qarrtsiluni

Look how they cluster on paper
nests built of their spit and feed
their brood on stunned bodies
of butterfly young before sucking
nectar from shallow cup figworts,
stealing honey stuff from golden
feet of lyrical bees.

See these who craft elaborate mud
knots so dense they seem fact
sing themselves shrill anxious songs.
Their discharge warp-binds weavers;
their secretions quick-seal winged kin
in pulpy tombs. Some lay histories

in their sisters’ urns, eat their eggs
to replace with their own drone
warriors, who devour one another.
Listen: the blood-red hum
of mandibles, translating truth.

by Katherine Durham Oldmixon

Audio production by Arturo Lomas Garza
Download the MP3

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