The black velvet petunias eat away at your antipathy–
sunless conduit flowers for unlit obituary candles,
Drunk Tank Pink garnish of a burial shroud,
a jolt of dazed amaranth lipstick.
Your queasy hackles and fretful claws arise at
unloaded chestnuts, banal buzzwords, malapropos attire
from the hesitant moonlighting horde
milling about the funeral potatoes and grape salad
clad in charcoal pocket squares and spiky snake stilettos.
Just where were these claimant chameleons
when our daisy-coated guest of honor
was unviably gasping for sightless survival
against the chartreuse mica backdrop of autonomy?
Minimally conscious, she would fathom my spindly wrist,
inwardly feeling for the twin Chinese staircase bracelet
which fused together the starburst macrame shackles
of our fishtailed Wonder Loom infancy.
About the Author
Megan Denese Mealor echoes and erases in her native Jacksonville, Florida. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her writing has been featured in literary journals worldwide, most recently Across the Margin, Brazos River Review, and The Disappointed Housewife. She is the author of three poetry collections: Bipolar Lexicon (Unsolicited Press), Blatherskite(Clare Songbirds), and A Mourning Dove’s Wishbone (forthcoming). Her debut chapbook, A Cat May Look Like a King, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in summer 2026.