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aphids - sheila e. murphy



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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