Gone, Already
Vegetable matter,
dried skin on kitchen floor.
Scorpion season: thorax-shaped
tomato stems fool me into terror.
Dog presses against
barbed wire links,
with nowhere to go
but the same ten feet of earth.
One hundred degrees
for the rest of the month.
Ashes on shelf,
spirit in atmosphere,
long past the point
of concern. You have
flown north again,
towards cooler weather.
Sometimes your eyes
stare like the dog’s,
but I know it’s just me
trying not to forget.
Leah Mueller lives in Bisbee, Arizona. She is the author of ten prose and poetry books. Her new book, “The Destruction of Angels” (Anxiety Press) was published in October 2022. Leah’s work appears in Rattle, NonBinary Review, Citron Review, The Spectacle, Miracle Monocle, New Flash Fiction Review, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, etc. She is a 2023 nominee for both Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her flash piece, “Land of Eternal Thirst” appears in the 2022 edition of Best Small Fictions. Website: www.leahmueller.org.
South Broadway Ghost Society 