Stephen Mead

These cut squares, these street blocks, a sea of them
& feet on that ice, the gray wisps of hard streaks,
reflections in a sheep's eye, the clear, the occluded,
how it spreads, the expanse, how it may lift-----

Lines in such space, clock hands, dagger arrows
against the blue, the cloud-white, & everywhere
tightropes with balancing the only net, balancing
to keep feet steady, eyes all around,

all around eyes
straight, straight ahead

for the time, the marble, the shoes
no one else has ever walked in once.

Resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall, Stephen Mead is a retiree whom, throughout all his pretty non-glamorous jobs still found time for writing poetry/essays and creating art. Occasionally he even got paid of this.