Stephen Mead
Cutting Angels
(For Jose, Gloria, Timmy, Jan, Anna, Tom- remembering that
one Christmas decorating in an AIDS Hospice)
Between the steam of tea & blue cigarette rings,
the ice of these scissors, their snipping glint,
is the means to meaning.
So one might hope, belief being these paper wings
& so much of the celestial on a pinhead dense as I am.
Fog, fog now as usual,
now that parchment cut is the only clarity,
with red ribbon markings doodled on each breastplate:
a name, a name to fit below.
How many this Christmas will be collected?
Tree-hung as snowflakes, they are ornamental for all that spirit life
still eulogized between needles & balls of white lights
glistening in continuance enough
while we can remember their electric glow.
Bio
Resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall, https://thestephenmeadchromamuseum.weebly.com/ , Stephen Mead is a retiree whom, throughout all his pretty non-glamorous jobs still found time for writing poetry/essays and creating art. Occasionally he even got paid of this. Currently he is trying to sell his 40 year backlog of unsold art before he pops his cogs, https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/stephen-mead