Dermaptera
Ross Balcom
Dermaptera
my brain teeming
with earwigs
Dermaptera
a new consciousness,
a new song
Dermaptera
their forceps
seize the sky
Dermaptera
a new heaven,
a new earth
Dermaptera
let the brain-eaters
open the way
Poet's Notes: Earwigs (the many species of which comprise the order Dermaptera) are among my favorite insects. There is a discredited folk belief that they crawl into people's ears and then eat their brains. What fun! In this poem, the destruction of the brain by earwigs is linked to radically expanded consciousness and the renewal of creation ("a new heaven, a new earth"). (Some may catch the reference to the Book of Revelation in the Bible.) Oh, how I adore earwigs!
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