Poetry from Edie Meade

Photo: Revolt

American Wisdom [American sentences]

A greased glass jar under each leg of the crib
frustrates the scorpions. Get you a man who shakes
out pantlegs, who inspects seams, who takes his time. Writes you
in American sentences: consecutive, no chance of parole.

The second child hits different than the first – don’t get me started.
A rainbow baby against a blue sky is still a little bit blue. Get some
Blue Blockers if you want to see, or not, I’m not
one to judge.

A house of glass
jars, you better believe it my shoes stay on indoors. Vaseline
is a byproduct of offshore oil rig pumps — get you some. Good
for windburn, preventing diaper rash, keeping the scorpions down.

From time to time I feel like shaking my can,
spray-painting some pallets. It’s all for sale, American flag
décor on Facebook Marketplace. Get you some
jelly jars, good for wedding receptions and scorpions.

You never know unless you check
for carbon monoxide or radon. Men
are always hiding dismembered bodies in basement crawlspaces.
That’s what they say in details at eleven: he was the quiet type.

You always think it’ll be different when it happens on your block.
You think you’d be able to smell a danger like that,
but there’s the rub. Any news show worth its salt
keeps “THE SILENT KILLER” graphic handy. You never know

when you need to report a tragedy or a crime.
You can’t be a pillar of the community without tossing salt. As luck
would have it, inflation-adjusted prayers are still so cheap.
Count in American syllables by finger

by candlelight. That I’m a traditionalist
explains my seasonal depression.
Seasonal garments are getting harder to rend
on my mom’s porch goose. Especially how

outside the Midwest, nobody sees the appeal. Especially now,
when we’re all living in a desert
of some kind. Nobody cares how a concrete goose is dressed
for the end of the world.
.

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Edie Meade is a writer, artist, and mother of four in Huntington, West Virginia. Recent work can be found in The Normal School, Still: The Journal, Feral and elsewhere. Say hi on Twitter @ediemeade or https://ediemeade.com/.