axeman: the rotten

here

see

this wood
will be rotten

too easy to heft
too light

there’s nothing there

white ants
their job done
have moved on

all they’ve left behind
some kind of
honeycomb

see how wet
the log is
they prefer the wood
moistened
but
they’ll eat it dry

whenever it suits them

look here

see

this wood
is rotten

you can tell by the white
and by the white
where the fungus
has been

I’ve seen them
sometimes
they’ve been growing mushrooms

still
when they dry
they’ll burn
in my fire

don’t breathe
the spores in

---

© Frank Prem, 2017

September 2017 Poem #25: at the top