Jeff Fleming

Paint Creek

There are ghosts
in the orchard
picking fruit
and telling stories
of crisp fall days
when you could bite
the air like an apple

Jeff Fleming says: “I have been writing poetry, with varied success, since I was 13. When my parents bought me a Smith-Corona electric typewriter and I no longer had to struggle with my awkward, slow, nearly illegible hand writing, the poems flew from my mind to the paper and then to the trash (we didn’t recycle back then). In college, the advertising, psychology and education departments failed to see my brilliance, but the English department was not so blind and eventually granted me a bachelors degree in English with an emphasis in writing. In 1995, I started publishing my own small press poetry magazine. The greatest benefit being an editor with whom I shared a strong poetic sensibility and an openness to my own work. The magazine folded in 2002 due to the birth of my first son (and the resulting lack of sleep and extra money). My brain has adapted to parenthood sufficiently that I have recently dipped my toes back into that small pond.”