Saturday book feature — Celestial Euphony — Martin Elster

Lovebugs (Plecia nearctica)

A flurry grays the April air
as clouds of speckles swirl and mate,
euphoric, blazing, unaware

of windshields on the interstate
hurtling through their fevered storm.
These whirlwind-wings pursuing their fate,

in red and black above the warm
blacktop, link up and live three days.
Tripping on truck exhaust, they swarm,

convinced it’s flora which decays.
They catch the fumes, sweet as the spice
of rot, home in on motorways

and, as they’re turned to mush, think, “Nice!—
manure, grass clippings—paradise!”

by Martin Elster from Celestial Euphony (Plum White Press, 2019)

buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Celestial-Euphony-Poems-Martin-Elster/dp/1939832160/