In morte vita, Victoria Moul (Finalist, 2026 Short Poem Contest)
In morte vita
On the
pool steps my middle son
picked up delicately and by just one
tentacle a great cockroach – dead
but not much crushed, filmy still
and flexible, and flung
it at his older brother, where it
landed feet first and by some
combination of cilia and the flub
of his polyester top, clung on
for several seconds, as if revived.
He
jumped and screamed; the insect fell
into our laughter, nothing funnier than
the sudden simulacrum of death come
alive again, but not; so shaking off
our dead upon the pavement, we walked on.
picked up delicately and by just one
tentacle a great cockroach – dead
but not much crushed, filmy still
and flexible, and flung
it at his older brother, where it
landed feet first and by some
combination of cilia and the flub
of his polyester top, clung on
for several seconds, as if revived.
into our laughter, nothing funnier than
the sudden simulacrum of death come
alive again, but not; so shaking off
our dead upon the pavement, we walked on.
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