mayflies

mayflies dead on the streets of Selma

mayflies dead on the Edmund Pettus

Bridge

David and I are there to remember

to pay our respects, to see

but everywhere we look

the streets and sidewalks are covered

with drifts of mayfly carcasses

heaps of translucent white wings

uncountable numbers of corpses

we try not to step on them

it’s all but impossible

we walk with a sickening crunch

across that weighty bridge

emerging on the other side

two white people unscathed

on a field of the dead

— 18 April 2025 Charlottesville VA

Fievel (they/them). Queer anarchist non-binary radio host, podcaster, poet, fomenter of unrest. Most things at jasoncrane.org.