Boil
CHAD FORET
Uncle opens shoebox,
empties two mantises
onto a rusted tailgate.
We prop ourselves
against the scrap,
watch them try
to eat each other,
sweating in the shade.
Celery, lemon & onion
nod & disappear.
A crawfish escaped
& navigates blades
of Bermuda grass.
Circling, insects
sound like eyes
being wiped
in the dark.
Chad Foret is a PhD candidate in Poetry at the University of Southern Mississippi where he teaches literature and composition and assists in the publication of The Robert Frost Review. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rabbit Catastrophe, The Journal, The Tishman Review, Nashville Review, and elsewhere. He was selected as a finalist for the 2017 and 2018 Tennessee Williams Poetry Awards, the 2017 Real Good Poem Prize, and the 2017 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets.