For Peggy Munson
That you must accept
what you cannot prevent. That fear inverts
the meaning of success. That you can be fearless
when fear is all you have.
That fear is all you have.
That you aren’t alone in loneliness,
there’s a whole world here
sign up to receive a new poem-a-day in your inbox
What’s left behind Is sometimes worse Than the taking I’ve gotten over The ick factor If flying mamas Need a dab of Blood for eggs Their lives Short and unfair Go for it Bite me You deserve it Live as long as u can Idc The lineage of Proboscis Soaks the rays Ok That’s kinda cool Actually DNA joining all Sorts of creatures In mothership bods Traveling through An even larger Cultural bod(ies) Hey yeah I know Diseases are passed Yes yes I know It’s a drag When a lack of Imagination Invites tiny welts But I’ll itch you In a distracted way And shove off But like I said Earlier It’s a passive act Of sustaining some Kind of life When the bites We leave behind Take 1000+ years To dismantle
Copyright © 2018 by Nikki Wallschlaeger. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 5, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.
Copyright © 2018 by Nikki Wallschlaeger. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 5, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.
Nikki Wallschlaeger is the author of the poetry collections Crawlspace (Bloof Books, 2017) and Houses (Horseless Press, 2015).