rearing is this (ribbit) by Caitlan Docherty

hot plum trash in the field—

if there are still bees,

they’re coming.

disruptive procession

of accessory children,

their pudgy arms

sweet-ripe

candy for stinging.

everything summer is

disposable & starved.

a mothering frog crouches

in the grass, subconsciously grieving

gilled youth, sea legs; her iPhone

11 croaks. rearing is this

obnoxious shutter sound.

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Caitlan Docherty is an anxious millennial living in a beige thousand square foot space across from a small prairie. Some of her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Free Verse Revolution, VAINE Magazine, Sunday Mornings at the River Covid-19 Anthology, blood moon poetry & Calliope’s Eyelash. Instagram @cmnpoetry