Amber Alert

by Megan Denese Mealor

Ululate, kneel, keep on praying 
for the boy with callow ash coils
lamenting on ice in a 
malignant mutation’s groggy basement,
nothing but a malnourished mattress 
seeping high-pitched stains
and a Ninja Turtles fleece throw 
to clutch like his plush aqua dragon
by the abrasive March murk
outside a guiltless awning window.

Bring your libations of powdered balloons
and warm long-drawn candles 
blooming like right-handed pansies 
along the gurgling sidewalks
of Gentle Rain Drive, 
where the boy’s prostrate bicycle 
was abdicated in an acrobatic frenzy,
its front wheel found still gasping
for its life of arterial country streets.

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Megan Denese Mealor echoes and erases in Jacksonville, Florida. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and 2023 Best of the Net candidate, her writing has been featured in hundreds of journals, most recently Across the Margin, Brazos River Review, and The Disappointed Housewife. She has authored three poetry collections: “Bipolar Lexicon” (Unsolicited Press, 2018); “Blatherskite” (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, 2019); and “A Mourning Dove’s Wishbone” (Cyberwit, 2022). Megan lives with her husband and their 9-year-old son.

Photo by Florencia Potter on Pexels.com.

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