Sweet Gum

by David L. McNaron

No one’s fond
of those little grenades

you drop, hazards
for ankles, lawnmowers 

to spit out 
like scuppernong seeds.  

But there’s nothing 
like a stand of you in summer—pink

wispy blossoms, lazy, 
stoned, floating on the breeze

like some early version
of myself.

David L. McNaron grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He was educated at UAB, the University of Miami and Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he received the MFA in Writing. McNaron retired from teaching philosophy in South Florida in 2018 and now resides in Cullman, Alabama. His poems have appeared in Deep South, Poetry East, Gulf Stream, Mississippi Review, Poem, Ellipsis, Tor House Newsletter, The Midwest Quarterly, Third Wednesday, Summerset Review, Red Booth Review and other magazines.