James Croal Jackson

Blue Beetle


shining
in the sunlight
of our driveway

I go inside
to tell Dad

come see
what
I
found


no hesitation:
he squishes
its golden
guts out

a thing like
that


he says

is nothing
more
than a nuisance


but I keep
thinking
about that beetle

impossibly one
of a kind

and today
I watched
a boring

black
beetle

scurrying
across
the pavement
of Goodale Park

and disappear
into grass

and I thought

the ground
is teeming
with beetles

if I just dig
a hole
deep enough

I might
be able
to apologize



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