CALAMITY
Ants
The dream draws dental mirrors from a well
the earth will bear it hammered metal jeweled pins
rule to live by if you look and look
it will appear to you deliverance
I put out traps an ant carries neurotoxin
back to the nest he buys a gun safe weighs
four hundred pounds imagines needing it
imagined pain trains the real speculative dreaming
leads to horses lathered thick as shaving cream
in brilliant colors human forms pitch them over walls
come night lay down in wood dust the night is warm
people in the street are dressed for dancing
while I sleep four hundred ants cross the kitchen floor
bearing death
Lia Mastropolo is writing from Philadelphia, where she is currently at work on her first chapbook. Her poetry has appeared in Salt Hill, Folio, decomP, Bird's Thumb, Full of Crow, and elsewhere.