Poem-a-Day

A simple recipe for dodging flies

                        in the heat at a barbecue spot

is as simple as the clear shine

                        of water zipped away in plastic

hanging around the ceiling’s periphery

                        in a dining room like ornaments

or omens. Flies drive themselves to delirium 

            with the sparkle differing from diamonds

and catch their last by swaying freezer bags. 

            A shimmer stuns the multiple views

in a fly’s eyes and misdirects their iridescent wings,

            christened from maggots and scat,

until they stutter and bump, and find their legs

            clustered like gathered stems of bouquets, 

on their backs and dried out 

            like empty green bottles on window sills  

before being swept into the trash, a heaven of sorts.