Today's poem is by Dana Curtis

Energies
       

I climbed the mountain, to kill the tree of heaven;
its roots tunneled like moles, & found a den
I thought for fox, skunk. Turkeys' calls: gurgle, gobble,
scattered around me. Wide enough for something
much larger than snake, a dark space opened to darker.
I stooped, then ground bees, tiny, yellow striped,
sweat bees, spun out on mission. Bigger than a
head, the hole so deep I couldn't see its back.
This dark came out of the telephone, voices
once my friends, who bullied. The garble of a
website manager berated, a crackle of sound
I could hardly hear. A doctor told me get the
vaccine. My immune system is a broken hive.
Lies issue from a vast dark. Each sting blisters.

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Copyright © 2023 Dana Curtis All rights reserved
from Asheville Poetry Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission