Aphids swarm to a host plant
and yield honeydew, its bold marker left after
chewing away and generally unlacing
the otherwise fine green. Mercifully,
they move slowly, sluggishly and can be
wiped away. I would brave the torrent of enemies
that do not destroy but infect and change
the plant against its will. Don't mention, please,
the way of nature or some grim "boys
will be boys" idea. Invasion of innocence
perplexes, even enrages me. It's May again.
A prim and flush with color time,
the temperature available to all living
things.
Sheila E. Murphy's poems have appeared in Poetry, Hanging Loose, Fortnightly Review, and numerous others. Most recent books are Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023) October Sequence: Sections 1-51 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press, 2023), and Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023). Murphy received the Gertrude Stein Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Murphy's book titled Reporting Live from You Know Where (2018) won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition from Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland).
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