May the sounds of katydids lull you to sleep at night

May your food never be too hot

May you never have to stick your neck out 

or go on without the chorus of crickets

May you never have to squint a day in your life or feel the tickle in your throat 

or the itch on your leg

                 The sluggish blanket that tends 

                 to hang like a filter over the lens

May you

May you

May you 

Swarm

gnats keep swarming me at work

Maybe it’s the sweet smell of my soap

When the fly repeatedly lands on me, I wonder

“Do they sense something rotten within me that even I cannot detect?”

Something new and foul

Festering within my narrow 

Am I rotting from the inside out? is my soul turning to goop as we speak

Surrounded by gnats and flies 

Chasing me far away. 

I think they know.