Perfect Weed

by E. F. Schraeder

If life were a hiking trail, you’d tell yourself, Look out.
Don’t fall back, shortcut through the frog habitat,
or tromp, wet shoes sagging, through the river.

That never pays off. Take a breath at the crest,
let both feet stand like anvils or anchors.
Ignore quicksand praise and forest fire blame.

This life isn’t a birthday party
or spy game. Listen, it’s more like
showing up uninvited, an inspired
yellow bloom in cracked pavement.

* * * * *

"Perfect Weed" originally appeared at Slink Chunk Press, February 2016.

Ethicist, poet, and speculative fiction writer E. F. Schraeder is the author of two poetry chapbooks, most recently Chapter Eleven (Partisan Press). Schraeder’s work has appeared in Sinister Wisdom, Birthing Monsters, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Mystery Weekly Magazine, The Feminist Wire, and other journals and anthologies. Schraeder holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. emphasizing applied ethics and is at work on a full length manuscript of poems.