{"id":8793,"date":"2024-01-31T22:00:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T05:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=8793"},"modified":"2024-02-05T23:10:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T06:10:10","slug":"two-poems","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=8793","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Patrick Meeds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Falling Sensation<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat with my mother
for a long time before she died.
All night that hospital odor mixed
with the smell of microwave popcorn.
When I finally left in the morning
she looked like a candle that had melted.
There are people who no longer
worry about the hands of the clock
touching them, but that\u2019s not me. I have
reached the age where I go to more
funerals than weddings (same grey suit)
and I am absolutely positive that
the dead are laughing at us. And why
shouldn\u2019t they? We are ridiculous.
Take this for example. I have a scar
on the palm of each hand. The left one
I named Chain Link and the right one
Fence. But get this. Someone just told me
that all the honey bees aren\u2019t really disappearing
like they said they were a few years ago.
I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true but it\u2019s probably best
if we keep operating as if they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

There Is No Such Thing<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to live on a street that had
a pay phone on the corner. One day
some guy beat it to death with its
own receiver. There\u2019s a lesson there
don\u2019t you think? We need to learn to die
better. I checked my mother\u2019s old copy
of Hints From Heloise but there was
nothing helpful there. Ask me nicely
and I\u2019ll show you my latest scar.
Ask me nicely and I\u2019ll go away. You know
how whales sometimes beach themselves
and no one knows why? It\u2019s happening
more and more. You shouldn\u2019t worry
when various appendages fall asleep.
They always reawaken full of promise
and white noise. If you still need more
evidence that evolution is true, the surgeon
who pulled my wisdom teeth said
they looked like they belonged in the mouth
of a dinosaur. 25 years later, slivers of bone
and teeth are still worrying their way out
of my gums. Here, look, I\u2019ll open wide\u00a0
and show you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PATRICK MEEDS<\/strong>\u00a0lives in Syracuse, NY, and studies writing at the Syracuse YMCA\u2019s Downtown Writer\u2019s Center. He has been previously published in\u00a0Stone Canoe Literary Journal, The New Ohio Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Atticus Review, Whiskey Island, Guernica, The Main Street Rag<\/em>, and\u00a0Nine Mile Review,<\/em>\u00a0among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Meeds That Falling Sensation I sat with my motherfor a long time before she died.All night that hospital odor mixedwith the smell of microwave popcorn.When I finally left in the morningshe looked like a candle that had melted.There are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8792,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8793","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-2hP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8819,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8793\/revisions\/8819"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}