Wasps

 

Not only the threat of the sting.

Your bodies, bulbous, hovering,

obscene, I loathe, and your

angry buzz, like lawyers arguing.

 

Perhaps you’re excited

with your creation,

nest stuck in the eaves,

an insect Mesa Verde.

 

Who can say humans are

dissimilar, with our

constant traffic whizzing

round skyscrapers?

Looking up at your home,

 

alive with crawling bodies,

I think barrios of Ecuador.

Brothels of Calcutta.

Stock exchanges.

Parliament. Or perhaps

 

you are monks,

droning a spiritual

syllable, loving your world.

Everywhere beings

sing their self-importance.

 

 

                        --Karen Braucher

                        from Aqua Curves (copyright 2005),

                        first published in the journal Pool

 

 

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