(Dwight Sipler / Flickr)

 

Sky clear after rain,
alleviating six weeks of drought;
sunny, with a hint of coolness
in the shadows beside the barn

and under the trees, speckled
with fringe of fleabane;
the orb weaver web on the porch,
sticky with spiral capture silk,

containing another victim—
a praying mantis wrapped in
a winding sheet; and
the Queen Anne’s lace bending

in the meadow under the weight
of a heavy dew.

Wally Swist’s books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), Evanescence: Selected Poems, Taking Residence, and A Writer’s Statements on Beauty: New & Selected Essays & Reviews (Shanti Arts, 2020, 2021, 2022). His poetry and translations have appeared in Asymptote, Chicago Quarterly Review, Commonweal, the Montréal Review, Poetry London, and Rattle.

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Published in the June 1, 2019 issue: View Contents

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