POETRY
the stump.
sonnet.
Published in
Mar 1, 2023
a favorite tree’s become a ravaged stump,
its sunken center termite-softened loam
within a tiny canyon-landscape, home
to creeping seedlings - crumbling compost dump
for what the wind deposits, random clumps
that fall from bird-beak or cloaca, foamed
and fertile after rainfall. beetles roam
within its crater, iridescent rumps
like armored vehicles patrolling round
a decimated city, where new life
emerges from the twisted steel and rust;
the cavity, though dead itself, abounds
in microcosmic ecosystems, rife
with organisms turning pith to dust.
