[stylist] Poem - "Beetle" - Final Draft

[Jackie Williams]

Bill,
I really like your poem about beetles, and your contrast between their
worlds and man's. 
While I have some short poems on insects, this one on angle worms has won an
honorable mention, and is out again right now. It's set-up shows you how to
submit to a category. I think this one was to PMS. It took much research. I
have some poetry on bees also. I am always busy trying to save our earth.

8. Nature					Jacqueline Williams
						1431 W. 7th Pl.
						Mesa, AZ 85201
						480-834-1782
						jackieleepoet at cox.net
						Non-member PSM
					
My Name is Oligochaeta
A Wormologue 

I was hatched in this environment 
where I was intended to work,
so I have adapted well to the food.
I am a natural friend to you above the ground. 
There is much I can do for you 
if you will cultivate, develop, and domesticate me.

At times you have made my skin crawl.
I speak of the times when you have dug me up,
interrupted my mission in life-procreation.
Bisexual, I need my fifteen minutes of 
moist closeness in the cool twilight or early dawn
to hold my bands together and make egg capsules.

How dare you desecrate a grave-to dig and paw 
and scrape-solely for bait to trap a hungry fish.
My offspring make your fields and orchards prolific.
I compete with the bee as the most important
factor to your world and its future.
So, what are you going to do about me?

Squeeze me tight so my valuable serum emerges? 
Put a sharp hook through a segment into my band-
my hearts? Ignore my system akin to a factory? 
Its processes might one day give you medicines or oil.
You just like my persistent life, wriggling on that hook,
intriguing fish for hours after I am impaled.

I am food for your poultry, create robust birds 
and better eggs for your palate. I increase production 
in citrus groves, orchards of fruit, your landscaping, 
fields of vegetables, and home gardens.
I leave no castings above ground to disfigure
your manicured golf greens, or contoured lawns.

							Stanza break

I am willing and eager to contribute my share.
All I ask is a little respect and kindness.
Here, in this grave, though headless, eyeless and toothless-
I burrow through the dirt and rot and breathe through my epidermis. 
I leave you clean bones and aerated soil for better things.
I even have a good sex life as long as no light shines on me.

I know you want to fish. I mean you no deprivation-
but please-hold me gently, and do not scream if I ooze.






Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 


-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L
Houts via stylist
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2015 4:37 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Cc: William L Houts
Subject: [stylist] Poem - "Beetle" - Final Draft



Hey Blihnks,

This isn't a recent poem exactly, but I'm thinking that I never gave it 
any airplay.  It comes from a remarkable time in my personal development 
when I moved from a grudging toleration of bugs and other small 
creatures to something grander, more generous:  a true affection for them.


--Bill


---

*Beetle *

Somber lack beetle,

making your slow thoughtlike way

on rain-washed ancient brick:

once I did loathe you,

shell and antenna,six little

legs at labor profound, taking you

to something unseen:

the beetle world,its perils

unfeared by my titan foot,

and unfeared by you, as terrors

don't adhere to a head made

for mating and feeding, quite

content to be plain, mundane.

Glories I crave, human curse

peculiar and grand; but you,

peaceful, persist at errands

too small for complaint,

contempt, or the perverse

definitions

of philosophers,

sidewalk wits

or doleful droll poets

settling their

wistful meditations

on your shiny black back.


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