My wife has slashed my farmer psyche


chopped my tree-hugger mentality, rubbed
my face in my own soil. She dug up ten
scheffleras to move them less than a foot.
I only saw the Southern sun baking naked roots,
earth disturbed, botanical misery. In my prolonged
silence of digging new holes she offered
a dove, “Honey, you know, gardeners move
things all the time. They’re always watching
things grow, overgrow and die. Stems and twigs
go their own way, leaves turn different colors
and size as they age. Things get tangled
and messy. Textures change. That’s how it is.
Can you look at it from that perspective?
That’s all I’m asking.” I couldn’t see her
face beneath the floppy brim of the straw hat,
her city-hands spreading mulch over the new
locations. The planter looked much better,
I said so in an olive branch of words.




Leaving a coffee shop, stumbling upon death


A woman splayed on leaf-slicked
blacktop, her chalky hands and face,
like clouds, escape a sky-blue smock.
I saw no blood, nor steam from warm
blood crawling up the chill of the air.
But falling down were cold leaves,
leaves from various trees, to lay
a patchwork on the cooling body.

A man in a green sedan, face
in his hands, hands buried
in the cradle of the steering wheel.
He went to the woman, shooed
away leaves, touched her fingers
with his, waited for help to come.

We all waited, mired in death
beneath the spires and steeples.

I felt palpitations. Pressure swabbed
my throat dry, tried to escape
through ears and steaming rapid breath.
Doves and ravens, alternated tip-to-tail,
spun a ring around a blanched New Haven
steeple – faster and faster as sirens rang
louder. The centrifuge grew grey,
blended into the autumn day
when my blood-empty lips
sipped the scald of the cappuccino.


Steve Meador’s book Throwing Percy from the Cherry Tree, released by D-N Publishing in 2008, was nominated for several awards, including a National Book Award and a Pulitzer. His poetry has appeared two hawks quarterly, Quicksilver, Blue Fifth Review, Prism Review, Mipoesias & many others. He has multiple Pushcart nominations. Consistently one of Tampa’s top real estate agents, you can find him at hangingmossjournal (dot) com