April is Poetry Month with Karen Paul Holmes

 

Karen Paul Holmes

On Being Quarantined with Stink Bugs (Halyomorpha halys)   

                                   -In Buddhism, dukkha refers to
                                    suffering, anxiety, anything unpleasant.

Armored cars of pungent bullion—

odorous cargo with zero value.

They putter up and down our windows.
Or take flight only to divebomb.

Shield-shaped, gator-tough, God help us:
Don’t crush or you’ll discharge
their eponymous defense.
Vacuuming not recommended—
your rugs will have halitosis.

 
Ten stink bugs today already.
Catching/releasing, grumbling until
I thanked them for drawing my focus
away from this aging body.

Perhaps they’re little lamas,
teaching me to practice letting go
of life’s inevitable stuff:
Viruses we need to squash but can’t.
Things that buzz our heads at night
as we’re sinking into dream.
Stink bugs are just one reminder
to accept: Dukkha happens.

  

First appeared in Gyroscope Review, Fall, 2020

Karen Paul Holmes has two poetry collections, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). Her poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer's Almanac and Tracy K. Smith’s The Slowdown. Publications include Diode, Valparaiso Review, Verse Daily, and Prairie Schooner.