the ligustrum needs pruning
Lee Clark Zumpe
a mile from the gulf you can still smell
salt on the air some evenings
when the sea breeze
is just so.
here, on a strip of land that once had
more citrus trees than houses,
Sundays fade quickly
beneath doting live oaks.
the purple glow of evening
settles across the backyard,
gray barbeque smoke
curls in trees.
overgrown and full of deadwood,
the ligustrum needs pruning:
I wink and tell it
I’ll catch it next weekend.
About the Author
Lee Clark Zumpe has been writing and publishing horror, dark fantasy and speculative fiction since the late 1990s. His short stories and poetry have appeared in a variety of publications such as Weird Tales, Space and Time and Dark Wisdom; and in anthologies such as Corpse Blossoms, Best New Zombie Tales Vol. 3, Steampunk Cthulhu and World War Cthulhu. His work has earned several honorable mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror collections. An entertainment columnist with Tampa Bay Newspapers, Lee has penned hundreds of film, theater and book reviews and has interviewed novelists as well as music industry icons such as Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains and Alan Parsons. His work for TBN has been recognized repeatedly by the Florida Press Association, including a first place award for criticism in the 2013 Better Weekly Newspaper Contest. Lee lives on the west coast of Florida with his wife and daughter. Visit http://www.leeclarkzumpe.com.