Today's poem is by Sara Michas-Martin

Influencers
       

Lunch is short and covered with scratches
lunch has a violin it saws with a tiny spoon

everything on the plate is trying to win
a drop of oil has spoiled the apple

if you won't eat that here's more bread a cracker
a little sand in the bag ground shells in the sand

sometimes lunch is tired sometimes
lunch wants to be overlooked

like the lives of bacteria
or new rings inside oak trees

or the massive bruise spreading underwater
up and down the Pacific coast

those are sea urchins
and they are starving

as is the case with most creatures
to excel at being

and by excellent I mean enumerated
the word explosion has been applied

their star-shaped jaws take down
whole forests of swaying light

and here we are standing at the shoreline
what can be done what should be saved

send in divers with hammers
to smash and shake up the fruits

Copyright © 2024 Sara Michas-Martin All rights reserved
from Conduit
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission