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