Poetry
Mistletoe
by Michael McFeeDoctor Winter
discovers this tumor
high in the overarching oak,
un-shot-down, unreachable,
its stormcloud planet
stuck to an outermost branch,
parasitic darkness
under which only the dead
will ever be kissed.
Michael McFee has taught poetry writing at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1990. The author of fourteen books—most recently That Was Oasis (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2012), a collection of poetry and The Napkin Manuscripts: Selected Essays and an Interview (University of Tennessee Press, 2006)—he received the 2009 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. "Mistletoe" first appeared in Shenandoah 57/3.
