BUY PRINT EDITION

Five Points Vol. 23, No. 1

Spring

They were all drowning
dozens of moths & wasps
in the small pool

My plan was to save them
scoop them out with my hands
& slip them on the deck to dry

The five I rescued died
here too, but more slowly
the shadows of bare
trees fell across the water

There was nothing to do
but wait & witness

The ones in the pool
tremored with sound
a choir of insects
singing into their deaths
beyond the range
of human hearing

Praising whatever weird
wind had carried them here
to die together

No desire, no hunger
nothing but this joy
this trembling

They knew themselves
as one being, voices
floating between trees
song sinking in water