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Text Message to My Stepson

By Cal Freeman
Spring 2022 | Poetry

You remember that tree of heaven,

also called stinking sumac, also called varnish

tree, also called ailanthus altissima

of the Simaroubaceae family that bowed

the fence on Drew’s side

when you were a kid?

It seems serendipitous and strange

that you spent countless hours

kicking a soccer ball beneath it

and are now studying the benefits

of the quassinoids such putrefying

plant matter becomes.

What heals heals. The chain link

bellied out, the boy

you were gone to another state.

Cal Freeman is the author of the books Fight Songs (Eyewear, 2017) and Poolside at the Dearborn Inn (R&R Press, 2022). His writing has appeared in many journals including The Oxford-American, River Styx, Ligeia Magazine, Southword, Passages North, and Hippocampus. He currently serves as Writer-In-Residence with Inside Out Literary Arts Detroit and teaches at Oakland University.


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