At the BBQ Spot

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. 

Credit

Copyright © 2026 by Tara Betts. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 4, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets. 

About this Poem

“When I was small, my father and I would walk to this tiny barbecue spot. It had a neon sign in the window where flies often met their end and a pinball machine. We’d walk home with chicken and rib tips after I played about a dollar’s worth of pinball. I thought of that place again after visiting a Texas barbecue restaurant some years ago. The plastic bags the restaurant had hung were filled with water that confused and repelled flies, but the bags almost looked beautiful. Flies are considered nasty. So I wanted to describe something seemingly unworthy of celebration, even though some people still say someone isn’t worth ‘two dead flies.’ Even flies have a purpose.”
—Tara Betts