Today's poem is by David Groff

Desert Stink Beetle
       

You who gave your wings for more water,
evolving to adhere them to your thorax
until you became a shiny black capsule,
a desert death-reaper, a hearse of a bug,

nosing the dirt as if you hunt your glasses,
your butt in the sky like a hi-rider,
comically somber, somberly comic,
your exhaust your line of defense,
the twenty-inch ray of spray
you emit to get the last word,
a stink you survive that lets you survive,

                                        —my darkling,

my thick drop of unmooned night,

let me persist as your species,
submit my wings to my torso,
commit myself to ground,
make my diet detritus and shit,

evolve to be unlovely,
a black ruby of gloom,
a fecal American scarab,

behind my earth-ridden face
my breath all bad,
my ass in the air my moon,
ready to let it out,
ready to take it in.

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Copyright © 2023 David Groff All rights reserved
from Live in Suspense
Trio House Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission