Mayor Betty's Cameron Crawdad Fest by Jacob Strautmann

12 Days of Fiction

I had an idea. An idea that would make the perfect gift for people this holiday season. Story. Creation. Narrative. All for free.

So I contacted some people I know who I thought might make a good fit. People who have a creative streak and have something to say. People from different backgrounds and different ways of expressing themselves.

Each day for 12 days, new material will be released. It's our gift to you. Happy Holidays. Celebrate story.

Mayor Betty's Cameron Crawdad Fest

by Jacob Strautmann

Each Spring they hold a Crawdad Fest
(the “f” in “fest” -- pincers and a tail
painted red on a white sail
tacking from 2nd Best Dressed

to Lou’s Taxidermy Studios
top floor "Observation Wing").
It was all the Mayor’s thing
after her husband chose

the trucker’s life, left her to raise
seven dull-eyed sons
seven years ago, the sons
she groomed, called her Grace,

(her private test) who through sheer will
she crowned the Crawdad King
six years running with sponsoring
businesses as far as Moundsville.

Her Administration took up the cause--
once, her inlaw’s grill in May--
to celebrate the Municipality,
revitalized as well as it ever was,

and possibly entice new funds
for the city building’s leaky roof;
the 20% they raised was proof
it worked as well as raffling guns.

“A comfort, maybe,” said someone,
her youngest, buried. Heroin.

Jacob Strautmann’s poems have appeared in Salamander Magazine, The Boston Globe, Agni Online, The Appalachian Journal, Solstice, Jam Tarts, Quiddity, and are forthcoming from Unsplendid. He is a contributing editor for Salamander Magazine. He teaches creative writing at Boston University where he is also the Managing Director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.