New Poetry by Stephen Mead

Fair Game

Last spring they dug up the bittersweet,

wild ivy and grape vines.

Of course I didn't actually own them.

It was just an adventure to duck under

such a menagerie overgrown.

How those plants made the picket fence sag,

their weight seeking a trellis from splintery slats.

How they blocked out, kudzu-tenacious,

the new shopping mall and housing complex next door.

Those orange & ochre balls, those tendrils

resiliently tough, exactly matched my spirit,

resistant & fierce, a quiet heady savage.

Come, travel wanderlust, this cove

of looping stems, this crazy valley maze.

Some thought it an eyesore.

I found it more methodical.

To meander is an ancient tendency.

An odd goose among school kids, there I was happiest.

The cats, those observers, taught independence, & squirrels

ran the network of tangled abandoned telephone spools.

When the bittersweet was yanked clear, the grape vines clipped,

for a minute I felt the earth had been skinned

as the malls spread their asphalt.

That evening you brought me a handful of dandelions,

buttery stuff in a little jelly jar.

How our flesh reflected their Oleo & how life

was rearranged.

Tonight on the fire escape transplanted vines wind,

mixed with morning glories in windowsill planters.

This is risk reconciled, this a fool's daring smashing bricks.

We warm our hands 'round chipped coffee mugs,

take some bittersweet, weave a jungle in each other's hair.

The din of shoppers is muffled, the light, mild, the air, tropic.

There doesn't have to be another world, simply our gestures

& what stubborn roots trust fortifies.

- © Stephen Mead 2023

Stephen Mead is an Outsider multi-media artist and writer.  Since the 1990s he’s been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online.  Recently his work has appeared in CROW NAME, WORDPEACE and DuckuckMongoose. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall, The Chroma Museum - The Chroma Museum (weebly.com)