Do the Boy Scouts Have a Future?

Sarah Trudgeon
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Image by Bianca Ibarlucea

Whoa the thought of digging a
hole nearly brought me to tears
how long have we people been
burying each other? Like
how I gave our sitter /
neighbor a book when she moved
and started to cry like
I had to go inside. Death
hums along quietly til
you accidentally dig it
up. We can’t use the back door
because hornets or something
built their nest in the doorframe
but we can’t live with more blood
on our hands now (blood but no
heart!) even though C was mad
at me because one stung her
ring finger and she’s trying
to get divorced and S was
running through the yard with them
in her hair and got stung on
her ribs like, Christ. Are those what’s
called pill bugs? The memory
I’ve heard is like a copy
machine and every time you
remember a thing it’s just
memory of memory
of memory and so on.
Bread, jam, and chocolate is
a fine lunch! I should have worn
sneakers I should have brought
my iPhone, but I’d read: Woman
gives birth alone in Denver
prison. The internet is
a zillion tiny shovels.
The queen works alone. She makes
a paper nursery from
spit and wood and raises her
grubs who sting my friends. A clear
yellow spider climbs my pen.

Sarah Trudgeon is the author of the chapbooks Dreams of Unhappiness and The Plot Against the Baby. She is the director of education for the writers’ residency and public humanities project The Mastheads.
Originally published:
August 19, 2020

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