The old orange tom named Augie was already so close 
to death that euthanasia seemed superfluous. Seven years 
of nursing him through feline AIDS had taken their toll 
on both the cat and Jansen, who had kept him alive with 
regular injections of steroids and a diet of gourmet chicken 
and tuna fish that would’ve been the envy of many 
Third World children. This once feral animal had been tamed 
over the course of two years of outstretched hands 
proffering treats only to be greeted by claws again and again 
until, all at once, they weren’t. From that moment on Augie 
was all gentleness. Jansen realized the scars would outlive 
the creature that made them, and again his eyes filled with tears. 
Maybe he could hide them from the vet. Maybe he didn’t care to try. 
This dying ball of bones, loose skin and spiked fur was the one 
good thing he and Sherry had ever done together. What would 
they talk about now? What would they do? An eternity 
of empty evenings stretched out before him like a line 
of willows down a dark river. The vet approached holding 
the needle as tenderly as Jansen held the cat. He spoke quietly, 
soothingly, of how there would be no pain, no fear, simply 
a gradual drifting away into sleep and then stillness. Gripped 
by a force he could neither name nor control, Jansen was 
suddenly unable to stop himself from asking if he could possibly 
have a second needle. 

Publisher’s Note:

To quote from the Writing: Poetry section of Kurt Luchs’s website, where he’s describing a trio of his poems published in Triggerfish Critical Review:

“...All three are comedic prose poems with a serious undertone. If you say, ‘Wait, these aren’t prose poems! They aren’t divided into paragraphs and the line breaks don’t look like prose!’ I can only reply that this is the way James Tate did it and he is my master when it comes to prose poetry. You can take it up with him. Except he’s dead....”

Speaking for myself, I see “Augie” as a free-verse narrative poem, whose intentional line breaks enhance the telling of the story. When structured as a prose poem in paragraphs, or in a single block of prose with no line breaks, the piece reads differently. To satisfy my curiosity, I formatted the poem different ways—and I believe it reads better with Kurt’s line breaks. Whether we call it prose poetry or narrative free verse, I especially like “Augie” and I’m pleased and honored to publish it.

I also enjoyed reading about Tate’s prose poetry in Kurt’s essay “James Tate and the Saving Grace of Poetic Narrative” in The Exacting Clam (No. 21, Summer 2026):
https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-21-summer-2026/james-tate-and-the-saving-grace-of-poetic-narrative/

Bio: Kurt Luchs