A Toast to Making Nearly Nothing by Steve Meador | Poetry

Poetry – Issue 3 | February 2009

A Toast to Making Nearly Nothing

by Steve Meador

Here’s to

our first house in Laguna Hills,
the one with the brittle grass
that crackled under our soft feet;
the one with that shit-caked rabbit
caged in the foyer and the lime shag
woven so stiff with filth and the odor
of rotted meat that we dubbed it
“The bastard cousin of Astroturf;”

never forgetting putty knives plowing
through thick grease on kitchen walls;
the paralyzing horror of aluminum wiring
sizzling on outlets like firecracker fuses;

being indentured to possibilities
and potential for six months as we made
it all perfect for another young couple who
bought within an hour of walking through;

the house we made a few bucks on
then stood at the back slider and cried
until our heads ached from dehydration.

Cheers.

Steve Meador is one of Tampa’s top Realtors. He travels to hell and back on a daily basis, stealing little pieces of charcoal and scribbling down the misery he sees in foreclosures. Some of these scribblings resulted in Throwing Percy From the The Cherry Tree, a 2008 National Book Award and Pulitzer nominee. His work appears in Avatar Review, Blue Fifth Review, Foliate Oak, Stirring, Umbrella Journal, and Word Riot.

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Literary Bohemian

Poetry – Issue 3 | February 2009