We shimmied into secluded cabbage leaves
and made love all night long.
Our soft, sugary bodies melded.
I never thought an aphid could be so happy.
In bright sun, we’d find a flower
and bury deep into blossom,
drunk on fragrance, planning our future.
When the pesticide flood came, she was
on a basil twig right above me, I tried
to catch her. I tried to catch her.
Dan O’Connell is a four-time award winning poet whose poems have appeared in Mississippi Review, Homestead Review, San Francisco Reader, Parthenon West Review, Ghost Town Review, America Magazine, and many other publications. He is the author of two full-length collections of poetry. Dan is an attorney who represents the underdog.
