National Poetry Month

[brigdh]

Bedazzled - Yusef Komunyakaa

A jeweled wasp stuns
A cockroach & plants an egg
Inside. In no time, easy
As fear eats into someone,

The translucent larva grows
Beneath its host's burnished
Shell. The premature stinger
Waits like a bad idea, almost

Hidden. Summertime
Breathes on the thorny leaf.
Before the new wasp breaks
Free, they are one. No longer

Fat on death's fugacity,
By tomorrow afternoon
It will cling to a window screen
Bright as Satan's lost tiepin.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Awesome imagery and metaphor.
It's a perfect description of a panic attack, whatever else it was meant to be.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Sorry Dude. That was me not logged in.(Time to change password it was.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee, no worries, I've unscreened it now. And I'm glad you liked it! It's about a Cockroach wasp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_cockroach_wasp), which are pretty creepy and not really an obvious subject for poetry.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know the species.
Well, we've never dated or anything, but we've spoken at parties.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha! Probably a wise decision to keep your distance in this case.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I think I have more sense than a cockroach. Some, anyway.