Elinor Ann Walker

Haunt Like This

Don’t mind when beetles
swarm on summer nights.

Find a cicada’s fragile hull
attached to tree bark by one

jointed leg, white strands
of old lungs still aloft

above shell spiracles. Watch
the June bug’s iridescent green

zag a crazy line through
unmown grass. Want

to haunt like this. Without
question. Visibly. To be heard. No

second guessing. A hum,
vibrato, buzz. Trade

exuviae for air, claw
out with broken

fingernails, wings.

Back to Issue XII…

Mike Bove is the author of four books of poetry, most recently EYE (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023). His poems have appeared in Rattle, Southern Humanities Review, Tar River Poetry, Rust & Moth, and others. He’s served as a 2024 Writer-in-Residence at Acadia National Park and is editor of Hole in the Head Review. Mike lives with his family in Portland, Maine where he was born and raised. Instagram: @portlandbove