'the ligustrum needs pruning' by Lee Clark Zumpe

a mile from the gulf you can still smell

salt on the air some evenings

when the sea breeze

is just so

here, on a strip of land that once had

more citrus trees than houses,

Sundays fade quickly

beneath doting live oaks

the purple glow of evening

settles across the backyard,

gray barbeque smoke

curls in trees

overgrown and full of deadwood,

the ligustrum needs pruning:

I wink and tell it

I’ll catch it next weekend

All Rights. Lee Clark Zumpe.

Lee Clark Zumpe, an entertainment editor with Tampa Bay Newspapers, earned his bachelor’s in English at the University of South Florida. He began writing poetry and fiction in the early 1990s. His work has regularly appeared in a variety of literary journals and genre magazines over the last two decades. Publication credits include Tiferet, Zillah, The Ugly Tree, Modern Drunkard Magazine, Red Owl, Jones Av., Main Street Rag, Space & Time, Mythic Delirium and Weird Tales.

Lee lives on the west coast of Florida with his wife and daughter. Visit www.leeclarkzumpe.com.