Fossils​

Issue 7

These are the paleontologist's passion,
all explicit configurations here in this area
called Needle Park.
Can you dig it-----
the vivid miasmic scene, money moving, man,
exchanging hands in contraband packages
& veins which nearly glow with an effort
not to shake.
 
Stay cool.  Rock steady, fear equaling motivation,
the desperate chutzpa of souls whose very marrow howls.
 
So this is the bones of civilization x-rayed:
high society traced from gutter grids & asphalt cracking
to expose tracks, hunger slums, the lives of kids
skidding on angel dust generations.
 
How to catch, hold fast with paperwork,
funding cuts slipping though fingers
like discovery charts going the way of Leakey's Lucy?
 
Don't publish data.  No.  It might be controversial.
 
Meanwhile other angels walk curb cliffs
& I'm trying to lighten things up by playing Pretend-----
See that puddle, the reflected skyscrapers & clouds
about used syringes & rainbow oil shimmering?
 
Yea, that's Machu Picchu or the Sphinx perhaps
& we're balancing here on this narrow cement stretch
with the importance of every powerless
spirit who needs a reason:
 
any; got that?

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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

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