After the Regional Cat-Snack Sales Managers’ Meeting
Brad Rose
Brad Rose
"Tattoo Flash" by unidentified artist; pen and colored ink on cardboard; 8 1/8 x 10 1/8 in.; 20th century; open source from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The pet snack industry is family friendly, because people look like their pets, only more so. Of course, the public is legally entitled to know what it’s up against---you know, the raw, but cooked; the medium, but rare; the treble, not the bass. Once, I took a speed sleeping course, so now I’m able to catnap in half the time. Productivity has skyrocketed. Last night, after the quarterly regional sales managers’ meeting, I drove sleepily home through the night’s smooth and furry dark. The streets lay down flat as an omelet and my mind wandered toward the meaning of pets. Of course, nothing good can happen when a human thinks too long about a cat. As I pulled into our driveway, I didn’t hear a thing, until Mona ran out, screaming and sobbing Tiger, Tiger, at the top of her lungs, frantically pointing under my wheels, and offering to cut my hair for free with her newly stropped butcher knife. Wait a minute. Who’s running this meeting? I meowed.
About the Author
Brad Rose was born and raised in Los Angeles and lives in Boston. He is the author of three collections of poetry and flash fiction, "Pink X-Ray" (Big Table Publishing, 2015), "de/tonations" (Nixes Mate Press, 2020), and "Momentary Turbulence" (Cervena Barva Press, 2020). His fourth collection, "WordinEdgeWise," is forthcoming in 2021 from Cervena Barva Press. Five times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and twice nominated for Best of the Net Anthology, his poetry and micro fiction have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The American Journal of Poetry, Clockhouse, Hunger Mountain, Sequestrum, Folio, and other publications. His story, “Desert Motel,” appears in the anthology Best Microfiction, 2019. Brad’s website is: www.bradrosepoetry.com
About the Work
"In "After the Regional Cat-Snack Sales Managers’ Meeting," as with much of my work, I’m concerned with word play, defamiliarization, the juxtaposition of unlikely associations, and dark humor. When writing, I try to follow three precepts: 1) “Every view of things that is not strange is false,”— Paul Valéry.” 2) “The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange.” — GK Chesterton. 3) “The ugly may be beautiful, but the pretty, never.” — Paul Gauguin"
Brad Rose was born and raised in Los Angeles and lives in Boston. He is the author of three collections of poetry and flash fiction, "Pink X-Ray" (Big Table Publishing, 2015), "de/tonations" (Nixes Mate Press, 2020), and "Momentary Turbulence" (Cervena Barva Press, 2020). His fourth collection, "WordinEdgeWise," is forthcoming in 2021 from Cervena Barva Press. Five times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and twice nominated for Best of the Net Anthology, his poetry and micro fiction have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The American Journal of Poetry, Clockhouse, Hunger Mountain, Sequestrum, Folio, and other publications. His story, “Desert Motel,” appears in the anthology Best Microfiction, 2019. Brad’s website is: www.bradrosepoetry.com
About the Work
"In "After the Regional Cat-Snack Sales Managers’ Meeting," as with much of my work, I’m concerned with word play, defamiliarization, the juxtaposition of unlikely associations, and dark humor. When writing, I try to follow three precepts: 1) “Every view of things that is not strange is false,”— Paul Valéry.” 2) “The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange.” — GK Chesterton. 3) “The ugly may be beautiful, but the pretty, never.” — Paul Gauguin"
