Take This Ache
by Stephen Mead

It is a stomach I keep trying to fill,
mistaking the location, mistaking stones for food.
Only hunger still gains weight, pounds & ounces unse
growing like a highway I eat by moving.
That's at least carrying on, a song for the ears
giving meaning to the spirit.  Oh, swing
low, sweet trails, & I'll be a houseboat
in a Venetian bestiary of pigeons & cats,
the passing gondolas, mutts by the poles,
those strong steering arms going by winged
lion statues, glowing window reflections,
& the clomp clomp of palominos, gold,
golden all.

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Stephen Mead is an Outsider multimedia artist and writer.  Since the 1990s he’s been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online.  He is also grateful to have managed to keep various day jobs for the Health Insurance. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall: The Chroma Museum