black beetle

poetry

body blooming

shelled-nut brown-wrinkled-raw

beneath cracked chitin

wounded wing

wonder
if it can still fly
if it hurts
wonder
how many beats

down to the heart

if that body
can survive it all

fragile flesh
against the brilliant blaze

of the whole wild world

Lyddia Solomon is a poet, short story writer, playwright, and oddity from Los Angeles with a penchant for the strange, the beautiful, and the visceral.