POEM
“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?”
I was, I was—by its posthumous chomp,
by its bad dab of venom, its joy-buzzer buzz.
If you’re ever shanked like the chump
that I was, by the posthumous chomp
of an expired wire, you’ll bellow out prompt
at the pitiless shiv when she does what she does.
Was you? I was. By its posthumous chomp,
by its bad dab of venom, its joy-buzzer buzz.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2009).
This poem originally appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Poetry.
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Hailey Leithauser’s poems can be found in Pleiades, the Journal, . . . MORE »
