Robert Siegel, a poet and fiction writer who lives in South Berwick, is noted for his poems about nature’s creatures. Here, he gives voice to a praying mantis.

Mantis

By Robert Siegel

Still as a silk screen I wait, I wait,

invisible, part of the furniture,

for the ambling fly or worm,

Advertisement

the Monarch just alighting,

the beetle dark under its armor.

On the altar of my arms, I offer up

whatever wanders by. In love

I am insatiable, will take

my mate’s head in his electric need

Advertisement

and devour it, swallowing his body

almost as an afterthought;

then, absent-mindedly,

moving stiff and brittle as a tree,

go propagate my kind.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.