Cockroach

by Richard Fenton Sederstrom / July 2nd, 2023

This brown cockroach,
shelled against change
these hundreds of millions
of years of haphazard creation,
survives these sacred deadly ages
of change and no change.

Still, I am expected to efface this minion
of evolution on the heel of my shoe
and sacrifice thereby another chance
to meet the living primordial—
made of some accident,
therefore kin to my accidence—killing
in one ancient life some part of my own life,
this shared depth of fellow-being.

Richard Fenton Sederstrom was raised and lives in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and the North Woods of Minnesota. Sederstrom is the author of eight books of poetry, his latest book, The Dun Book, published by Jackpine Writers' Bloc, was released last fall. Read other articles by Richard Fenton.

This article was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2023 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.