Boxelder bugs
Catalogue of delights: 8
life
delights
(image: Adelaide Tyrol)
Boxelder bugs
- Like life, you kept finding your way through my
- walls despite how many times I squished you
- nudged you onto paper mail to leave you
- out in the harsh winter air, where confused
- you wondered what happened to the warmth of
- a home that once housed your black-red body.
- You looked at me with curiosity
- the other day as I was about to
- sweep you away. You crawled along the top
- of my couch, and when I approached you turned
- your body, antennae, and zigzagged legs
- at me as if you knew what was coming.
- In a funny way you give my days shape
- consistency in my daily motions
- meaning I am not creative in how
- I get rid of you from my empty flat
- always with guilt and a pinch of remorse
- because you are there during lonely nights
- in the vents, hiding in the windowsill,
- always available like morning light
- to spring me from my longing, to wake me
- into something just beyond the outline
- of my well-known interiorities.