by Mark Lee Webb
On a Very Average Painting of a Family Picnic at the Beach
Dad’s colliding with the sky
again a pelican black wing tips crash-diving mirrors while my sisters tread sand
Mom is turning into abandoned salt-water taffy and boardwalk dogs run loose no leash
hold the sauerkraut hold the mustard
hold the cheese hold the summer too late try to swim swim again
I get it all groupers are born females on bad days the ocean is the enemy and there’s a reason leaving at noon
for shade and a cold Pepsi might lose our spot or something after all
this is the beach and hard
When Dad Started Speaking
in tongues of epitaphs
the doctors collected his bones
and other broken parts
licked labels stuck them
on his skull
This Is The New One
taught him to paint
tombstones-by-numbers after he cut
himself on spilled milk
soaked his hands in
turpentine at night counted
leftover specks of dried enamel
in the morning
Mark Lee Webb is a poet, photographer, and musician. He received his MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte. His first full-length book of poetry, It's Not Easy Being a Moth, was released by Accents Publishing in 2021. His photographs of jazz musicians were featured at The fifteenTWELVE Gallery as part of the 2021 Louisville Photo Biennial. Mark is also a drummer, playing regularly with several jazz ensembles. He makes his home in Louisville with his wife, folk musician Molly McCormack.