nancy woo

EVIDENCE OF (WORMS)

After Chad Sweeney

1. Everywhere one finds evidence 
   of something careening into something
   else, gravity’s messy playhouse.
   

2. Bats and butterflies lift their heavy bodies
   into the air. Change the channel.
   

3. One lone bee lands on a calla lily
   outside the car dealership.
   Bad seats, bad price.
   

4. He picks me up and spins me around.
   I’m 16 and all the boys want to touch me.
   I let two of them put me on their shoulders, 
   parade me around like royalty, floating
   five feet above the ground.
   

5. To witness another’s joy is to splash
   around in the pond with them.
   

6. I’m not a hunter. How about tomatoes?
   Dump the scraps in the compost
   where worms sing songs
   of destruction. Delicious rotting
   onion, broccoli and bread.
   

7. I found a dull pink grub, fat as can be,
   wriggling about a foot underground,
   and rejoiced. 
   

8. There have been lean times.
   I’ve always eaten whatever I am given.
   

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NANCY LYNÉE WOO SPENDS HER FREE TIME HITCHING A RIDE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF MAYBE. SHE IS AN MFA CANDIDATE AT ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY AND THE RECIPIENT OF FELLOWSHIPS FROM PEN AMERICA, ARTS COUNCIL FOR LONG BEACH, AND IDYLLWILD WRITERS WEEK, AS WELL AS THE AUTHOR OF TWO CHAPBOOKS. FIND HER CAVORTING AROUND LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, AND ONLINE AT NANCYLYNEEWOO.COM.