastal Review, and Generation Gap, and has appeared in Flipside Magazine, The Itch Lit, TheNewVerse.News, Neologism Poetry Journal, Misfit Magazine, Sky Island Journal, Poetry Pacific, The Broken Teacup, Trashlight, and BlazeVOX Journal. His first chapbook, After the Grail, is forthcoming from Bottlecap Press and is expected to be available in late February 2027.
