Peter Meinke      Saint Petersburg   (M.B. McLatchey)
The Last Holiday

…all day under the sun with hoe and hose
taking advantage of the holiday to whip
his garden into shape   which he is out of
so when it’s time to watch the fireworks


he begs off   Poor old dad   closing
his door that evening losing it  missing
the show   But behind his shut lids shimmer
crinkled streamers of boston fern


sparklers of campanula and carnation
daisy pinwheels and ginger flares:
A pyrotechnical dandelion parachutes
on the black wind!   Ans high above them all


spraying like a burst heart
a perfect Rosa Multiflora
its petals dissolving in the patriotic dark
like pink aspirin…
​