amateur entomology

by Kate Gargo

we kissed in the chaotic dusk,
air clotted with throaty incantations -
cicadas congregating in trees,
crickets chanting from the underbrush.

we’d whisper beneath the beetle black sky,
scratching mosquito bites until they’d scab & scar.
you promised me monarchs meandering among the monarda,
bumblebees glut with nectar, pollen-laden legs
slumbering in squash blossoms.

our love became fireflies locked in a jam jar,
blinking distress signals into the doomed night -
belly up by dawn. i pin your thorax
to a polystyrene board, study what went wrong.

Kate Gargo is a poet, storyteller, and nature enthusiast from Appleton, Wisconsin.